"MULTICOPY" Durban UNIVERSITY OF THE WSTWATERSRAND HIST' February 1987 Power House, Prison House - An Oral Genre and i t s Use in Isaiah Shembe's Nazareth Baptist Church. Elizabeth Gunner School of Oriental and African Studies, London I. PO*ER HOUSE. PRISON HOUSE - AN CRAL GENRE AND ITS USE IN ISAIAH SHBffiE'S rWARETH BAPTIST CHlfiCH Elizabeth Gunner This paper seeks to explore tbe role of that stately yet flexible Southern African oral genre, the praise poem or praises, izibongo, in creating and sustaining consciousness in the crucial early years of Isaiah Shembe's Nazareth Baptist Church. The work of Janzen and MacGaffey has included studies of the transition to literacy and its implications in the Prophetic Churches of the Congo Oanzen and Macgaffey 197<); Janzen 1985) but the BaKongo movements do not appear to have seen the parallel existence of an oral genre alongside the use of writing, and later, print. This has happened, though, in Shembe's Nazareth Church. There has been a transition to literacy but the status and contribution of the oral genre, izibongo, has remained significant. It is clear that frcm the early days of the Church there was an emphasis on written records of various kinds. The imbongi 'Magandaganda' Mbuyazi, who joined Shembe's Church in 1918, remembers that Isaiah Shembe had two' young scribes, a girl, Sandiwe, and a young boy, Phewa Mbonambi, who accompanied him on his travels and who took down the hyrms as Shembe composed them (1). Also, Church members who could write or who had access to an amuensis kept their own notebooks which contained the hyrms, prayers and other material covering such items as sermons, miraculous events, personal histories, observations and testimonies (2). Sane of the material in the notebooks and in later typewritten records (3) represents what Janzen, making an analogy with "early Greek historia", defines tentatively as an "ethnographic genre" (Janzen, 1985:248). The hyrms, though, with their emphasis on revealed truth and divine inspiration are examples of "gnostic texts" (Janzen and MacGaffey, 197?:27). In an attempt, perhaps, to codify and give some uniformity to the Nazarite experience, the Church comnissioned John Dube, the Natal politician and neighbour of Isaiah Shembe to write a book on his life. This appeared in 1936 (the year after Isaiah's death), entitled, simply, UShembe a but it contained a foreword by Isaiah's son and successor, Johannes Galilee, stating that on some points it was incorrect and misleading. To this day it is spoken of by older Church members more in sorrow than in anger as a book with mistakes in it. and one which cannot to any great extent be used or relied upon. If the attempt to express "the truth" failed in Dube's book, the Hymn (and prayer) book printed in 1940 by J.G.Shembe has served the Church well as a secure base for worship and self- definition. Yet the izibongo which exist with a certain independence outside the confines of literacy have also provided cortmentary on and celebration of Shembe and the Church. Perhaps their very independence sometimes allows them to indicate a shift in "paradigms" within a religious movement in a way that a "gnostic" text such as the Hymnbook cannot. There is only one brief reference to a praise poet, (an imbongj ) in Dube's book, and that is in his account of Shembe's funeral (Dube, 1936:108) and no direct mention of izibongo in the hymns. Yet praises were corrposed for Shembe from the earliest years of his ministry, and appear to have played an important part in the annual July meeting at Shembe's holy village of tkuphakameni at Inanda, at the January pilgrimage to the holy mountain, Nhlangakazi and at other centres such as Judea in Gingindlovu where the October meeting is held. Azariah Mthiyane, a senior imbongi and a preacher in the Church, remembers hearing the early praise poets when as a young boy he carried his father's baggage to the annual July, January and Octobermeetings and claims that the izibongo which he recites are based on theirs (*). One reason for the survival of izibongo as an oral genre alongside the printed hymns and prayers is that they have provided a different sort of focus of identity and have allowed the expression of a consciousness that was important for the development of the Church. They may have created a source of power that contributed greatly to the growth and survival of the "amNazaretha" in an environment that was in many ways a hostile one. Moreover the relationship between the praises and their hostile environment was to some extent a dialectical one. The hostility of various kinds of official power was recreated within the izibongo and used to express the contrary power of Miembe In overcoming them. Indeed the izibongo would seem to constitute a key "dominant metaphor" in the existence of the Church. The use of conflict and adversity to create a positive counterstatement within a set of praises is a dominant motif in nineteenth and twentieth century Zulu praises. Thus King Cetshwayo's praises have as a central rhetorical statement the defeat of his brother iVbuyazi at the Battle of Ndondakusuka, Dingane's recount with great rhetorical flourishes the demise of "uPiti" (Piet Retief) and his men (5). The praises recited at the funeral of Chief Albert Luthuli in 1967, knock off one after the other some of his main adversaries in the political arena and combine with relish the motifs of courage and aggression and the ever present, infinitely adaptable, cattle metaphor: INkonyane kaNdaba ejama phansi kwezinkunzi ezimbili ebomvu nenyama AabaLuthuli wajama phansi namaNgisi narraBhunu. [Musho! ] UDI'jngwane kaNdaba iSikhukhula si kaNdaba esimehl1 amnyama. ISigwe esithi singagweb' indoda yase yafa. iMamuhla yambheka uOswilit Phili, wafa. [IvLSrO! ] wathi wambheka uMalane, wafa. [ML6HO! ] ftathi waimbheka uStrijdom, wafa. IML5H0! ] UJurran-jumane inkonyane kaNdaba eyakhanya onkhathini yezizwe. Waphontsha phansi abantu basEngilandi ememeza phesheya. Ladum' izidumo usinele zadurm kwelakithi eGroutvilli. Ugaxe 'gijima kamngceleni laze lachitha kwabamhlophe. [MJ5HD! ] (6) Calf of Ndaba which stares threateningly down at the two bulls, the red and the black. That was Luthuli who stared threateningly in the midst of the English and Afrikaners! [SPEAK HIM! women ululate] Fierce Rager descendant of Ndaba, Strong One of Ndaba with the fierce eyes. Red Bird which can gore a man unt i l he dies. Today it glanced at Oswald Pi row and he died. [SPEAK HIM!] Then i t glanced at Milan and he died. [SPEAK HIM!] Then i t glanced at Strydom and he died. [SPEAK HIM!] Sudden Attacker, Calf of Ndaba that shone in the midst of nations. I t pierced through to the people of England cal l ing out overseas. The thunder rolled as the lightning struck at air own Groutvilie. It hung across the sky, streaking to the horizon and there it struck amongst the white people. ISPEAK HIM! women ululate] (6) Chief Luthuli's izibongo at many points echo those of Shaka and also set a royal and heroic continuity for him by linking him to the early royal progenitor, Ndaba. Shembe's praises contain even more finely rrarked adaptations from and simi larities with royal izibongo (Gunner, 1982) thus providing a constant reminder of the deep structure of kingship which as Sundkler has remarked, informed the independent Zulu churches of South Africa (Sundkler, 1961:102,104). In addition, the nationaI ism expressed in nineteenth century Zulu royal praises is nascent in Shembe's praises, and the emphasis on "kwelakithi kwaZulu" 'Our own Zulu land" stresses the Nazarites' felt need for "territory" in both a symbolic and real sense. Sundkler points to the general deprivation and oppression in reaction to which many South African independent churches were formed (Sundkler, 1961). Donald M'timkulu refers to the importance of the land issue to Shembe particularly in the context of the grasping and oppressive Natives Land Act of 1913 (M'timkulu, 1977: 20). He sees one of the main thrusts of Shembe's ministry as being the drive to acquire security and a land base for his followers. A very elderly follower of Isaiah Shembe who came originally from Ureinto, south of Durban, endorsed M'thimkhulu's view when describing the early days of the Church: "Those were turbulent and terrible times and more than anything else Shembe wanted land for his followers" (7). The desire for land and the way in which the izibongo - and the hymns - constitute "dominant metaphors" in response to conflict and opposition can be understood more clearly in the light of the discomfort, unease almost paranoia that Shembe seems to have generated in official circles between the years 1912 and 1922. The extent of official power set against Shembe peeps out from the letters of agitated, irritated, exasperated magistrates, location supervisors, police commandants and ministers of the cloth. The phrase that appears in a number of letters from missionaries is "under no European control". This, it seems was one of Shembe's greatest sins. It is a "sin" which the praises turned into one of his greatest virtues. Images of natural energy and beauty, power that is both destructive and protective are woven into his praise names. For instance, in what are l ikely to be early praises, he is praised as: USihlanguhlangu-gobongwane, ' IMbayimbayi wethu siwuciphile s iwul indi le . IManxeba akalingana nakayise uMsasela, USokhabuzela onjeng' amashoba e'nkomo zeZulu. ISambane e"simb' umgodi kasabesawolala, kwasale kwalal'abantwana, kanti sona sishone besethamba amagqurra ne'ntaba zabo. Uthe, "Abant1 abami salani lapha". Uthe, "Ngisahamba ngisakulandela abanye". Uthe, "NakwaMziIikazi nakwaMashobane ngowangifike". LMIilo ovuthe phezulu kwentaba eNdulinde kawabe usacima. (Praises, Is.40-51) Swift pusher-away of bonds. Our Cannon, we trapped i t and kept guard over i t . wound which is greater that that of his father, Msasela. Brisk-mover l ike the ta i ls of the ca t t l e of the Zulu people. Anteater which digs a hole, never for i tse l f to l ie in. I ts young stayed behind and slept there, whereas it set out for the hillocks and mountains where its children l ive . He said, "My people, remain here". He said, "I am still on the move, I still have others to fetch, I have still to reach the territory of Mzilikazi of Mashobane". Fire which blazed at the top of Ndulinde Mountain, which did not die down. Details from some of the official letters concerning Shembe demonstrate how persistent was the opposition he encountered. Police surveillance of Shembe began early in his ministry. As early as 1912, the Ccrrmandant of the Natal Police wrote to the Assistant Magistrate at Ndwedwe (the district some forty miles north of Durban where the holy mountain, Nhlangakazi is situated) to report that a "native called 3ohn Shembe from harrismith is preaching on the locations. He has a lot of power over the natives". The diligent officer with scrupulous regard for bureaucratic niceties and bureaucratic control then quotes his Pass Number, and cites his preachers certificate frcm the bouth African Baptist Church, dated 1908. He includes a further comment that points to one of the major sources of irritation in following years: "The Makolwas ["Believers" - Mission Church followers] informed me that Shembe was doing a lot of harm as he was 1 taking Shembe away from their churches" ( 8 ) . Mich of Shembe's early ministry was in southern Natal in the d istr ic ts south of Durban, and into Pondoland - one of his praise names, coined when he went north to the (present-day) Richards Bay area was "Vbombela the Vpondo t r a i n " . Here too, o f f i c i a l react ion'to him was host i le . In September 1915, the magistrate of Port Shepstone wrote a furious l e t t e r , fu l l of metaphors of disease and disorder, to his superior the Chief Native Ccrrmissioner in Pietermaritzburg. Shembe is described as a "scurrilous fanatic", and the letter continues, 1 consider that we should deal with this mischievous growth swift ly and destroy the trouble in i ts inception root and branch. I ask your authority to forbid this man the right of entry into my d i s t r i c t . I earnestly hope you w i l l give a l l the assistance you can in ridding those concerned of this canker in your midst. (9) Unfortunately for the Magistrate at Port Shepstone the "mischievous growth" continued to f lour ish, and i t would seem that by this time the f i rs t izimbongi (praise poets) Dladla and Shange had begun to create their own verbal counter-messages providing a reply that spoke of and generated a dif ferent kind of power. Shembe may already have been praised as: IMagqalabanzi kadinwa ukuthwala i?.ono zethu. IMgangathi we'ndlela eziyekhaya, LSiba-gojela ngapha kwentaba, LMthomb' osela abalungileyo, Uzandla zinemisebe njengelanga, INgqungqulu el ishay' amaphiko phezu komuzi wakithi Ekuphakameni, L6ambula-nkwezane kuvel1 ukukhanya, IMiqandi we'ndwendwe ungyeka ziyesiHogweni... (Praises, Is .3-10) (10) Broad-shouldered one, never t i red of bearing our sins. Opener of the roads heading for home, Plume disappearing over there on the mountain, Spring that refreshes the righteous, Hands that radiate l ike the sun, Eagle, beating i ts wings above our own place at Ekuphakameni, Scatterer of the fog and there is l igh t , Checker of multitudes ? you would not leave them on their journey to H e l l . . . By 1921 Shembe's work and that of his preachers seems to have been "disturbing" enough to have reached the office of the Secretary for Native Af fa i rs in Pretoria and Shembe's Church has clearly been under police surveillance for some time. Thus the Secretary for native A f f a i r s , in May 1922 wrote an impatient note to the Chief Native Commissioner in Pietermritzburg reminding him of a report requested the previous October on a religious sect styling itself '"The Nazarenes' which, according to Police information, was carrying on its operations under the leadership of one Isaiah Shembe in the Inanda district (II).' A letter had in fact been sent from Pietermaritzburg the previous November to the magistrate at Verulam (which covered' Inanda) asking for a report on Shembe and making it clear that he was already well known to the O C ' s office: "This sect has given trouble from time to time and is commonly known as the "Shembes" - the leader being a particularly tiresome and undesirable man" (12). Clearly Isaiah was not a popular figure amongst those who were attempting to control "the natives". The phrase "given trouble from time to time" suggests that he and his followers were neither compliant nor submissive and were therefore a source of anxiety to those in authority in the State. A further brief indication of the way in which Police and State harried and hounded Shembe is contained in a communication from the Deputy Carrrandant of the S.A Police to the CNC in January 1923. the letter is headed "Religious Movements among Natives"; we are told that "the different sections have, been very quiet of late". The writer reports, with some relief one supects, that a certain Ezra Mxjnambi is drinking himself into a stupor at Inanda and then continues, with some complacency. "Shembe will be at Sdwedwe in a few days to hear from the magistrate the views of the Government on the pilgrimage to the Mhlangakazi (sic) Mountain" (13). Again the State is attempting to impose its authority on the wayward prophet and to control his activities, not at his Inanda base (Shembe had purchased his land, known as Ekuphakameni, in Inanda in 1911) but at his other more distant nodal point, the holy mountain of Nhlangakazi some forty miles to the north. These few letters give some evidence of the intense suspicion and hostility directed at Shembe frcm the highest official levels. Shembe would have experienced this through hostile questioning, eviction of himself or his followers and appearance before magistrates, as in the Ndwedwe instance. There were other kinds of officialdom besides the Police and magistrates that were opposed to Shembe and his followers. Ministers of various churches, and as the alert police constable reported in 1912, the "Makolwas" (Believers) themselves sometimes found Shembe's great appeal very alarming and threatening. Here too, agitated letters moved from missionary to magistrate and then from magistrate to Chief Native Corrmisioner in Pietermarizburg and in some urgent cases straight to the Chief Native Commissioner. The missionaries' letters tend to be longer than magistrates1; they are also on the whole more emotional. In some cases length clearly indicates the outpourings of a troubled and uneasy heart - caused by Shembe or his preachers and followers. Repeatedly in their correspondence missionaries seized upon and emphasised the fact that Shembe and his preachers were "under no European control". Letters from a Rev. Bridgeman, the Secretary of the American Zulu Mission began as early as 1913 (I*), and show how sharp the resentment of the American Board Missionaries was to Shembe's preachings and conversions. Rev. Bridgeman was particularly upset by Shembe's successes near the American Board Mission centres at Amanzimtoti, south of Durban, and near Groutville, north of Durban. He, like other ministers who resented Shembe's influence, turned irrmediately to State authority in his attempts to neutralise the prophet's work. A flurry of correspondence between Bridgeman, the magistrates at Inanda, Stanger and the Chief Magistrate in Durban all testify to attempts to silence Shembe, and to remove him from their sphere of influence in particular their territory, namely the Mission Reserves. Ihus the Chief Nat ive Conrnissioner despatched letters to the Inanda and Stanger magistrates on two consecutive days in July 1914. In the first he reports Rev.Bridgeman's complaints that "this Native who is under no European Control has been preaching in the Inanda Mission reserve". He continues: "Bridgeman complains very bitterly about the conduct of Shembe who has apparently taken no heed of any warnings which may have been given to him" (13). In his letter to the Stanger magistrate he mentions a second, fresh complaint from Bridgeman, that- "this Native had not ceased from preaching in the [Mission] Reserves" and a request of advice from the Attorney General on possible action against Shembe (16). Ihe near-desperate Rev. Bridgeman must also have written direct to the Secretary for Native Affairs in Pretoria. Thus we find the Under-Secretary for Native Affairs writing about Shembe to the (long-suffering) Chief Native Commissioner in Pietermaritzburg. The complaint made on this occasion is not that Shembe is preaching on Mission Reserves but that he has a base near one. The more relaxed tone of the Under Secretary's letter is caused perhaps by his safe distance from the scene of action, the clashes of wayward prophets with anxious missionaries in far-away Natal. He passes on Bridgeman's complaint of Isaiah Shembe and describes him as, "A religious Free Lance said to be establishing himself in close proximity to the mission at Amanzimtoti" (17). Shembe's Nazarite base at Aranzimtoti was given to him by the induna (councillor) Bhekisisa Bhengu; Nazarites clashed on a number of occasions with American Board members and, not surprisingly, the Nazarite centre was called "Bhekizitha" <"Watch-out-for-the-Enemies") (18). The Bridgeman correspondence is clear testimony to missionary resistance to Shembe. Ihe same anxieties and fears, the same efforts to be rid of him and to exploit official channels of control appear in complaints from a Rev. Foss of the (American Board) Urnvoti Mission Reserve (19). Here another layer of officialdom is used, namely Inspectors and Supervisors of Locations and Mission Reserves. In a bureaucratic comrunique by a man with a bureaucratic title, the Chief Inspector of Locations and Mission Reserves informs his subordinate that Shembe, "who is under no European control is preaching on the Lmvoti Mission Reserve" and that he must warn Shembe to stop (20). At Lmzumbi Rail, south of Durban and near Port Shepstone, a Reverend Kessel was so agitated by the successes of Shembe and his IO. preachers that he dashed off two letters on April 10 1913, one to the Magistrate at Lrreinto and another to the Port Shepstone Magistrate. In one he conplains bitterly about "That Native preacher Arros Mzobe who has no white missionary over him but a native man by the name of Isaiah Sarrule who gets his post at Verulam" (21). The energetic Amos Mzobe is mentioned in another letter as having been to court and also as holding services on "private lands", uhich afforded him some irrrmnity from jealous missionaries (22). Amos Mzobe himself, in an attempt to work through official channels of power visited a solicitor in Lrreinto and tried to get some sort of official clearance for his preaching. He seems to have tried to demarcate his (Nazarite) area of influence from that of the missionaries, and the solicitor acting for him sets this all out quite carefully in his letter to the Acting Magistrate at Lrreinto. Mzobe's evangelistic conviction comes through the carefully worded legal letter. He wishes to "preach the Gospel to all Natives who will listen to him...He also preaches in the Locations to all natives who are willing to listen to him. ..He says he does not go into Mission Stations and Reserves but to the heathen at their kraals outside the Mission Reserves and Stations" (23). There is no record of any favourable reply to this approach, but it shows that Shembe and his followers did in some cases challenge the missionaries on their o?n ground. Amos Mzobe's very use of legal channels does show though, the extent to vdiich Shembe and his followers were pushed out, harried and resisted as they attempted to preach the Gospel "under no European control". Eviction was a weapon which the missionaries could and did use when anyone on a Mission Reserve was found to have encouraged or joined the Nazarites. this was the method of attack used against Shembe by the Anglican minister at Isipingo (on the South coast). In 1919 Rev. Chater wrote to the Acting Supervisor of Locations and Mission Reserves, Isipingo, and he in turn passed the letter on to the Chief Native Ccrrmissioner. In this case a certain David Mbambo "has allowed his wife to hold services at their kraal and at other kraals on the Reserves, thereby carrying on the n. tenets of one Isaiah Shembe who styles himself Pastor of the Nazareth Baptist Church". The inevitable, almost formulaic, sentence follows: "Apparently Shembe is under no European authority" (24). In a second letter hot on the heels of the first, Chater writes to the Supervisor and records in vivid, blow by blow detail, how he went hot foot to David Mbambo's homestead together with one of his own catechists, Philemon iVbambo, as soon as he heard that Shembe himself was visiting. He did not in fact see Shembe although he befieved him to be in another room. Again eviction is urged (25). The correspondence ends without the outcome being known, but the fact that there are no more litanies of complaint recorded from Rev. Chater suggests that he got his way and the eviction took place. The letters dealing with Shembe and his preachers and followers show how various layers of officialdom and authority interlocked in their attempts to neutralise this 'renegade' prophet. They also, by the very nature of their concern, show Shembe's successes in the first twelve years of his ministry (1910-1922). The many-faceted ideology of control was being matched and countered in a variety of ways by Shembe, and his followers. One such counter-force was the use of izibongo for Shembe, praises which helped shape the distinctive consciousness of Nazareth Church members, and at the same ?time set this within the broad sphere of an older Zulu sensibility. The rhetoric of conflict so central to izibongo was one which Shembe's praise poets could easily exploit, as they could the linked rhetoric of achievement. As the imbongi Azariah Mthiyane expressed it, Shembe's izibongo are his "iziqu zokushumayela", his "badges of bravery from preaching" (26), like those older badges denoting success over enemies and worn by Zulu warriors in battle. Again, in the manner of izibongo as a genre, Shembe's praises were able to focus on the particular in a very precise way while at the same time creating new imagery. They also exploited general, instantly recognisable, symbols and images such as those pertaining to cattle and to the elements. Shembe's izibongo can thus refer to particular moments of strife and summon up into the general memory particular moments of tension and glory which therefore become foregrounded in the consciousness of those who hear them and become part of the collective experience of the Church. Although the hymns composed by Isaiah himself refer in a number of cases to "enemies" and although the imagery of the hymns dwells often on "the wilderness" they are not concerned with recalling specific incidents (27). The izibongo were to some extent outside Shembe's control, as was the case with the praises composed for the Zulu kings, and they reflected independent comment and corrmemoration by the praise poets. The political dimensions of the early struggles are drawn in to the izibongo. They also draw in the fervour of Shembe's evangelism and the sense of excitement at Shembe's innovative preaching of the Gospel. This emphasis on something new and distinctively Zulu is knitted in with a focus on various memorable episodes which were key events in the early history. In a sense the praises record the fine grain of the experiences of the early days - they call up in the established manner of izibongo, although with a deliberate rein on flamboyant overstatement, specific names and places that are linked with persecutions, conversions and miraculous events. They present the Nazarite view of the events, and others like them, that are fussed over and fumed about in the letters of those in authority in the State and in the Established Churches. The outsiders' conception of Shembe's movement as disease, sunrmed up in phrases such as "mischievous growth" and "canker in your midst" (28) is replaced by the insiders' view of redemption in both a cultural and religious sense. In general terms, the praises define a new centre of consciousness, a new source of power in contra-distinction to that represented by the generally hostile, or at best alien, authority of magistrates, location supervisors, police and missionary bodies. Shembe's early clashes with authority, and his victory, are recorded in these lines composed by Oladla, the very first imbongi, according to Azariah Mthiyane. They show how an imbongi could exp lo i t , redirect and reshape a confrontation so that it became a reminder not so much of a l i e n , secular power but of the God-given power of their own leader. They refer to a clash and subsequent court case at Maphumulo. The encounter is set out in terms of journeying, act ion, conf l ict and resolution: LNdaba zeh l ' eSinothi, ' zayezathini1 entabazwe zazewel' emzini wenkosi eMthandeni kwamaphumulo. Kwaxangazel1 amadod' akhona ' thath ' izinyawo ayamangala. Arrahala kumntan' umlungu uSayitsheni uVbqayi, viagax' umgaxo wapharrbanisa. ftahloma Kwahlangana amehlo wavuma wathi , "I'ndaba zirmandi z ive le ek i th i Ekuphakameni". (Praises, is.13-20) The stories came down from Sinothi , They reached Entabazwe, They crossed at the homestead of Chief Mthandeni at Vaphumulo. The men stood there amazed then they sped around. The white man Sergeant Mackay met with no success, He strapped on his bandolier, he was ready to f igh t , he attacked. Then their eyes met - he said that the a f fa i rs of Ekuphakameni were "Fine indeed". (Praises, Is 13-20) The lines that follow again express dynamic evangelism and opposition and this time they speak too of missionary antagonism. They use the aggressive martial imagery of fire and yet through word play on the stem "-sha" (meaning "burn" but also "new") suggest something that is spiritually new and innovative-and like the inspirational Pentecostal flames. The notion of travelling to "our own Zululand" covers both a real and a symbolic journey. Shembe made many important conversions and founded a number of centres north of the Thukela, regarded as the boundary between the old Zulu kingdom and "esilungwini", Natal, "the land of the white .man". Chief V^ukunyoni M