An old Watchtower offshot in Africa

by Londo111 7 Replies latest watchtower scandals

  • Londo111
    Londo111

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_the_Democratic_Republic_of_the_Congo#Kitawala

    A much more radical product of the synthesis of African and Christian elements is the Kitawala movement or so-called "Watchtower movement", which appeared in Katanga Province during the 1920s. Influenced by the black American missionary activity in South Africa of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society (Jehovah's Witnesses), the movement converted miners who then spread elements of the movement northward from their South African base into the Katangan copper belt.

    The British "Reverend" James Booth and his African associate Elliott Kamwana, both black, used Watch Tower publications but did not limit their preaching to the Bible Students message of Charles Taze Russell (it does not seem that Russell understood this at the time). [ 8 ] Besides preaching the imminent arrival of God's kingdom, they also preached racial equality, equal pay for equal work, and the impending struggle for the restitution of Africa to Africans. Although anticolonial in ideology, the movement had no concrete strategy of revolution, which, however, did not prevent the state from cracking down on it. As with Kimbanguism, the state attempted to repress Kitawala by relegating its members to isolated rural regions. Ironically, this strategy once again simply served to speed the spread of the movement as exiled adherents converted their rural neighbors.

    Over time the movement became more Africanized and more radical, slowly transforming itself from any association with the worldwide Watch Tower organization into what has been termed a form of peasant political consciousness. The term "Kitawala" combines the prefix "ki" with "tawala", a corruption of a local word for "tower" and is by far the most common term for the movement; the invented term "Waticitawala" has sometimes been used intentionally to evoke the early twentieth century thread from Watch Tower.

    Theological messages varied from place to place, but a common core of beliefs included the struggle against sorcery, the purification of society, and the existence of a black God. Kitawala denounced all forms of authority as the work of Satan, including taxes, forced labor, and most other coercive elements of colonial rule. The movement's anticolonial message was so strong that the worldwide Watch Tower movement formally renounced it.

    Colonial bannings failed to eradicate the movement, however. And the independent state that succeeded colonial authority, black African though it be, has been no more successful in converting the Kitawalists from their apolitical, antiauthoritarian stance. Kitawalists continue to resist saluting the flag, participating in party-mandated public works (Salongo), and paying taxes.

    At times they have resisted state pressure violently, as in Shaba in 1979 when the appearance of army units in their midst provoked an attack by Kitawalists on the state's administrative offices and the killing of two soldiers. The state retaliated with a vicious repression. More frequently, Kitawalists withdraw when state pressure becomes excessive. Entire communities have moved into deep forest in areas such as Équateur Province in order to escape any contact with civil authorities.

  • minimus
    minimus

    very informative...thanks

  • OUTLAW
    OUTLAW

    .

    Interesting OP for sure..A Morphing Watchtower..And..

    A huge Disfellowshipping!..LOL!!

    Who would have thought?!..

    .

    Some Info you may find interesting..

    Click the link below.

    http://contentdm.umuc.edu/cdm/ref/colle ... ll5/id/959

    ..................................... photo mutley-ani1.gif ...OUTLAW

  • jgnat
    jgnat

    Ah, yes, there is no other organization as happified and as unified as the Witnesses. Not counting the discards of course.

  • Hortensia
    Hortensia

    Interesting -- thanks for sharing.

  • Londo111
    Londo111

    Thanks for the indepth link, Outlaw!

  • InquiryMan
    InquiryMan

    I have read about this movement in the Yearbooks...

  • 20yearfader
    20yearfader

    yet another example of why all religion is rotten it all morphs into some crap

    i missed my calling i should have invented a religion ..and got paid

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