Church defections to independent African churches threatened colonial-era religious authority

Evidence

Resistance from within and outside the church could not be taken lightly. Converts were leaving the church and either starting their own churches or joining the African-initiated churches, like the Kimbanguist church, which was Africanized and, as such, attractive to hundreds of thousands of former Catholics. The political establishment, though accommodating, was no longer secure. Freedom movements were becoming even more convinced of their victory, and the future of the church, which had hitherto relied on the colonial powers, was in the balance. There was, therefore, a real danger for the church of not only losing traction among the Baluba people but also of being rejected completely. — Frans Dokman, Beyond Bantu Philosophy_…, 164