Dreaming the apocalypse

Mimesis and the Pentecostal imagination in Kinshasa

Abstract

My goal in this article is to explore the interpretation of dreams in Kinshasa's Pentecostal culture and to relate it to the more profound semiotic Pentecostal evangelising project. I demonstrate that the attribution of meaning to dreams and dream experiences lies at the very heart of the Pentecostal proselytising endeavour. The dream opens up a fascinating realm of narratives and feelings since it bridges the spheres of the day and the night, the conscious and the unconscious, the visible and the invisible. In the dream, hidden or forbidden knowledge might manifest itself, just as apparitions and visions can be experienced. I argue that the transgression of various boundaries and the combination of the rhetorical with the visual in dreams (i.e. when the dream is recounted and interpreted) account for the central status of the dream among Kinshasa's Pentecostal evangelisers. I first examine how dreams acquire their meaning before discussing the representation of the dream experience itself in Kinshasa's Pentecostal popular culture.