Mutuality, resistance and egalitarianism^65(“father”, a common form of deference to seniority or superiority
in Angola and the Congo), preferring the term dirigente (“direc-
tor”), and never distinguished among his followers through age,
gender, socio-economic status, etc. Likewise, he would not accept
as his own the recurrent offers that his wealthier followers would
give him (cars, houses, etc.), and preferred to consider them collec-
tive property of the church. This portrait of Toko as an egalitarian
leader is often conveyed as a critique of the church’s current hege-
monic version and the hierarchical structure it has imposed with
the bishopric. Such is the case of one specific group known as the
Twelve Elders, who are composed by survivors and descendants
of the zombo who were expelled or voluntarily deported from the
Belgian Congo, and who also sojourned in the Vale do Loge plan-
tation. Frontally opposed to Nunes’ leadership, they rely on this
memory, as well as on the original mutualism and solidarity cul-
tivated during the first years of the colony, in their contestations.
Another example can be found in the plural organizations that
remain demographically marginal but proactive in the Tokoist
universe. One such case is a small group based in Luanda, known
as the Casa de Oração (“House of Prayer”). This group emerged
in the late 1970s, a few years before Toko’s death, as a group of
youngsters (na ngunza, the “sons of the prophets”) who circu-
lated around the leader’s residence and conducted daily prayer
sessions. They became close to the leader and watched from a
distance as the Tokoist movement began its process of internal
combustion with the struggles for power occurring within. Today,
they combine their weekly prayer meetings with their commit-
ment to work for the reunification of the church. However, in
contrast with other sectors of the church, they reject leadership as
a way out of the conflict, and advocate a collegial solution, with
no given leader, but a council of representatives who would decide
upon the church’s destiny. This form of political organization can
also be understood as a form of horizontal organization that at-
tempted to break through the hierarchical stratification developed
on the meantime in the Tokoist venture. So far, they have not been
successful in their attempts.
In any case, their critique, as that of the Twelve Elders, not only
contests the hierarchization of the church’s political organization,