This thesis is a contribution to a hitherto neglected area of research: The African Pentecostal Churches, that do not belong to those called African Indigenous Churches (AICs). It is a case study from the perspective of southern Burundi, the periphery of the ancient kingdom. The Pentecostal Movement in Burundi was born in the encounter between Swedish Pentecostal missionaries and the population in the southern part of the country. This study highlights what happened in that encounter. The thesis consists of six parts. The first is a survey of the Pentecostal Movement in Sweden. The diachronic structure of parts two to five focuses on the development within the Burundian Pentecostal Churches and their relationship to the Burundian society 1935-1960. In the sixth part the diachronic approach is augmented by structural analyses, showing how aspects in the Pentecostal Movement developed. The Pentecostal missionaries accepted in part the traditional world view, the belief in a spiritual world and non-rational explanations to misfortunes in life. They encouraged the Burundians to do spiritual experiences, and especially the baptism in the Holy Ghost. The Burundian evangelists and church elders played a decisive role. It was their task to reformulate the Pentecostal message in Kirundi, which was not spoken by the missionaries. They moulded the message into a Burundian Pentecostal message, at the same time respecting the teaching of the early missionaries. They succeeded in doing that so well that the Pentecostal Movement became a popular movement, in certain places the dominating Christian denomination, in spite of the parallel work done by the Catholic Church, encouraged and supported by the Belgian state. This thesis builds on material taken mainly from unpublished sources from archives in Burundi, Sweden, Rome, Great Britain and Denmark. These are supplemented by interviews, most of them made by the author.

Le swahili, avec presque 100 millions de locuteurs, est la langue bantu la plus dispersée, étudiée,diffusée et la plus importante. Cette langue officielle de la Tanzanie, du Kenya et de l’Ouganda est aussi une langue de fonctionnement de l’Union Africaine. Le swahili qui a absorbé un important lexique du monde arabe, fruit des interactions commerciales et sociales séculaires continue à adopter de plus en plus de termes anglais en conséquence de la colonisation et du développement en science et en technologie. Du fait que sa description fut dirigée et influencée par les Anglais et les Allemands, le rôle des Français fut négligé et écarté, laissant l’histoire du swahili incomplète.Pourtant, la contribution des Français à l’étude du swahili n’est pas négligeable, tout d’abord par l’œuvre des missionnaires de la Congrégation du Saint-Esprit et les Pères Blancs dès le XIXe siècle, puis depuis 1960 par les travaux menés en France par les enseignants/chercheurs de cette langue. La recherche effectuée à partir des archives ainsi que des interviews faites pour le compte de la présente étude montrent que le spiritain Charles SACLEUX joua un rôle considérable dans l’étude du swahili.Les documents rédigés par ce polyglotte et botaniste, dont le monumental dictionnaire swahili français(1939) révèlent des informations rares surtout en étymologie, lexicographie,dialectologie et ethnolinguistique ainsi qu’une perspective intégrale et descriptive contrairement à ses contemporains qui se servaient de la méthode prescriptive. Il est donc souhaitable que les dictionnaires de SACLEUX soient réétudiés et intégrés dans le swahili standard. / Following a research undertaken in archives, libraries as well as through interviews, the author describes the Swahili coast and the contact between Swahili and Europeans. While analyzing available early documents published by French researchers, he chronologically depicts endeavour and challenges of studying African languages during that era. Among them, Charles SACLEUX, a Spiritan priest performed an outstanding work especially in etymology, dialectology, lexicography and in ethno-linguistics. The study presents his biography together with his philosophical and methodological approaches. The findings show that in comparison with other researchers who, for the sake of standardizing the language, used a prescriptive approach, he opted for a descriptive. His publications present the language in its natural state. Together with Sacleux’ work, to complete the account, the thesis reserves one chapter for the current progress in teaching/learning as well as publishing on Swahili in France. The insights from the study suggest that it is important that some contents from Sacleux’ publications be revised and incorporated in contemporary Swahili literature.