Kinshasa and its (un)certainties: the polis and the sacred

In Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, one of Africa’s most vibrant urban environments, the two –intertwined- notions of the polis and of the sacred do not offer a lot of steady ground to sustain a straightforward understanding of what urban reality is about in this Central-African context. In the Congolese setting, it is not so clear what the notion of the polis, in its double meaning of urban community and of political community, might mean, nor is it clear to what extent Kinshasa has ever belonged to its inhabitants. The meaning of what is sacred is no longer fixed either. Kinshasa is caught between an authochtonous, ancestral past marked by lots of (post-)colonial ruptures and breaches that have often made this past inaccessible to many urban dwellers, and a model of (colonialist) modernity that for many has become as difficult to grasp, and seems to be located in a distant future that cannot easily be accessed or realised. Today, the idea of an insertion into global modernity seems to be promoted most strongly, albeit in sometimes rather peculiar ways, in the enchanting spaces of Neo-Pentecostalism. It is in these new religious movements that the terms of the polis and the sacred have become locked together today. This chapter discusses the specific ways in which these linkages have come about, as well as the contradictions, paradoxes and uncertainties that this intertwinement has generated.This book reflects the way in which the city interacts with the sacred in all its many guises, with religion and with the human search for meaning in life. As the process of urbanization of society is accelerating thus giving an increasing importance to cities and the 'metropolis', it is relevant to investigate the social or cultural cohesion that these urban agglomerations manifest. Religion is keenly observed as witnessing a growth, crucially impacting cultural and political dynamics, as well as determining the emergence of new sacred symbols and their inscription in urban spaces worldwide. The sacred has become an important category of a new interpretation of social and cultural transformation processes. From a unique broader perspective, the volume focuses on the relationship between the city and the sacred. Taking a multidisciplinary approach, combining the expertise of philosophers, historians, architects, social geographers, sociologists and anthropologists, it draws a nuanced picture of the different layers of religion, of the sacred and its diverse forms within the city, with examples from Europe, South America, and Africa. This edited volume therefore offers an analysis of (post-)secularized and modernized societies to define the state of the sacred today and to decipher its different forms within the city. Editor Liliana Gomez is an Assistant Professor of Latin American literary and cultural studies at Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg . Co-editor Walter Van Herck is Associate Professor of Philosophy of Religion at the University of Antwerp, Belgium.edition: 1status: publishe