Elizabeth Gunner

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.

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