Elizabeth Gunner

The introduction sets Isaiah Shembe and the Nazareth Baptist Church in the context of contemporary South African religion, social history and politics and offers a new reading of the importance of place, memory and literacy in the early history of the church. The three texts in Zulu and English, from the 1920s and 1930s, open a window onto the intellectual and religious life, and the social organisation of this important African church. Marriage, adultery, healing, the priesthood, visions, the role of women, national identity are among the topics these texts engage with.

Writings from Ibandla lamaNazaretha, a South African Church

The Man of Heaven and the Beautiful Ones of God

Sarah Nuttall

Liz Gunner

Lecturer in the Department of English Sarah Nuttall

Kate Darian-Smith

Lecturer in Australian Studies at the Sir Robert Menzies Center Kate Darian-Smith

Focusing on two white settler societies, South Africa and Australia, this book investigates the meaning of 'the South' as an aesthetic, political geographical and cultural space. This is a landmark in post-colonial theory and criticism.Text, Theory, Space is a landmark in post-colonial criticism and theory. Focusing on two white settler societies, South Africa and Australia, the contributors investigate the meaning of 'the South' as an aesthetic, political, geographical and cultural space.Drawing upon a wide range of disciplines which include literature, history, urban and cultural geography, politics and anthropology, the contributors examine crucial issues including:* defining what 'the South' encompasses* investigating ideas of space, history, land and landscape* claiming, naming and possessing land* national and personal boundaries* questions of race, gender and nationalism

Land, Literature and History in South Africa and Australia

Text, Theory, Space

This book provides an insight into the role of writing and literacy in the church founded by the South African prophet Isaiah Shembe, in 1910. The editor and tanslator provides a substantial, contextualising introduction which includes discussion of the church's history and its position in contemporary South Africa, and weaves in discussion of the topics of literacy and modernity. The book then moves to the three documents, presented in their language of composition, Zulu, and in an English translation. The three books, each from Shembe's Nazareth Baptist Church, provide the reader with an insight into the growth and organisation of one of southern Africa's most influential African Churches, and into its use and interpretation of the Bible. Central to the writings is the complex presence of Shembe, both through his own words in the first book and, in the second book, through the memory of Meshack Hadebe, a member of the church in the 1920's and 1930's. The extracts in the third book provide a glimpse of the church's hymnal and the unique religious poetry of the hymns, authored by Shembe. The first and second books are a valuable addition to the genres of biography and autobiography of Black Africans in the early decades of the twentieth century. The dual language text is useful for scholars of African languages.

Elizabeth Gunner

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