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POLITICS AND PREACHING: CHIEFLY CONVERTS TO THE NAZARETHA CHURCH, OBEDIENT SUBJECTS, AND SERMON PERFORMANCE IN SOUTH AFRICA*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 May 2010

JOEL CABRITA
JOEL CABRITA
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
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Abstract

Twentieth-century Natal and Zululand chiefs' conversions to the Nazaretha Church allowed them to craft new narratives of political legitimacy and perform them to their subjects. The well-established praising tradition of nineteenth- and twentieth-century Zulu political culture had been an important narrative practice for legitimating chiefs; throughout the twentieth century, the erosion of chiefly power corresponded with a decline in chiefly praise poems. During this same period, however, new narrative occasions for chiefs seeking to legitimate their power arose in Nazaretha sermon performance. Chiefs used their conversion testimonies to narrate themselves as divinely appointed to their subjects. An alliance between the Nazaretha Church and KwaZulu chiefs of the last hundred years meant that the Church could position itself as an institution of national stature, and chiefs told stories that exhorted unruly subjects to obedience as a spiritual virtue.

Keywords

South Africareligionchieftaincy
Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 51 , Issue 1 , March 2010 , pp. 21 - 40
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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References

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9 Gunner, ‘Ukubonga’, 37–49; Gunner and Gwala, Musho!, 18. Praise poets were often influential figures within the chieftaincy, thus representing the interests of the chiefly elite. Gunner, E., ‘Forgotten men: Zulu bards and praising at the time of the Zulu kings’, African Languages, 2 (1976), 71–90Google Scholar.

10 Cope, Izibongo, 50–63.

11 Ibid. 128–9.

12 Lambert, J., ‘Chiefship in early colonial Natal’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 21:2 (1995) 269–85CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

13 By and large, the majority of South African chiefs were either neutral or hostile to the activities of trade unions such as the ICU in their wards. H. Bradford, A Taste of Freedom: The ICU in Rural South Africa, 1924–1930 (New Haven, 1987), 88–104.

14 A. MacKinnon, ‘Chiefly authority, leapfrogging headmen and the political economy of Zululand, South Africa, ca. 1930–1950’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 27:3 (2001), 567–90.

15 MacKinnon, Aran, ‘The persistence of the cattle economy in Zululand, 1900–1950’, Canadian Journal of African Studies, 33:1 (1999), 113Google Scholar.

16 Hofmeyr, We Spend our Years, 161.

17 R. Kunene, ‘An analytical survey of Zulu poetry, both traditional and modern’ (unpublished MA Thesis, University of Natal, 1962); Cope, Izibongo, 50–1.

18 J. Clegg, ‘Ukubuyisa Isidumbu – bringing back the body: an examination into the ideology of violence in the Msinga and Mpofana rural locations, 1882–1944’, in P. Bonner (ed.), Working Papers in Southern African studies (Johannesburg, 1981), II, 164–98.

19 Gunner and Gwala, Musho!, 132–3.

20 Interview in 1921 with Royal Imbongi Hoye in J. Wright and C. Webb (eds.), The James Stuart Archive (Pietermaritzburg, 1976), I, 168–9.

21 Gunner, ‘Ukubonga’, 130.

22 Ibid.

23 Gunner and Gwala, Musho!, 11–18.

24 N. Sithole, ‘The mediation of public and private selves in the performance of sermons and narratives of near-death experiences in the Nazarite Church’, in D. Brown (ed.), Religion and Spirituality in South Africa: New Perspectives (Pietermaritzburg, 2009), 260.

25 Gunner, ‘Ukubonga’, 193 n. 2, 384. During the 1970s, a man named Azariah Mthiyane was one of two official izimbongi of Johannes Galilee. Today, Themba Masinga is the official bard of the current leader, Vimbeni Shembe.

26 Gunner, E., ‘Power house, prison house: an oral genre and its use in Isaiah Shembe's Nazareth Baptist Church’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 14:2 (1986), 204–27CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

27 M. Mpanza, ‘UShembe nobuNazaretha’ (informally published, undated text).

28 Ibid.

29 E. Gunner, ‘Testimonies of dispossession and repossession: writing about the South African prophet Isaiah Shembe’, Bulletin of the John Rylands University Library of Manchester, 73:3 (1984), 100.

30 E. Roberts, ‘Shembe: the man and his work’ (unpublished MA thesis, University of the Witwatersrand, 1936), 167; A. Lea, The Native Separatist Church Movement in South Africa (Johannesburg, 1926), 46.

31 Sundkler, Bantu Prophets, 94; Roberts, ‘Shembe’, 167.

32 Sundkler, ‘Chief and prophet’, 277.

33 ‘The prayer of Shembe: remembering his nation’, in I. Hexham (ed.), The Scriptures of the amaNazaretha (Lewiston, 1996), 63.

34 Sundkler identified the land issue as the biggest reason behind Isaiah's alliance with chiefs: Sundkler, Bantu Prophets, 99.

35 In 1913–14, Chief Martin Luthuli of the kholwa community at Groutville ejected Isaiah from his ward with the help of the Stanger magistrate. Pietermaritzburg Archive Repository (hereafter NAB), CNC 96 2155/1912, Chief Native Commissioner to Inanda Magistrate, 23 July 1914; NAB, CNC 96 2155/1912, Chief Native Commissioner to Department of Native Affairs, 8 April 1915. Chief Frank Fynn of Mthwalume similarly had Isaiah ejected in 1913: I. Hexham and G.C. Oosthuizen (eds.), The Story of Isaiah Shembe, Vol. II: Early Regional Traditions of the Acts of the Nazarites (Lewiston, 1999), 35; NAB, CNC 96 2155/1912, Rev. Kessel to Umzinto and Port Shepstone Magistrates, 10 April 1913.

36 Sundkler, Bantu Prophets, 77–9.

37 Ibid. 99.

38 Shembe's contemporary and neighbour, the kholwa politician John Dube, commented that ‘not even the tribal chiefs were ever shown such respect as that bestowed upon Shembe’: John Dube, UShembe (Durban, 1936), 105.

39 Sundkler described Zionists as a ‘third race, set over against both the heathen and the Christian community’: Sundkler, Bantu Prophets, 95.

40 National Archives Repository (hereafter SAB), NTS 1431, 24/214, Sgt Craddock to District Commandant, South African Police, 31 July 1922. Some members of early twentieth-century independent churches were forbidden to shake hands with non-believers in case they were soiled. Sundkler, Zulu Zion, 157.

41 SAB, NTS 1431, 24/214, Chief Native Commissioner to Magistrate Ndwedwe, 18 Dec. 1922.

42 Sundkler, Bantu Prophets, 96.

43 S. Marks, ‘Patriotism, patriarchy and purity’, in C. Walker (ed.), Women and Gender in Southern Africa to 1945 (Cape Town, 1990), 220–8.

44 A 1921 report on Shembe estimated that 95% of his followers were female: SAB, NTS 1431, 24/214, Sergt Craddock to District Officer, South African Police, 10 Sept. 1921.

45 The Zulu prophet George Khambule was ejected from a chief's ward. Khambule asserted that he aimed to ‘separate people, to set a daughter at variance against her mother and the father against his son’: Sundker, Zulu Zion, 157.

46 NAB, CNC 2155/1912 96, Statement of Chief Msebenzi of Lower Umzimkulu Division to Magistrate Port Shepstone, 30 Sept. 1915.

47 Ibid.

48 NAB, CNC 2155/1912 96, Magistrate Port Shepstone to Chief Native Commissioner, 22 Sept. 1915.

49 Converts resisted vaccination throughout the 1920s and 1930s: SAB, NTS 1431, 24/214, Chief Native Commissioner to Secretary for Native Affairs, 7 Jan. 1935. Sporadic violence took place at Ekuphakameni: SAB, NTS 1431, 24/214, Statement of Peter Ngcobo to South African Police, 22 March 1939. In 1942, Europeans in the Nongoma district were killed, supposedly by members of the Church: SAB, NTS 1431, 24/214.

50 SAB, NTS 1431, 24/214, Application by Chief Magemegeme to Magistrate Mtunzini for school site, 4 Dec. 1938.

51 SAB, NTS 1431, 24/214, Chief Native Commissioner to SNA, 25 Jan. 1940.

52 SAB, NTS 1431, 24/214, Native Commissioner Mtunzini to Chief Native Commissioner, 23 August 1939.

53 Chief Pewula Mchunu in Estcourt had to apply to a reluctant Native Affairs Department for permission every time he left his duties to visit Ekuphakameni: interview with Induna Khulupheyi, eMdubuzweni, Mooi River, KwaZulu-Natal, 24 Aug. 2008.

54 M. Gerhard, An Appetite for Power: Buthelezi's Inkatha and South Africa (Johannesburg, 1987).

55 Land-rich Zululand chiefly converts – such as the Biyela, Hlabisa, Mkhwanazi, Mzimela, and Dube chiefs – granted land to the Church, resulting in greater numbers of converts. In the 1940s, Zululand districts such as Empangeni and Mthunzini, with large temple sites donated by chiefly converts, boasted 2,000 church members. By contrast, Natal's land-squeezed chiefs had much smaller congregations. In the 1950s, congregations within a Natal district were rarely over 200. SAB, NTS, 1431, 24/214, Report on Branches of the Church of Nazareth, Oct. 1949.

56 Interview with Inkosi Simakade Mchunu, Nhlalakahle, emaChunwini, KwaZulu-Natal, 12 September 2008.

57 In Rhodesia, chiefs and their subjects together embraced Methodism. F. Muzorewa, ‘Through prayer to action: the Rukwadzano women of Rhodesia’, in T. Ranger (ed.), Themes in the Christian History of Central Africa (London, 1975), 259.

58 ‘It is taken for granted that any member of the Qwabe clan, literate or illiterate, should become a member of this Church’: Sundker, ‘Chief and prophet’, 282.

59 SAB, NTS 1431, 24/214, Report of District Commandant to Deputy Commissioner, South African Police, 17 November 1942.

60 Hexham and Oosthuizen, Early Regional Traditions, 78–9, Testimony of Shayimthetho Ngidi.

61 Private correspondence with Nkosinathi Sithole, 28 Aug. 2008.

62 Gunner, ‘Ukubonga’, 121.

63 Hexham and Oosthuizen, Early Regional Traditions, 226–32, Testimonies of Azariah Mthiyane.

64 Interview with Bongi Mchunu, emaChunwini, KwaZulu-Natal, 25 June 2008.

65 Dhlomo's record of the story of his appointment as archivist is found in I. Hexham and G. C. Oosthuizen, The Story of Isaiah Shembe, Vol. I: History and Traditions Centered on Ekuphakameni and Mount Nhlangakazi (Lewiston, 1999), xii, Testimony of Petros Dhlomo.

66 Dhlomo's archive was published by the Edwin Mellen Press in four volumes.

67 For example, Mthembeni Mpanza's informally published biography of Isaiah Shembe – UShembe NobuNazaretha – first began circulating among members in the early 1980s. It contained various narratives of Isaiah's evangelizing among chiefs.

68 I was told about this text by Minister Khuzwayo of the Maphumulo district. Amos Qwabe also related Qwabe chiefly conversion stories to Petros Dhlomo: Hexham and Oosthuizen, Early Regional Traditions, 107–20, Amos Qwabe.

69 The tapes belong to Evangelist Khumalo, eMdubuzweni, KwaZulu-Natal.

70 Simakade's great age – he was 85 in 2009 – and his prestige as a ‘hereditary’ chief make him one of the most respected chiefly converts.

71 At the 2008 eMzimoya meeting, I was told of the chief's powerful testimonial preaching at the 2007 meeting.

72 I. Hexham and G. C. Oosthuizen, The Story of Isaiah Shembe, Vol. III: The Continuing Story of the Sun and Moon (Lewiston, 2002), 130–40, Testimonies of Simakade Mchunu.

73 NAB, 1/MSG 3/1/1/1, Native Commissioner Msinga to Chief Native Commissioner, 9 Jan. 1934.

74 Interview with Inkosi Simakade Mchunu.

75 Themes of sickness and healing by Shembe dominate the majority of Nazaretha chiefly conversion accounts. For Nyuswa chiefs, see Hexham and Oosthuizen, Story of Isaiah Shembe, I, 83–6, Testimony of Daniel Dube. For Dube chief, see interview with Inkosi yakwaDube, Ebuhleni, KwaZulu-Natal, 9 July 2008. For Mzimela chief, see Hexham and Oosthuizen, Story of Isaiah Shembe, I, 196–9, Testimony of Jiniose Mzimela.

76 Hexham and Oosthuizen, Continuing Story, 131–2, Simakade Mchunu.

77 Cope, Izibongo, 130–1. For the militaristic character of the Mchunu chiefdom, see Webb and Wright, James Stuart Archive, II, 89; NAB 1/MSG 3/1/1/1, Compilation report by various magistrates about Mchunu violence in Msinga, Sept. 1940.

78 Interview with Simakade Mchunu. I also heard the same tradition in a sermon preached by Minister Mthembu, eMzimoya, emaChunwini, 30 Aug. 2008.

79 Hexham and Oosthuizen, Early Regional Traditions, 228–9, Testimony of Azariah Mthiyane.

80 An eyewitness account from the 1930s reported that the convert Nyuswa chief ‘treated Shembe with the greatest respect and endorsed his esteemed position’: E. Gunner, ‘Keeping a diary of visions: Lazarus Phelalasekhaya Maphumulo and the Edendale congregation of amaNazaretha’, in Barber, Africa's Hidden Histories, 164.

81 Hexham, Scriptures, 17. The text was created by an unnamed scribe.

82 Sundkler, Bantu Prophets, 111.

83 Natal Mercury, 27 July 1927; Gunner, ‘Testimonies’, 101.

84 Interview with Inkosi yakwaDube.

85 R. Papini and I. Hexham, The Story of Isaiah Shembe, Vol. IV: The Catechism of the Nazarites and Related Writings (Lewiston, 2002), 202, Testimony of Timothy Kuzwayo.

86 The small, one-room dwellings that Nazaretha lived in during the annual meeting at Ekuphakameni.

87 Sundker, ‘Chief and prophet’, 281.

88 Gunner, ‘Keeping a diary’, 164.

89 Mail and Guardian, 13 Oct. 1995.

90 Fernandez, J., ‘In the precincts of the prophet: a day with Johannes Galilee Shembe’, Journal of Religion in Africa, 5:1 (1973), 40CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

91 Vilakazi, Shembe, 58–9.

92 The praises for the Dube, Mkhwanazi, and Biyela chiefs – all Nazaretha converts – continued to be recited in the twentieth century. Gunner and Gwala, Musho!, 127–9, 134–7, 145–9, 155.

93 Mzimela (1841–1939) was a steward of the last independent Zulu king, Cetshwayo. Gunner and Gwala, Musho!, 140; Hexham and Oosthuizen, Story of Isaiah Shembe, I, 197–9, Testimony of Jiniose Mzimela.

94 Gunner, ‘Ukubonga’, 131.

95 Zimema's praises celebrate his role in the great battle between British and Zulu at Isandlwana in 1879.

96 Ntshidi's praises describe his frequent family ‘quarrels’. Gunner and Gwala, Musho!, 46, 138–41.

97 Ibid. 138–9.

98 Roberts, ‘Shembe’, 38.

99 Hexham and Oosthuizen, Story of Isaiah Shembe, I, 234–5, Testimony of Aaron Mthethwa.

100 Ilanga laseNatal, 11–13 Jan. 1996; Perouse de Montclos, Marc-Antoine, ‘Violence au KwaZulu-Natal’, Afrique Contemporaine, 180 (1996), 95–7Google Scholar; R. Papini, ‘Dance uniform history in the Church of Nazareth Baptists: the move to tradition’, African Arts, 37 (2004), 90 n. 9.

101 Isaiah's praises describe his arrival in Qwabe territory: ‘The News came down from Sinothi/Reaching out to Ntabazwe/Until it landed at eMthandeni in Maphumulo’ (personal copy of praises).

102 NAB 1/MPO 3/1/1/5, Magistrate Maphumulo to Chief Native Commissioner, 1919.

103 Interview with Minister Khuzwayo, Maphumulo, KwaZulu-Natal, 9 Oct. 2008. The chieftaincy did return to the Qwabe royal family in 1919: see NAB 1/MPO 3/1/1/5, Magistrate Maphumulo to Chief Native Commissioner, 1919.

104 Interview with Inkosi Nduna yakwaMchunu, eMdubuzweni, 24 Aug. 2008.

105 Clegg, ‘Ukubuyisa Isidumbu’. Isaiah attributed ‘faction fights’ to lack of adherence to religious principles: see Roberts, ‘Shembe’, 80.

106 Hexham and Oosthuizen, Continuing Story of the Sun and the Moon, 137. Testimony of Simakade Mchunu.

107 Department of Land Affairs, Land Claims, Pietermaritzburg, 29 Sept. 2008, Ngongolo Claim Reference Number: KRN 6/2/2/E/10/0/0/20 and 45.

108 Other Nazaretha chiefs share this view. Interview with Inkosi MaKhumalo Ndaba, Ntambamhlope, Estcourt, KwaZulu-Natal, 1 July 2008; interview with Inkosi yakwaDube. See also D. I. Ray, T. Quinlan, K. Sharma, and A. Owusu-Sarpong (eds.), Re-inventing African Chieftaincy in the Ages of Aids, Gender and Development, Volume One (IDRC Project: TAARN, 2005), 58–77; Southall, R. and De Sas Kropiwnicki, Z., ‘Containing chiefs: the ANC and traditional leaders in the eastern Cape, South Africa’, Canadian Journal of African Studies, 37:1 (2003), 48–82Google Scholar.

109 Minister Mthembu, Sabbath Morning Sermon at eMzimoya Temple, emaChunwini, KwaZulu-Natal, 30 Aug. 2008.

110 Ibid. The present-day church praise poet Themba Masinga tells the story of two Qwabe men who repeatedly disobeyed their chief by ploughing on the Sabbath and were punished by a sudden death: T. Masinga, ‘Babonani abalandela uShembe?’ (private CD recording, 2008).