Isaiah Shembe
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
c.1865
Shembe | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Shembe Mudliwamafa Mloyiswa KaMayekisa c.1865 Ntabamhlophe (Estcourt Area), South Africa |
| Died | May 2, 1935 (aged 70) KwaZulu-Natal |
| Education | autodidact |
| Occupation | Leader of the Nazareth Baptist Church |
| Known for | Founder of the Nazareth Baptist church |
| Title | INkosi yaseKuphakameni(Lord Of eKuphakameni) |
| Term | 1910 - 1935 |
| Predecessor | None |
| Successor | Johannes Galilee Shembe |
| Partner(s) | MaShabalala, MaSigasa, MaNgwenya, MaRadebe |
| Children | Johannes Galilee Shembe (1904-1976), Amos Kula Shembe (1906-1995), Stanley Shembe |
| Parent(s) | Sitheya Hadebe and Mayekisa KaNhliziyo |
Isaiah Mloyiswa Mdliwamafa Shembe (c. 1865[1][2] – 2 May 1935), was a prophet and the founder of the Ibandla lamaNazaretha, South Africa, which was the largest African-initiated churches in Africa during his lifetime.[3] Shembe started his religious career as an itinerant evangelist and faith healer in 1910. Within ten years, he had built up a large following in Natal with dozens of congregations across the province. The chronology remains one of the biggest churches to date, and there is a rapid emergence of organized congregations and seminary events (held within Shembe temples) across the nine provinces of South Africa.
He was born in 1865, at Ntabamhlophe (Estcourt Area), in the Drakensberg region of Natal. He had Zulu and Hlubi descent. His father, Mayekisa, relocated them to Ntabazwe before his adolescence.[4]: 2–3 His mother Sitheya, the daughter of Malindi Hadebe, was born at Mtimkulu.[2]: 1
Shembe's family left Natal for the adjacent Harrismith district of the Orange Free State in the 1880s, ending up there as tenants for an Afrikaner family named the Grabes. His Master was Conrad Grabes, the owner of Buwelshoek Farm [5] The young Shembe appears to have laboured for this Boer family as well, and spent considerable time working with the farm's horses. There is a considerable lore of hagiographic tradition concerned with the young Shembe. It was said he died and was resurrected at the age of three when a bull suddenly died, "buying his soul". He was also visited by God on many occasions during these years.[2]: 2–7 [4]: 7–22
Shembe heard the voice of God taught him how to pray. Thereafter it commanded him to find a place to pray to God on regularly basis. He started visiting the Wesleyan Church that was nearby. He did not spend much time there, however, because the laws that he was taught in vision by the Word, were not followed in the church. For example, baptism by immersion was not practised, this was one of the key laws that made him desert the church. By the time of the South African War, Shembe was married and was working for the Graabes as a tenant in his own right. The war disrupted his situation, however. After abandoning his wives, he spent some time on the Rand as a migrant.[5]: 18 During this time, he met the African Native Baptist Church (in Boksburg), which was led by Reverend William Leshega, who later baptized him on 22 July 1906.
Early years as an evangelist
Between 1906 and 1910, Shembe was a minor evangelist in Leshega's church. The latter visited him in Harrismith in 1906 and baptized him there (by immersion). For the following two years he worked as an itinerant evangelist, and was then given an official preacher's certificate by Leshega in 1908. It appeared that Shembe then led a congregation for Leshega in Witzieshoek until 1909, when Leshega affiliated with John G. Lake's Apostolic Faith Mission.[6]: 77–8
Shembe claimed that the Word ordered him to leave his wives and family and go to Natal. Initially he resisted separating from his wives; nine of his children died after that resistance. This was followed by him being struck by lightning after ascending a mountaintop. The lightning strike injured his thigh and he took two weeks to recover. Eventually, he agreed to follow the word to Natal. He arrived in Durban on 10 March 1910.[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 African people. These messengers were called Johan Zandile Nkabinde and Mfazwe.
