The church and the colonial state in two films: ‘Documentary on The Baptism of the King of Rwanda’ and ‘The Consecration of Bishop Bigirumwamt’

Abstract

This paper studies the sacraments of the baptism of King Mutara III Rudahigwa and Queen mother Kankazi of Rwanda and the consecration of Bigirumwami as the first African Bishop of central Africa. It does so by looking at two films that depict those sacraments, i.e., ‘Documentary on The Baptism of the King of Rwanda’ and ‘The Consecration of Bishop Bigirumwami.’ It argues that the sacraments were religious, but also political, given the collaboration of the church with the colonial state. It also argues that the films provide us with exceptional visual materials that written documents cannot portray. Through the magic of the images, films offer more insights in terms of putting before our eyes the reality, even if this reality is the one of the documentary, that is, a selected one. But on the other hand, it leaves us with so many gaps in the description of the sacraments and the celebrations that followed. Only archives and published documents were able to fill this gap. The paper advocates for the complementarity of the film and other historical sources.