Eruptions of Color on an Unostentatious Backdrop: Catholic Visual Culture in the DRC

A survey by the Pew Research Center places the people of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) toward the high end of religious commitment in the world, with more than 80% of respondents reporting that religion is very important in their lives.1 Yet a visitor who relied only on sightings of religious art, shrines, statues, paintings, or religious references on businesses or outside homes for evidence that Catholic practice is important might not have the same impression.2

In Kinshasa, aside from churches, schools, hospitals, and other religious institutions, one rarely sees explicit material images of Catholic religiosity in public settings or, interviewees report, in public areas of homes.3 Catholic churches in Kinshasa tend to be large and prominent in neighborhood skylines, but are often relatively unadorned on the exterior, with no elaborate decoration or images to call attention to themselves. Some older churches are made of brown brick, while more modern ones are concrete.4

The exceptions to this understated visual culture are notable and vibrant. The most vivid counter-example is the colorful Catholic-themed cloth that some churchgoers use for shirts and dresses, adapting a local sartorial tradition to religious use. Catholic-themed cloth celebrates special occasions, feast days, saints, or church leaders. While not what the great majority of Catholics wear to church, the shirts and dresses certainly stand out on those who do. At the liturgy, greeters, servers, and choir members also wear special clothing to designate their roles.

In church interiors, paintings and carvings help ornament what are otherwise visually uncomplicated structures. The images in those churches are a mix of portrayals from African or European perspectives. Some, including the cathedral, more deliberately embody Jesus with an African face and employ red, brown, white, and black painted geometric forms. Others draw from European iconography and embody Jesus, Mary, and the apostles as Europeans. Mary, in particular, is consistently represented in European style and with a European face. In several instances, where the design was once more Afrocentric, European images like the Divine Mercy have been added.

Though ancient bronze crucifixes made in the Catholic Kingdom of Kongo grace museum walls throughout the world, no crucifix in that distinctive style was noticeable in any of the six parishes in Kinshasa visited for this research. While parishes have drawn upon African symbols for their visual style, the style of their crucifixes does not reference the particular African style of the Kongo crucifixes or visually celebrate that earlier Catholic history. Historic European Catholic visual forms, like Da Vinci’s Last Supper, are referenced instead, and reproductions of Lourdes grottos are fairly common within parish grounds.

At Home

Whereas many countries written about on this site have small-scale shrines erected by laypeople, these are not evident in Kinshasan neighborhoods, at public intersections, or outside of homes.

As the photos at the top of this page show, many parishes have stalls or tables that sell Catholic objects intended for people’s homes. Some focus on cloth with religious images and on Catholic booklets. Some have Marian statues and rosaries.

Asked whether there are many religious images in homes that wouldn’t be noticeable to an outsider’s eye, one interviewee reported, “I know a lot of other families have statues, but they're not in public. They are not in the [main] room. They are in their [bed]room… among my friends whose homes I've visited, crucifixes or crosses are common. If you notice a Marian statue in a living room, it's often an indicator that someone in the family is part of the Légion de Marie or that the mother is a Maman Catholique or involved in a group with a strong devotion to Mary.”

• 1Jonathan Evans, “Where is the most religious place in the world?,” Pew Research Center, published August 9, 2024.
• 2For comparative examples, see https://www.catholicsandcultures.org/practices-values/visual-culture. There were occasional shops with words on signs like “Main de Dieu” (Hand of God), “Gloire à Dieu” (Glory to God), and “Dieu est fidele” (God is Faithful), but these, it was suggested several times, were likely owned by Evangelical or Pentecostal families.
• 3In addition to the published sources cited here, these articles are based on interviews and research in Kinshasa from March 24 to April 7, 2024 at eight parishes: la Cathedrale de Notre Dame du Congo, Reine des Apôtres, St. Alphonse, Ste. Anne, St. Joseph, St. Pierre, St. Raphaël, and Sacré Coeur.
• 4Churches in the Ville, the older, once exclusively White part of the city that still serves as a business hub, are more European in style, and were often built to serve Europeans.