SHEMBE CHURCH OF ISAIAH SHEMBE

The Shembe Church was founded by Isaiah Shembe.

He was born in 1867, among the Sotho people of the Free State Province of South Africa, to a Zulu polygamous father Mayekisa, and Sitheya Mlindi (Mzizi 2004: 191). Mayekisa was a landless farm dweller in Harrismith. As legend has it, when Isaiah’s mother was pregnant a voice said to her; “You will bear a son who will be a special messenger.” Gunner (2004) also says that after Isaiah’s birth, his uncle, Nhliziyo, gave him the name Shembe and his father named him Mudliwamafa, meaning ‘my inheritor’. Isaiah styled himself as a biblical character and at his baptism in 1906 he changed his name from Mudliwamafa to Isaiah.

In his later life, he referred to himself as the ‘the servant of sorrow’, ‘Iskhonzi SenHlupheko’ invoking the Isaiah of the Old Testament. Isaiah died on May 2, 1935 after standing in cold river water for three hours while administering adult baptism (Oosthuizen 1968:1). Isaiah never went to a formal school; he only learned to partially read and write later in life (Sundkler 1976:187). Although Isaiah had little ‘mission education’ he was able to cite biblical verses, from memory, outwitting most European missionaries (Muller 1999:45). Gunner (1988) adds that whatever Isaiah ‘read’ was supposedly not through learning, but came to him miraculously.

Isaiah early years

Historically, it is not clear which church Isaiah attended during his early years. Gunner (2004:17), though, claims that Isaiah was a member of two missionary churches, namely the Baptist and Wesleyan Methodist churches. The Wesleyan Methodist influenced his love for Wesleyan hymns (Tshabalala 1983). Isaiah later on moved out of the Wesleyan Methodist Church because he disagreed with it on the issue of baptism (Mzizi: 2004:191). Isaiah was then baptised through immersion, as an adult, by an African National Baptist Association minister, Reverend William Leshega (Oosthuizen 1968). The immersion baptism by Leshega had an impact on Isaiah. Leshega invited him to his home as a guest, and Isaiah stayed with him for six days. He subsequently joined the Baptist Church (Gunner 2004:20). Isaiah immediately started to preach the gospel to fellow Africans.

His success as a preacher, in Witzieshoek, was so great that Reverend Leshega came from Boksburg, with two female ministers, to baptize those whom Isaiah had preached to, and in many cases healed. Later, during this same visit (1908), Leshega laid hands on Isaiah and ordained him as a minister of the African National Baptist Church, authorising him to preach and baptise (Dube 1936). However, Isaiah later moved out of the Baptist Church on the basis that, for him, and according to the Bible, the Sabbath was to be a Saturday not a Sunday, and formed his own movement (Shange 2013:37). He also functioned as an exorcist, driving out demons.

Isaiah founded his church in 1911

Isaiah Shembe founded his church in 1911 and named it along biblical lines - Ibandla lamaNazaretha (The Nazarenes). He established his settlement in Inanda, a semi-rural area north of Durban in KwaZulu-Natal. With time this became the holy city of Ekuphakameni. Isaiah called his followers amaNazaretha and the church Ibandla lamaNazaretha after a priestly cult of Nazir in the Book of Numbers (Numbers 6:1-21). AmaNazaretha have a strong faith in their Bible, and hymnbook (with some outstanding poetic quality in isiZulu) and catechism represents a reasonable, systematic articulation of the teachings and practices of the movement. Their Bible is known as the ‘Book of the Birth of the Prophet Shembe’. According to Cabrita (2012), it was during the time of Galilee Shembe that he organised the texts of Shembe into an official canon. As observed by Cabrita, it is hagiographic in nature, and a continuation of the existing Bible. It is also named the ‘Acts of the Nazarites’, suggesting parallels with the New Testament’s Acts of the Apostles. Today this book is often referred to by the church as the Third Testament, a continuation of the story of God among the African people.

Saturday Sabbath not Sunday

The followers are taught that Saturday is a special Sabbath day for Jehovah and should be observed meticulously. They also teach that Mount Nhlangakazi, which Isaiah Shembe visited in 1913, is a holy place, and that Ekuphakameni, founded in 1914, is the holy centre or city of the movement. Isaiah forbid his followers to take wine or any fermented drinks, eat pork, consume cooking oil, and smoke (Shange 2013). According to Oosthuizen (1981:41), the keys to heaven (referring to Matthew 16:19) in the exegesis and theology of Isaiah, is one single key, which opens the gate of heaven. As such, Shembe is the representative not of Jesus, but of Jehovah who has given the Sabbath to his people. According to Galilee, the cross of Jesus has no significance. The final destiny of the heart is Ekuphakameni, while that of the wicked heart is hell (Oosthuizen 1967:76).

AmaNazaretha worship

AmaNazaretha worship God through prayers as well as rituals, dances and, particularly, specific kinds of ceremonial dances (Ncwane). And, as in many movements and organisations, where dress gives a corporate identity, this is also the case with Shembe. It is reported that Isaiah, in one of his dreams in 1900, saw men dressed in traditional Zulu garb. The men were singing traditional songs, without notes, in the style of the Zulu oral tradition. Isaiah was then instructed to heal and evangelize the Zulu-speaking people in the Zululand region in the same dream. It is from this dream that the amaNazaretha males came to imitate traditional Zulu dress codes. According to Oosthuizen (1981:38), the Shembe dress code is a symbolic extension of Zulu culture. For the amaNazaretha, people should not be ashamed of their traditions but be proud of them.

For Isaiah, it was acceptable that older folk, especially those in kraals, to wear the umutsha and blankets, while their children could wear modern European clothes. This is in sharp distinction to the missionaries who propagated a break from traditional dress codes, and a full embracing of western dress codes and some of its fashions, especially as appropriated by the different missionaries themselves. Shembe members also wear white garments as an official and Sabbath uniform. According to Singh and McAuliffe (2012), clothing is used by the church to distinguish rank and social standing. Evangelists wear emerald green Nazareth robes, while ministers wear white robes with black cuffs. Isaiah insisted that the wearing of white surplices for church services befits the redeemed heavenly citizens described in the Book of Revelation (7:9-14).

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