Congolese Youth Formation: from Bana Nkembi, “Children of Joy,” to Bilenge ya Mwinda, “Youth of Light”

Families in the Democratic Republic of Congo are large, with an average of almost 6 children each. The demographics of the D.R.C. are the inverse of most developed countries: There are few elderly people—life expectancy is 59 years—and the majority of the population is under age 24.

Young Congolese engage with the Church in a wide variety of ways. Catholic schools educate most of the population and are likely the most significant institutional source of formation. Catholic parishes sponsor groups for young people like the Xaverians and the Scouts. Young people also have opportunities to serve as acolytes at liturgy.

Several modes of formation for young people are conceived in a particularly Congolese manner, not simply because Congolese culture organically shapes them, but also because of deliberate efforts by Church leaders and laypeople to think about formation in a post-colonial way.1

Dancing as Formation for Girls

One example of youth formation is called Bana Nkembi—Children of Praise. In French, they are known as louangeuses, or “praisers.” Their groups, made up of girls about 5-13 years old, are known as joyeusats.2 “The joyeusat,” one young woman who had danced for years with them explained, “is a Catholic group of young girls who serve Christ by dancing during masses. All members of joyeusat are supposed to shine and dance with a joyful smile. The name of the group expresses it well.”

One young woman explained that she was drawn to joyeusat as a young girl when she saw older girls dancing. She saw the dances as a way for each girl to “express her faith by movement… to serve the Church, chiefly the Lord God… an opportunity to show what they are capable of.” Another described it as a “sign of thanks for the breath of life that I got from my Lord.” All described it as an experience that made them happy. They spoke of different things they learned that accompanied them as they grew toward adulthood. Two spoke of learning the value of self-discipline. One reported that it taught her “the importance of discipline and commitment.” Another said that it taught her the importance of respect, including “respect for the Church hierarchy, respect for time (an hour of practice, an hour of service at the mass, always arriving 30 minutes earlier to the mass, but if late a maximum 15 minutes), respect towards elders.”

Learning From Two Role Models

Boys and girls 9 to 13 years old have a chance to participate in a program called Kizito and Anuarite (commonly referred to as groupe KA), founded in Eastern Congo and brought to Kinshasa in the late 1970s. The program encourages children to model their lives on two African saints: Kizito for the boys, and Anuarite for the girls. Kizito was the youngest of the Uganda martyrs in 1886 and is a patron saint of schoolchildren. Anuarite was a Congolese Catholic sister who was killed in the chaos of 1964 when she refused the advances of a rebel leader.3

Shaping Young People to be Light for the World

One of the most interesting organizations for the formation of youth, Bilenge ya Mwinda, dates to the early 1970s, the same era when Congolese Church leaders were most seriously trying to develop a Congolese church that built on and respected local traditions. Kinshasa was growing rapidly then, drawing people from all over the country. The youth lived in a new, urbanized context, significantly distant from the traditional cultural contexts and rituals that once influenced young people.

Bilenge ya Mwinda, “Youth of Light,” one member said, is “a group that teaches young people to be the light of the world, to be responsible in life.”4 Participation begins at ages 14-15, extends over six years, and is open to both boys and girls.

Founded in Kinshasa in 1972 by Fr. Matondo kwa Nzambi Ignace, Bilenge ya Mwinda groups are primarily located in Kinshasa, but also further afield in the DRC and across the river in the Republic of Congo.5 Fr. Matondo, several people explained, saw that young people in cities went out all night on Saturday and returned home when their parents went to church. So he began to find ways to reach out to them. Because young people loved singing, he started with a choir and used music to slip in religious content. He then supplemented this work with retreats and eventually grew the program into a particularly Congolese form of Christian initiation, “an evangelization of youth by youth” that was adopted for the whole diocese in 1974.6 The context of the times shaped Bilenge ya Mwinda in two ways. First, as noted above, urbanization reshaped young people’s lives. Second, the initiative was born at the height of the era when both church and state were pushing, in very different ways, to achieve what was then called authenticité, developing ways of being that were authentic to Congo instead of copying European ways.7

Though independent from parish-based sacramental preparation programs, Bilenge ya Mwinda serves as a method of catechesis and formation in the Archdiocese of Kinshasa. Members say they value it because it helps young people take on responsibilities in life and decide who they want to become as Christian adults. Seemingly all of the bayaya, the “elders” or leaders in the movement today were formed as bandeko, “brothers or sisters” in the movement.8

Participation is intended to last about six years, structured into three stages: “Lucidity” (perhaps better translated, “clear-sightedness”), “Fundamental Option,” and “Radiance” (members of the last group are called “the radiant ones.”) Participants journey as a group through these stages.

The Lucidity phase, for example, aims to help young people examine how they live and what norms surround them. They learn to “come into the light,” to “see clearly in the manner of Christ,” and to focus on fraternity and “friendship-care,” each of which is reinforced through a song.

The group is decidedly Catholic in its orientation, making extensive use of scripture and Christian teaching. “But,” one leader said proudly, “many of the themes are specifically Congolese, in the attitudes a person should have, how to carry oneself, in the way that we always work in groups that we organize by palaver, a discussion where everyone gets a chance to speak… We give [everyone] time to express himself and give his ideas until the end.” Gatherings sometimes also involve dancing, singing, and skits. The group ends each year with a retreat.

Whereas many types of European Catholic spiritual retreats emphasize solitude and silence, these programs emphasize togetherness as a Congolese value. We “love life together,” one leader said. “I think it's different from you [in the West]. We live life together, share... A meal. Living together is obligatory.” Bilenge ya Mwinda, as he described it, balances freedom and responsibility, to help youth “become a fulfilled adult, free and responsible,” who has thought carefully about their vocation in life.

The goal of authenticity is manifest in a series of sixteen “mysticisms,” often drawn or at least concretized by natural examples.9 Discussion of each mysticism draws upon scripture passages and explanations about the meaning of the mysticism. Subsequently, the bandeko are given a series of questions to reflect on together, palaver-style, about how they react to certain situations and treat each other.

One example is the “mysticism of the banana.” “Bananas are strong because they are attached… We use this image to say that we must be united, in unity,” a member explained. A manual for the leaders explains that banana trees are also vulnerable: “Banana trees always grow in groups. In this way the group of banana trees will be able to withstand a strong wind, it will not collapse. As Christ gave himself for us, we too must give ourselves in the same way for our friends…”10 The image is then paired with Jesus’ admonition in Mt 18:15-18. The focus in these discussions is about uniting to create “an atmosphere of respect and mutual advice”.11 The image of the banana tree is further paralleled to Jesus’ example, recalling that this kind of tree only gives its fruit to others by losing its own life.12

Another mysticism refers to the ants, who bring food and keep food for each other. They are a lesson to all of us, one leader said, because they “work in a chain like that. Everyone brings something that they put together… everyone must try to contribute a little of what they have as a quality, what they have. And by putting it together, we now manage to be a force. [The bandeko] get inspiration from nature. They learn things from ants… each one brings something.”

Leaders reported that the groups are also designed to help youth cope with a severely underdeveloped formal jobs sector, teaching them entrepreneurial skills and “how to create a personal business.” Others said that care for the environment had become a theme in recent years.

The examples and language used by the leaders, members, and in the manuals demonstrate what values they hope to inculcate in adults. While describing the values that these formation programs aim to inculcate, interviewees used words like “responsibility,” “sacrifice,” “perseverance in the faith,” “independence,” “maturity,” “having the ability to understand life,” “fear[ing] God,” and recognizing that “the ideal is Christ.” Bilenge ya Mwinda, they said, teaches young people to “serve others first, not to serve themselves,” “to show courage,” and “to be models at home, different from children who are not from the church… We show our children how to sacrifice for the Lord… for their friends… to help a friend in distress.”

The independence/responsibility duality might seem curious and contradictory. As the example of the “mysticism of the banana” shows, independence here does not signal an ideal of a person being unattached. One person explained, “Here to be responsible means really to be able to take care of other people… and the maturity of someone will be assessed according to his ability really to take care of other people… Someone who is responsible is called Mutomasonga… (SP?) But if you don't take care of other people, you are very individualistic, very egoistic, thinking about yourself, you don't have any value because that value as a notion depends on how much you can take with you and carry with [you]. So, the way of really a human being will depend on this ability really to be helpful to other people… if you don't have that, you are very light. We call it Motopamba. Pamba means really nothing. You carry nothing.”

Preparation for Marriage

Following their participation in Bilenge ya Mwinda, many members join a community or process called Libala Mwinda (Marriage of Light Community), which grew out of Bilenge ya Mwinda in 1983 to help those who had finished the program prepare for marriage.13 When two members of the group marry, it is called a balamunga. Interviewees reported that many priests in Kinshasa also found their vocation at Bilenge ya Mwinda.

• 1 In the Belgian colonial context, education was clearly identified with Europeanization of thinking and manners. A small coterie of people were judged as the most “advanced” among the Congolese people—“évolués,” or evolved people—because of tests that they had adopted to European norms and turned their back of African norms. See “Introduction: the background and contexts shaping Catholic life in Kinshasa today” and Gertrude Mianda, “Colonialism, Education, and Gender Relations in the Belgian Congo: The Évolué Case,” in Women in African Colonial Histories, eds. Jean Allman, Susan Geiger and Nakanyike Musisi (Indiana University Press, 2002).
• 2Information on the Bana Nkembi comes from interviews with four young women who had danced in them. Thanks are due to Axel Kiangabeni for arranging them.
• 3Born Anuarite Nengapeta, she was a member of the Sisters of the Holy Family. In 1985 she was officially declared Blessed, the middle step towards canonization.
• 4The section of Bilenge ya Mwinda is based on interviews with leaders and members at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Congo along with other interviews in March and April, 2024, supplemented by the sources noted in the footnotes.
• 5From 1972-1973, President Mobutu tried to shut down youth movements except those related to his party, but that political context is missing from the only formal account of its history that I could locate, which offers a chronology of the first decades of the program’s development. “Bilenge ya Mwinda à Kinshasa: 10 Ans Bilan,” no author, typescript, Bibiliteque CEPAS, Kinshasa, 1.
• 6“Bilenge ya Mwinda à Kinshasa: 10 Ans Bilan,” 2.
• 7Bilenge ya Mwinda is not only a post-colonial effort at formation, but a means for the Church to not let formation of young people be completely subsumed by the state and the ruling party during the dictatorship. At the time, President Mobutu was trying to nationalize and politicize every form of formation of young people.
• 8Notably, the roles that the movement employs are familial ones resonant in traditional Congolese cultures. It asks participants to “consider and treat [each other] as true brothers and sisters, of the same blood, of the same family.” André Rosier, SJ, Les 16 Mystiques: Réunions d'initiation à l'étape de la lucidité (Kinshasa: Editions Jeune Chrétien, n.d.), 23. All of the leaders encountered in this research were lay, though the program is run under the aegis of parishes.
• 9André Rosier, SJ, Les 16 Mystiques: Réunions d'initiation à l'étape de la lucidité (Kinshasa: Editions Jeune Chrétien), n.d.
• 10Rosier, Les 16 Mystiques, 27-28.
• 11Rosier, Les 16 Mystiques, 29.
• 12Rosier, Les 16 Mystiques, 29, citing Bishop Matondo.
• 13“Bilenge Ya Mwinda à Kinshasa: 10 Ans Bilan,” no author, typescript, Bibiliteque CEPAS, Kinshasa, 6.