Of Fools and False Pastors: Tricksters in Kinshasa's Television Fiction

Sub-Saharan African public spheres have increasingly transformed following the Pentecostalist wave that is sweeping over the continent since two decades ago. This is also the case for Kinshasa, where this new type of Christianity dominates both the urban soundscape and the media world. A Christian popular culture flourishes with its own music, dance forms, TV shows and celebrities. This article focuses on local TV serials, that, disregarding the profile of the channels on which these are broadcast, are embedded in the spread of an apocalyptic interpretation of life, as professed by these new churches. The TV serials are approached as narratives that, just like traditional epic tales, depict spiritual and social transgression. Two main characters, the fool and the false pastor (pasteur), will be studied through the lens of the trickster, a longstanding figure in the study of traditional storytelling.status: publishe