In late March of 2019, Luc Kabongo represented the Faculty of Theology and Religion at an Emergent Researchers conference, hosted by the University of Stellenbosch in the Western Cape, where he presented a paper on the topic ‘A Poor Community as a Sending Hib of Transformation Agents’.

This paper was written from the perspective of a black African who has been unfairly subjected to colonialism, apartheid and neo-colonialism.  He is learning to simultaneously blame others for mistakes done to him and interrogate his own agency in being an answer to his own prayers.  He has observed that communities of poverty are usually seen as undesirable, so most of its residents prefer to move out if they have the choice to do so.

The paper explores the concept of thin places as a vehicle to nurture agency amongst people living in communities of poverty such as Soshanguve.  It uses the narrative approach of storytelling to recount particular past events that happened as a tool to cultivate a can-do attitude in ordinary people.  The end in mind of this story telling approach was to raise agents of hope who will be good news to their neighbours and anybody else, using biblical principles as a critical tool in their toolkit.  These agents of hope are called transformation agents.  The latter are people actively seeking the peace and prosperity of the neighbourhood, township or city they live in.

Originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Luc Kabongo is now a PhD student in the Faculty of Theology and Religion at the University of Pretoria.  He hopes his research will contribute in a small way to the prophetic role of the church in society.  

Read the full text of the paper he presented at the conference.