The theme of this interdisciplinary conference is African millenarianism on both sides of the Atlantic. Expectations for this world are usually based on a combination of concrete and mythical elements, and often have political consequences.
Millenarian movements exist all over the world and take the most diverse forms.
The Melanesian cargo-cult was the first of these movements to draw the attention of researchers to the religious dimensions of social distress. Indeed, the origin of such movements is often found in societies undergoing a crisis situation. The twofold aim of this conference is, on the one hand, to examine what transformations the phenomenon of millenarianism has undergone in the course of the past decades and what analytical consequences this has for a better understanding of it. On the other hand, the organizers have striven for a highly comparative treatment of the subject. Millenarianism in Africa will be compared with African millenarianism of the Caribbean and in the United States, and both will be placed in an historical perspective.