This article discusses the relationship between religion and kinship among the Bakongo, one of Angola's main ethnic groups. It explores the specific forms in which this group reorganizes itself internally in the context of Angola's capital, Luanda, since the country's independence when many of them returned from exile in Zaire (presently the Democratic Republic of Congo). It shows how and why religion is the main mediating institution that integrates various levels remaking sociability and kinship networks in an urban context, bringing forth national end ethnic identities and gives meaning both to transformations and to continuities in the Bakongo's recent history. The demonstration will be made by means of the analysis of Pentecostalism in Angola, as observed in neighborhoods where the Bakongo are concentrated.
Angola; Bakongo; Kinship religion; African churches