Isaiah Shembe

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Isaiah Mloyiswa Mdliwamafa Shembe (1865
[1]
2 May 1935), was the founder of the Nazareth
Baptist Church.He was born at Ntabamhlophe (Estcourt district) in the Drakensberg region (near
Giants Castle) where his forefathers settled, when they escaped from the regiments of the Zulu King
Shaka. Later, the family moved further on to Ntabazwe (Harrismith district) in the Sotho region of the
Orange Free State, higher up in the Drakensberg mountains.
1.2 The Shembe family, however, was of pure Zulu breed and originated from
Zululand KwaCeza.
[2]
The father of the Prophet Shembe was Mayekisa, the son of Nhliziyo, the son
of Mzazela, the son of Sokhabuzela, the son of Nyathikazi. They were from the Ntungwa tribe with
the praise-name Nhlanzi (fish) from Donsa. The mother of the prophet was Sitheya, the daughter of
Malindi Hadebe, and was born at Mtimkulu.
[2]

Shembe's family had left Zulu territory for the Orange Free State in the 1870s, and ended up as
tenants on an Afrikaner farm near Harrismith. The young Shembe appears to have labored for this
Boer family, and spent considerable time working with the farm's horses. By the time of the South
African War, Shembe was a young man and seems to have been married. However, the war
disrupted his situation, and after the war he spent some time on the Rand as a migrant
[3]
During this
time, he seems to have attended the African Native Baptist Church, led by William Leshega.
After returning to Harrismith, Shembe was eventually baptized by Leshega, who visited him in 1906.
In the following years he worked as an itinerant evangelist, and was given a preacher's certificate by
Leshega in 1908.
[4]
It would appear that Shembe then led a congregation for Leshega in Witzieshoek
until 1910, when Leshega affiliated with John G Lake'sApostolic Faith Mission
[disambiguation needed]
.
[5]

Shembe served as a member of the White-led Apostolic Faith Mission for a year. During this time he
seems to have taken John G Lake on two evangelizing tours of the area, one of which went as far as
Basutoland.
[6]
On these trips he listened to Lake's preaching and saw him perform a number of faith
healings.
Having imbibed the rhetoric and faith healing prowess of Lake, Shembe was inspired to strike out on
his own, and he left for Natal in March 1911.
[7]
Messengers preceded his arrival into various parts of
Natal, proclaiming that "A Man of Heaven" had been sent by God to preach to the Zulu people.
Shembe typically followed these messengers by a day or two, following which he would preach and
perform faith healings similar to those typically performed by John G Lake. He also crafted a
message of his calling as a prophet that closely mirrored that of Lake himself.
[8]

By all accounts, Shembe had an electric effect and was able to build congregations in a number of
areas. In 1916 he established a holy city at ekuPhakameni and a yearly pilgrimage to the Holy
Mountain of Nhlangakazi. In addition to his preaching and healing, he was known for composing
Zulu hymns and sacred dances, for creating sacred costumes that combined Zulu and European
clothing styles, for developing a new liturgical calendar (that omitted Christmas), and for dietary laws
that included a restriction against eating chicken, pork and other unclean foods as found in the Old
Testament of the Bible.
[9]

Shembe's legacy has created some controversy. In a 1967 book, G.C. Oosthuizen argued that the
movement was "a new religion that sees Isaiah Shembe as 'the manifestation of God.'" Oosthuizen
was attacked by Bengt Sundkler and Absolom Vilakazi as being too Westernized to understand Zulu
culture, and claimed that the movement remained Christian. However, Oosthuizen's view has been
embraced by two of Shembe's successors, his younger son Amos Shembe and his grandson Londa
Shembe, who (although they fought with each other over who was the legitimate successor and
eventually formed two separate branches of the church), both of whom believe that Shembe did
indeed create something new.
[9]

A sculpture of Shembe was created from Carara marble by the US artist David Lambert and placed
at the headquarters of a splinter group of the church at Matabetulu in 1983.
Contents
[hide]
1 The birth of Shembe
2 Nazareth Baptist Church
3 References
4 Archives
5 External sources
The birth of Shembe[edit]
In the year 1926, the prophet told his followers in the village of Ekuphakameni, how God prepared
the birth and the call of His Servant, that "In olden times, when Zululand was still ruled by king
Senzangakhona (+/- 1816 A.D.), God visited my forefathers who lived in their homes in the
mountains of Babanango, serving King Senzangakhona. Mzazela, the father of Nhliziyo, was a very
righteous man, who paid respect to all people as it was proper.When he was sleeping in the night,
the Word of Jehova came to him: "Mzazela, behold I shall raise a king of violent temper (Shaka)
from the house of Jama (the father of Senzangakhona); he will rule the country with violent temper
and will spill the blood of many people. I shall build on him my nation, that all Brown people be
united in the Zulu kingdom. I advise you to flee together with your children to the upper country in the
West, so that the rage of that king may not come down upon you. For from your progeny I shall raise
prophets who will save my Brown nation and work with this nation, which I have established and
chosen!"Mzazela did not waste time with doubts and many thoughts; he rather obeyed to the Word
of Mvelinqangi, which spoke repeatedly to him. He gathered all his belongings and moved with his
livestock to settle in the land of the West. He was not stiff-necked but obeyed the will of Mvelinqangi.
He settled at Ntabamhlophe in the Drakensberg region. There his son Nhliziyo got married, and his
father paid the due dowry. Nhliziyo begot Mayekisa, who was his first-born son. Also Mayekisa grew
up there at Ntabamhlophe. Mzazela named their home "Nontandabathakathi." When Mayekisa came
to the marriageable age, he had already a sweetheart whom he wished to marry. But his father
Nhliziyo liked him to get married to a maiden of the Hadebe family by the name of Sitheya who was
the daughter of chief Malindi Hadebe at Mthimkhulu, the councillor of the Hlubi chief Langalibalele.
On a certain evening, Nhliziyo called his son to inform him on the desire of his heart and said:
"Mayekisa!" He responded: "Our father!" Nhliziyo continued: "I think in my heart that you are by now
old enough to look for a young wife with whom you will beget children for me. Now, my son, my heart
stands firmly on Sitheya, the daughter of Malindi at Mthimkhulu; I want you to get married to her."
His son replied: "I am unable to dispute with our father; your will be done, our father, and my will
shall dwindle." Nhliziyo was happy to get this reply and said: "Thank you, my son. Tomorrow
morning, I shall rise and wash face and hands. Then I shall take my sticks and go down to the river
where the Hadebe family uses to draw water. There I shall pick up six nicely coloured stones and go
up to the homestead of Hadebe."Mayekisa accepted joyfully the words of his father, and they agreed
on this plan. Mayekisa was a child who obeyed his parents, and all were happy over this respectful
child and did not criticize him for anything at home; and everybody loved him. On the next morning,
Mhliziyo rose and did what he had said: He washed his face and hands, took his sticks and went
down to the river where the Hadebe family used to draw water. The homes were not very far from
each other; it was a short distance only. He arrived in the morning at the gate of the homestead and
asked for permission to enter. After the usual greeting ceremony, Nhliziyo threw the stones to the
ground before Hadebe. Hadebe kept silent, looked at the stones and wondered what would happen.
Nhliziyo said: "Receive your cattle, you man of Mthimkhulu!" Malindi asked: "Whom do you want?"
Nhliziyo replied: "I want your daughter Sitheya." For a short while, Malindi looked silently at these
stones. Then he called his daughter Sitheya. When Sitheya came, Hadebe pointed to the stones and
said: "Sitheya, my daughter, will you accept this man? Here are my cattle which came with Nhliziyo,
the son of Mzazela."Sitheya answered by asking her father: "Our father, do you like these people?"
He replied to his daughter: "Yes, my daughter, I like them." She said: "The will of our father be done
to me." Then she said these words, her tears were flowing, because she remembered the promises
which had been made to her since she had been a girl in her teens.
[10]
When the time had come to
give birth to Shembe and MaHadebe was already pregnant for six months, she began to see in her
dreams people clad in white gowns, who came to her and said: "You will give birth to the lord who
will save all the nations."Her heart became painful; because when she related this dream to other
people, they laughed at her, like the brothers of Joseph laughed at him when he related his dreams
to them (Gen. 37:6-7). Until Shembe was born, this dream came repeatedly to her, and when she
was about to deliver, the Voice came again to remind her that she was to give birth to the Servant of
God.
Before the birth of Shembe, when the midwives had not yet come, Sitheya felt
a hand taking hold of her loins. Hereafter, she had a quick delivery without
complications and pains.When the child was born, his father Mayekisa named
his son Mdliwamafa-ezwe and Mloyiswa. But he became famous by the name given
to him by his grandfather Nhliziyo who named him Shembe, which became at the
same time his family name. When his mother heard that his grandfather named
him Shembe, she pondered over it, and it became clear to her that now all
what had been said to her from her childhood onwards had been fulfilled on
the day of the birth of Shembe.
[2]

Nazareth Baptist Church[edit]
The Nazareth Baptist Church, often called Shembe, is associated with a small group of churches,
often referred to as African "messianic" churches, where the leader or founder is ascribed by his
followers with supernatural powers.
The large majority of the three thousand African independent churches are either "Ethiopian" or
"Zionist". The Zionist churches, whose name implies an identification with the holy mountain
of Zion in the Old Testament, are largely charismatic prophet-led healing groups. Worship in the
Zionist churches is an African variant of Pentecostal spirituality.
References[edit]
1. Jump up^