GOD TOO WILL BE PRESENT. AND THERE WILL BE MIRACLES... (Democratic Republic of the Congo, 2006)

God is Black, and so is his Son. That is the belief of the Kimbanguists, followers of the evangelist Simon Kimbangu, who died in 1951 as a martyr, imprisoned for thirty years by the Belgian colonial authorities. With 1300 churches, 5000 clergy and its own television and radio stations, and thirty million followers, the Kimbanguist church is an important power broker in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. But the country, as large as Western Europe, also has thousands of other sects that are intertwined with tradition and social life. Their brochures call on the Congolese to visit their churches. ‘God will be present too’, they say, ‘and there will be miracles to be seen!’