Special Hearings — Faith Community Hearings — 1997-11-17

MR M P MPANZA: Even though my speech is prepared in English I will speak in   Zulu, because most of my congregation consists of people who cannot speak English.   I will speak English now and again. First of all I want to apologise that I   am here on my own. I am from a very big congregation. We had a problem, because   we received our invitation quite late. The people that were meant to come with   me were not able to do so.
I wish to extend our humble gratitude to the National Chairperson of the TRC   for having deemed it proper for us to participate in the faith communities hearings   of the sufferings, humiliations and oppressions undergone by various communities   during the apartheid era. As you all might be aware, Ibandla lama Nazaretha   is a unique church. It is ironic that whilst it is one of the biggest churches   founded by Africans, it is the most easily forgotten when it comes to matters   affecting the nation. Maybe it is due to its over simplicity and humility which   has dominated its leadership for decades. It is therefore no wonder that it   was only on the 12th November 1997, that we learned that we were also invited   to these hearings. For the sake of those who have no background of this church,   I will first briefly outline the source of its existence, its teachings and   beliefs and thereafter the sufferings, humiliations and oppressions it experienced   during the Apartheid period. Without the mentioning of the name Shembe, Ibandla   lama Nazaretha is non-existent. The name Shembe, apart from the fact that it   is a surname, was the name given to the prophet, Isiah Shembe, by his grandfather,   Ntliziyo. The followers of the prophet, Isiah Shembe are therefore commonly   known by the outsiders as the Shembeites, or Ibandla lakwa Shembe. The prophet   Isiah Shembe was born at Ntaba Mhlope in the district of Escort in Kwa Zulu   in about 1865 and when he was about 9 years old, his parents moved to Ntabaza   in the district of Harrismith, where he grew up till marriage. The prophet was   born from the traditional rural Zulus who belonged to no church faith. He never   attended school from his boyhood, and until he was about 15 years old, he had   never been in contact with Christians, nor had he ever seen or heard of the   bible. At his early boyhood, he had many visions which came to him in the form   of a voice from the firmament. Before Isiah Shembe knew anything about Christianity   or the bible, he spoke of God with whom he claimed to be in communication, who   he knew as Inkosi or ...[inaudible]. This voice which usually came with thunder   and lightening directed his life and was the source of all the teachings and   beliefs he, at a later stage, instilled in the minds of his followers. Later,   when Isiah Shembe had already been in communication with his God, he met the   bible. Through the mysterious powers of his revelations, he was able to read   it basing his understanding of it on the visionary messages he received from   Umbeli Nqangi. Although later he was in contact with the Christians, he never   relied on the Christian interpretation of the bible, but he read and understood   it as he was guided by the visionary messages. The prophet, although from his   boyhood he was always in communication with God, he never joined any church   until he got married according to Zulu custom. After having married his fourth   wife, God ordered him to leave all his wives, his children and the family at   large an follow him. This Shembe eventually complied with. From that time, Isiah   Shembe became the greatest prophet this country ever produced. 
In 1910, he came to Natal still preaching the word of God, healing and performing   all kinds of miracles in his ministry. In 1911 he founded his mission station   at Inanda, near Durban, called Ipakamini, which became the headquarters of his   church. In 1913 he was led by the Holy Spirit to Ntlagagazi which is a distance   of about 80 km from Durban. From that year to this day, AmaNazaretha barefootedly   take this pilgrimage in hundreds thousands or millions yearly, to worship God   on the Mount Ntlagagazi for the period of two weeks. As I have pointed out earlier,   Ibandla lama Nazaretha is very unique if one approaches is from the Christian   perspective. Because, although AmaNazaretha use the bible in their teachings,   Isiah Shembe as a prophet did not regard the bible as his sole authority of   his teachings, but as a reference to his main authority, which is God. As a   prophet, Isiah Shembe was converted by no man, but by God. The bible was there   to support and confirm his authority. It is therefore through this that it is   not very correct to categorise Ibandla lama Nazaretha as one of the independent   churches. It was never a part of any Christian teachings, but it is part of   the biblical teachings we built through the might of the almighty. This church   can also not be categorised under traditional religions, for the simple reason   that whilst traditional religions based their teachings on "Izwelabantu"   which is the voice of the people, Ibandla lama Nazaretha bases its teachings   on "IzweleZulu" which is the voice of heaven which came to the prophet,   and through him spread to the all the people. The prophet explored the name,   AmaNazaretha, to its biblical roots as being the only name given by God to the   believers, namely the Nazareths. The prophet outlawed the drinking of any beverages   including beer or sorghum beer. He also outlawed smoking of any kind, albeit   they are part of African tradition, for they are incompatible with laws relating   to the Nazareths. Isiah Shembe regarded beer drinking and smoking as health   hazards and not suitable for AmaNazaretha. He further outlawed pre-marital sexual   intercourse, the use of medicine as a form of healing, the practice of divination   or sorcery, the use of mediums or spirits, although these form part of African   traditions. For such practices are repugnant to biblical teachings. Isiah Shembe   allowed polygamy and when confronted by Christians, his reply was simply this   "I was not sent by man, but by God and God did not tell me of a sin called   polygamy. Those who sin are the ones who divorce and thereafter take another   wife".
From its inception, this church under its founder and subsequent successors   in leadership, grew very fast and as Mrs Wells confirmed in her manuscript entitled   Shembe, and I quote "Everywhere, chapels and churches and schools were   empty as Shembe approached and the people crowded to listen with great joy.   Immorality was driven to shame. Mental snobbery was pricked like a bubble and   a simple folk wearing skins or next to nothing accepted the gospel with great   joy and were baptised. Then the greatest enemy were the missionaries who then   waged warfare against Shembe because they said he was undoing much, if not most   of what they had done. They had taught people to wear clothes and now Shembe   said it did not matter if the people wore little or nothing, if they were modest   and clean." This warfare against Shembe by the missionaries had a very   negative impact on the growth of this church. Because of the short time given   to me to prepare for this hearing, I am unable to give all the specific incidents   that led to the suffering, scorn, persecution and false representations against   the church from the time of the prophet to this day. The missionaries had vowed   to wipe it from existence and in so doing, they agitated the government of the   day to stop all its activities. For example it is a fact that there were laws   which were passed in Natal forbidding the Shembe to enter the black reserve,   if he did not have permission from the Magistrate. And the Durban municipality   forbade him to enter the locations. All Shembe's moves were closely monitored   for his was not regarded as a church, but a political movement under the cloak   of religion. As Mrs Wells further revealed, Shembe was much hated by the missionaries.   She further stated "I remember a certain European superintendent of missions   meeting outside Town Hall in Durban and accusing and denouncing Shembe with   much hate. He brought his clenched fist down in his open palm and affirmed 'Shembe   works those wonders through the power of the devil!'. Have you ever seen Shembe,   or have you been present at healing services, I asked him. 'No' said the Superintendent,   "and I don't want to see him. All I want and intend to do is to crush him   out of existence".
The government, through the influence of the missionaries was in important,   wanted to crush this church out of existence. Shembe was told in no uncertain   terms that his was not a church. In 1931 he was called to Pietermaritzburg,   where he was told to demolish all his church settlements, that he was not allowed   to build any church house or to use the church bells in calling people to the   church service. It therefore came to pass that the Nazareths developed a culture   of worshipping God whilst seated under the trees and calling people to the church   service by shouting loudly, up to this day. 
As I pointed out the church had long been instructed never to build church   houses or to establish any further church settlements. The church was ordered   to demolish even those houses which were already existing. In 1950, the successor   in leadership, the Lord of ...[inaudible] built a big church house at ...[inaudible]   with the installation of a church bell. He was then confronted by local missionaries   and was again reminded that his was a not a church and therefore the building   of that church house and the installation of the bell was repugnant to the government.   The church building and bell was then confined to a ...[inaudible] only. The   question facing the church was how to spread its gospel in the face of the government's   restrictions. The prophet had instructed his son and successor in leadership,   Johannes, to take many wives. According to Zulu custom, the man is entitled   to establish his home when he has a wife, and a man can have as many homes as   his wife. Whenever Johannes Galile Shembe wanted to establish a church settlement,   he pointed out that he was a man with many children and he wanted the land for   his children. When the land was then allocated to him, it became a church settlement   and the government was unable to attach him, as the home was always registered   in his personal name, so was everything that belonged to the church because   the church was not recognised as a church. The struggle in favour of the church   recognition was fought for years until in 1985, when the church joined RICA   and was assisted by Bishop R.P.B. Mbwela. 
The death of the prophet Isiah Shembe in 1935 brought in great joy among the   missionaries in Natal. Their aim as the superintendent had vowed was to see   to it that no only Shembe was dead, but that everything about him was intact   with his bones. They met and discussed the matter and thereafter sent to Galile   Shembe a very prominent black leader, Dr L. Dube to convince the successor in   leadership that it was not worth his education to lead Ibandla lama Nazaretha   which is full of amaQaba, or heathens. As Galile once put it in his sermons,   and I quote, "After my father's death there were many people who advised   me to abandon this church and join the Wesley Church or American Board. They   promised me money to go overseas, where I was to be trained as a minister so   that I could come back and become their priest. This church of your father is   wrong, it takes people away from the path of God. The first person to say this   was a black man. He said, these people will give you trouble for they are not   educated, you will not be able to lead them. After two months I met a white   man in Durban who knew my father. He said, 'Is it you who took over from the   work of Shembe?', I said yes. He then said, 'No man, what can you do, you cannot   rule black people. Black people always fight. By the way, you say that you do   not drink liquor, you shall see that all of them drink. And if you talk to them,   they will fight you. Leave this people, if you want to be a priest, go to American   Board, or to the Wesley Church and be a priest there. I did not reply to this   white man, but I wondered how his talk came to be the same as that of the black   man who had come to tell me the same story."
When they realised that they were failing to persuade Galile Shembe to abandon   the church, they devised another plan aimed at a complete annihilation of the   prophet and his work form the face of the earth. The story was systematically   concocted that the self styled prophet, an impostor, Isiah Shembe told his followers   that like the prophet Elijah, would be taken to heaven by a heavenly chariot.   He then took his followers to Mount Ntlangakazi to see him fly to heaven. When   he was on the mountain, he attached feathers to his body and when he jumped   from the mountain, trying to fly, he fell on the rocks an died. He was caricatured   in local newspapers read by black society as another ...[inaudible] who had   led many blacks astray. At schools which were controlled by the missionaries,   the story of Shembe trying to fly was told as a historic fact. We know that   children daily suffer the scorn, humiliation and mental trauma by this everyday   insult hurled against us, not only by the children, but by our class teachers,   our principals, and local priests who came to conduct morning prayers at school.   What caused a lot of conflict in us was that we did not know whether the story   or not, for it was being told by our teachers, whilst at home it was refuted   by our parents. When we reported the story to our parents they became so bitter,   and like my mother would start weeping soberly and at the end we all found ourselves   weeping. 
Like many other children who ended up leaving the school, there was a stage   where I also wondered whether it was worth it for me to continue with schooling,   because of the scorn I constantly received from the teachers because of Shembe.   This ridicule and harassment of the other children at schools caused many of   our children at lower classes or backslid from the church, so for a long time,   the church became known as the church of the uneducated. Apart form the scorn   about Isiah Shembe's allegedly attempted flight to heaven, the Nazareth children,   like all the Nazareths do not shave their hair or beard. Any resistance to shave   was met with severe corporal punishment and other teachers used to roughly cross   shave them so that at the end they looked more or less like Mr T. And we were   told to go Shembe schools, which were non-existent. Since shaving is strongly   tabooed in the church, the forceful removal of their hair is tantamount to the   denial of their faith. This cruel treatment by many teachers, which still occurs   even today, caused other parents to take their children out of school. The Nazareths   usually do not marry according to Christian rights, for polygamy is allowed   in the church. What therefore happens is that to complete marriage, the Nazareth   has to undergo three phases. Firstly, the waiting is ceremonised in the church   by the priest, but that marriage is not recognised by the government. The second   phase is the traditional wedding which is ceremonised by the chief witness who   has no interest in that wedding. These outsiders usually come drunk to that   wedding and make it nothing more than a mockery. The third phase is that the   bride and bridegroom's parents and the chief witness have to go to the marriage   office to have the marriage registered. The priest from the church is irrelevant.   Isiah Shembe, as a prophet taught his people to respect the authorities, but   promised that through our constant prayer and supplication to God, one day God   will answer our prayers. In 1920 he composed a Sabbath liturgy, which he instructed   the Nazareths that it would be read before God three times every Sabbath day   from generations to generations. In the introduction of the liturgy he wrote   that it is the hymn of the Sabbath, the hymn of remembrance from generation   to generation and the hymn of fasting in order to remind God of our suffering.   Isiah Shembe also taught that the Nazareth must lead a simple life and that   every year they must walk on foot to Mount Intlangazasi, to worship God and   report all their sufferings. So, for AmaNazaretha, whenever they were confronted   by the government, for other missionary churches, all they had to do was to   ask the congregation to kneel down and have Isiguqa, which is a special prayer   to God. Having said all this, it is important that we show the way forward.   On behalf of my church, I now extend my hand of friendship to all those who   made us suffer and in the words of Jesus Christ, we say forgive them Lord for   they did not know what they were doing. 
On Sunday afternoon when the TRC national Chairperson, Archbishop Desmond Tutu   was conducting a church service, in his sermon he said that we are all partners   to God. We are here to assist God to mould this country and to make it fit living   here. In my view, the religious community and cannot fail to do this. If only   we would clearly understand what our mission is. This is irrespective of whether   we are Christians, Nazarites, Jews, Moslems, Hindus or traditional religions.   Our main mission is to work for God and working for God means doing what God   appreciates. Whilst we are liberated politically, we acknowledge that there   is a fast deterioration of humanity in our society, which is reaching an intolerable   level. We have to focus our attention as churches and faith communities on this   reality. As religious people, we must not allow ourselves to be too influenced   by political rhetorics which are only meant to win votes, but we must face the   truth. It is our duty as religious people in South Africa to put aside our religious   differences and to work for a common goal of making South Africa become a decent   country. In doing this, we have to look at the causes of our problems. It seems   to me that among us blacks there is a culture of indolence, lack of work ethics   and general irresponsibility, which we have to address without fail. We cannot   expect other people to do so, less they be labelled as racist. The greatest   enemy of a black man is liquor. As long as we are producing the generation of   drunkards, we can forget about a decent society. Drunkenness always goes hand   in hand with laziness, irresponsibility and uncouthness. We can think of many   projects, create many jobs, but unless we address this problem seriously, we   are just wasting our time. 
I would be failing in my duty as Shembe's representative if I were not to tell   the truth as he would if he were here today. It is quite interesting to listen   to other people confessing their sins and we tend to regard ourselves as holier   than thou, but time will tell and is already telling that there is a lot which   is lacking in black society. The greatest mistake we can make is to fail to   appreciate our weakness and keep on blaming others for all our inequities. A   person with that kind of attitude can never correct himself. There are issues   in black society which must be publicly addressed by blacks themselves without   fear. Apart from indulgence in liquor, the culture of indolence and general   lack of work ethic prevailing among our society is an issue we address very   seriously. We seem to be very good in uniting ourselves when we are going to   fight, when we are going to burn schools, or necklace other people, when we   are toyi-toying, when we strike for the reduction of work hours and six months'   maternity leave, but there is such a discord, quarrel and enmity amongst ourselves   when it comes to the real socio-economic development of our country. The taxi   industry is typical of what I am talking about. Why do these people keep on   killing each other? Why can't these people organise themselves peacefully, like   whites or Indians? The answer from the politicians is the legacy of apartheid   or the third force. My church has a very big following, which has now more or   less 5 million members. Because drinking liquor is strongly tabooed, I am very   proud to say without fear of contradiction that AmaNazaretha are among the most   hardworking, trustworthy and reliable people in the black society, where they   are in the majority. It is unfortunate that Christian denominations, unlike   the Muslims and other faith communities, for reasons not clear to me, only pay   lip service to this epidemic. Ibandla lama Nazaretha, unlike many Christian   churches, is able to recruit membership from different communities among the   blacks. The secret lies in its simplicity. A person does not have to think of   what dress, trousers, suit or shoes he must wear when coming to the church service.   All we emphasis is that he must be clean. If he is living at a place where there   is no water, he is still encouraged to come to the church service to listen   to the word of God. As Dr Bacon once put it, Ibandla lama Nazaretha is the foot   of an organic growth of Christianity on the African soil. An institution in   which the gospel message is incarnated into African culture, mentality and community   life and Africans are there to worship God in an African manner in order to   address the mentality and the needs of Africans in a way in which Africans sense   their spiritual and social needs. In Kwa Zulu Natal and Gauteng, when the Nazareths   are in big numbers, this church has converted many hostel dwellers, thus able   to unite the most of the sophisticated township people with the rural people.   Because the church addresses the hearts of the people, I have seen many warlords   not throwing away their sticks but changing their sticks into staffs, and using   these staffs for healing instead of beating. The shields used for fighting are   then used for dancing for the Lord. The war cry is then changed into praise   of the Almighty. In conclusion, I wish to say that we, as a church, shall endeavour   to appeal to the hearts of many to promote decency, hard work and self reliance   in developing our country.