Marching for God in the global city: Public space, religion and diasporic identities in a transnational African church

Abstract

Taking the London-based brass band of a transnational Congolese church (the Kimbanguist church) as a case study, this article explores how the sonic, visible and embodied experience of religion in the public space is linked to the politics and poetics of diasporic belongings. These public performances enable Kimbanguists to claim a place and a space in the city while ‘emploting’ a particular vision of self and others in the pluralised environment of the diaspora. After discussing the literature on urban religious parades and processions, the article addresses the wider implications of the sacralisation of space and public performance of faith in terms of urban but also post-colonial centre/periphery dialectics. Finally, it reflects on the construction of diasporic and ethnic identities as well as the reinterpretation of Kimbanguist religiosity among second-generation Congolese youth in the British context.