A Prophetic Trajectory: Ideologies of Place, Time and Belonging in an Angolan Religious Movement

Combining ethnographic and historical research conducted in Angola, Portugal, and the United Kingdom, A Prophetic Trajectory tells the story of Simão Toko, the founder and leader of one of the most important contemporary Angolan religious movements. The book explains the historical, ethnic, spiritual, and identity transformations observed within the movement, and debates the politics of remembrance and heritage left behind after Toko’s passing in 1984. Ultimately, it questions the categories of prophetism and charisma, as well as the intersections between mobility, memory, and belonging in the Atlantic Lusophone sphere.

Ruy Llera Blanes is an anthropologist and currently Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Bergen, Norway, and Associate Researcher at the Institute of Social Sciences of the University of Lisbon, Portugal. He has published articles in several international journals, and co-edited Encounters of Body and Soul in Contemporary Religiosity (2011, Berghahn, with Anna Fedele) and The Social Life of Spirits (2013, Univ. Chicago Press, with Diana Espírito Santo). He is currently co-editor of the journal Advances in Research: Religion and Society, published by Berghahn.