"African Churches" have been present in Europe for some decades now, but their developments have taken a new dimension with the intensification of African migrations to Europe in the 80s and 90s. Beyond their doctrinal and institutional diversity and divergences, these churches have in common to be carried by African populations who all too often remain stigmatized and marginalized at the social, political and juridical levels. From the diverse issues of identity, networks and circulations of religious actors, relations to the public sphere, and gender, contributions to the conference will seek to show how African Christian worlds of Europe are now situated at the very heart of dynamics of reconfiguration of African imaginations of Europe, but also of European imaginations of Africa.

‘AFRICAN CHURCHES’ IN EUROPE. MEDIATING IMAGINATIONS

International Conference at the Université libre de Bruxelles

8-10 December 2010, Brussels

FINAL PROGRAMME 

WEDNESDAY 8 DECEMBER

16h30 Andrea Rea, Pres. of Dptmt of Social Sciences, Welcome address

16h45 Maïté Maskens and Joël Noret, Introduction to the conference

17h Rijk Van Dijk (ASC, Leiden), Producing a public space: Ghanaian Pentecostals in a European public domain [keynote lecture] 

THURSDAY 9 DECEMBER

DEBATED IDENTITIES

IDENTITÉS EN DÉBAT

• 9h20 Benjamin Simon (Pädagogische Hochschule Karlsruhe, Germany), Identity and Ecumenical Partnership of Churches of African Origin in Germany
• 9h40 Mattia Fumanti (University of St Andrews), “Virtuous Citizenship”: Ethnicity and Encapsulation among Akan- Speaking Ghanaian Methodists in London

10h00 Questions and debate

10h20 Coffee break

• 10h40 Sarah Demart (Université Catholique de Louvain et Université de Toulouse), Rompre avec les catégories de l’identité et de l’imaginaire, une question de salut ?

11h00 Questions and debate

11h20 Coffee break

11h40 General discussion of the panel introduced by Joël Noret (Université libre de Bruxelles)

12h20 Lunch

GENDER(S) ISSUES

QUESTIONS DE GENRE(S)

• 13h20 Damien Mottier (EHESS, Paris), La séduction dans l’église. Le prophète, les femmes, le diable
• 13h40 Bénédicte Meiers (Université de Liège), «Femmes de valeur» et «hommes nouveaux» : renégociation du féminin et du masculin au sein du « Ministère du combat spirituel » de mama Olangi (Bruxelles-Kinshasa)

14h00 Questions and debate

14h20 Coffee break

• 14h40 Joana Santos (University of Lisbon), To be a Kimbanguist, being a Woman
• 15h00 Maïté Maskens (Université libre de Bruxelles), The Pentecostal reworking of masculinities among (Euro-)Africans in Brussels

15h20 Questions and debate

15h40 Coffee break

16h00 General discussion of the panel introduced by Sarah Bracke (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven)

16h40 Coffee break

DOCUMENTARY FILM PROJECTION

FILM DOCUMENTAIRE

17h00 Damien Mottier (EHESS, Paris), Prophète(s), documentary film [in French, English subtitles]

19h30 Conference Dinner 

FRIDAY 10 DECEMBER

RELATIONS TO THE PUBLIC SPHERE

LE RAPPORT AU POLITIQUE ET A L’ESPACE PUBLIC

• 9h00 François Laperche (Université libre de Bruxelles), La place du religieux dans un hôpital public bruxellois. La prise en charge biomédicale des séropositifs pentecôtistes africains
• 9h20 Barbara Menier (Université libre de Bruxelles), La place du protestantisme évangélique et pentecôtiste « africain » au sein de ce mouvement chrétien en Région bruxelloise

9h40 Questions and debate

10h Coffee break

• 10h20 David Garbin (University of Surrey), Marching for God in the Global City: moral landscapes and identities among the Congolese Kimbanguist diaspora in London
• 10h40 Anne Kubai (Uppsala University), Accommodation and tension: African congregations and their Swedish hosts

11h Questions and debate

11h20 Coffee break

11h40 General discussion of the panel introduced by Johan Leman (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven)

12h20 Lunch

NETWORKS AND CIRCULATIONS OF RELIGIOUS ACTORS

RESEAUX ET CIRCULATION DES ACTEURS RELIGIEUX

• 13h20 Ruy Llera Blanes (University of Lisbon), Lisbon prophecies. Charisma and foreseeing in the Tokoist church’s diaspora
• 13h40 Jeanne Rey (Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva), Pentecostal networks and the circulation of Men of God: A comparison between Congolese and Ghanaian ministries in Switzerland

14h00 Questions and debate

14h20 Coffee break

• 14h40 Max Ruben Ramos (University of Lisbon), Cape Verdean protestant missionaries in Portugal: towards an approach of contemporary Christianity
• 15h Baptiste Coulmont (Université de Paris 8), Capitals and networks : a sociology of Paris’ black churches

15h20 Questions and debate

15h40 Coffee break

16h General discussion of the panel introduced by Afe Adogame (University of Edinburgh)

16h40 End of the conference