The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a country which sees the birth of Churches almost every year. The avenues and neighborhoods are populated with religious buildings, just as the void of the sky is filled with clouds. Faced with this, the population is divided according to belonging to this or that other religious movement. Everywhere, what applies is this maxim: ” What are the brothers, the followers of the same Church. »
Tribalism, the first and most dominant weapon
Historically, tribalism has always been a dominant tool with regard to the segregation of the population and other types of discrimination in the Democratic Republic of Congo.. Often it is noticed that instead of taking into account merit during the various recruitments, the employers and other actors of the daily life hold the importance with the tribal membership of their candidates. And this applies to all classes of society. This is how a student uses the word “umbrella” to designate a teacher belonging to his tribe and able to make him succeed without deserving him.
The birth ofanother separation weapon
Without having extinguished tribalism, the Congolese population is developing another means of separating: religious competition. All Congolese now consider themselves as belonging to two families, namely the biological family and the spiritual family. Not only do they give more consideration to their brothers and sisters of the same faith, but they also develop disdain towards believers and pastors of other religious denominations. Finally, the fight breaks out.
Those who incite the Congolese to this fight are more often their pastors and religious. They trick them into believing that the practices of other faiths are evil. While all these movements demonize each other, a fight reigns. The latter leads the faithful of two different religious denominations to no longer get along, even if they are part of the same biological family or if they are united by other types of relationships.
Some concrete examples of the interreligious struggle
On October 30, 2022, on the official departure of the authentic New Apostolic Church, the event marking its separation from the New Apostolic Church, worshipers on both opposing sides steeped themselves in a hatred of each other. This struggle still persists today. Some worshipers in important positions fire their subordinates because they no longer share the same religious belief.
Another case is observed on the side of Jehovah’s Witnesses who marry only among themselves and who consider other religions as impure. The similar reality presents itself to the Branhamism movement.
For Kimbaguist schools, we notice a large number of teachers who are followers of this movement. For their part, the faithful of the Churches of the revival movement consider the religious of the Roman Catholic Church as followers of obscure sects. And Muslims are seen as marabouts. Now, tribalism is no longer the only one that separates citizens but also its sister religion, which should nevertheless bring messages of love and peace to the souls of the population.
Remedy potentialss
Instead of basing their teachings on their differences, the various Congolese clerics should insist on love and mutual aid. Helping the population to leave behind laziness and indulge in a creative spirit should also be one of the missions of the various religious denominations present in the Democratic Republic of Congo. As for the government, it should put in place some constraints leading to the establishment of a Church. Thus, the annual birth of churches in all corners of the country will decrease. Being in a country tormented by multiple evils, all the eloquent find the opportunity to transform themselves into messengers of God. If the government set some costly conditions for the establishment of a Church, the reality would probably not be the same.