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IRVING HEXHAM (ed.), The Scriptures of the amaNazaretha of EKuphaKameni: selected writings of the Zulu prophets Isaiah and Londa Shembe. Calgary, Alta.: University of Calgary Press, 1994, 144 pp., $21.95, ISBN 1 895176 33 6 paperback.
Besides a bibliography, subject index, author index, Scripture index and an index of hymns composed by Isaiah Shembe, the volume contains four varying contributions, i.e. an introduction by Irving Hexham (pp. vii-xxii), `The theology of Londa Shembe and the amaNazaretha of eKuphakameni' by G. C. Oosthuizen (pp. xxiii-xlix), `Some prayers and writings of the servant of sorrows: Isaiah Shembe', translated by Londa Shembe (pp. 1-106), and, fourthly, a `Preface to and hymns of Londa Shembe' (pp. 107-32), the latter translated by H-J. Becken.
Three details seem necessary to bear in mind when dealing with African religiosity, be it Christian faith, traditional beliefs, concerns of the so-called African independent Churches, or other. For inevitably the details will leave distinct marks on religious expressions, attitudes and shifts in emphases.
Firstly, anthropological research has convincingly shown that at the time when European expansion commenced and Christian missions came to play the important role that we have since experienced, Africans in south-east Africa paid little or no attention to a God in the heavens. Interests were with the ancestors (or preferably shades), who were believed to dwell either in or under the earth. Because Zulu religiosity is expressed in rituals rather than in formulated and watertight dogmas, there is a generous flexibility in beliefs. The impact of the Christian faith and its missions (as well as the presence of Islam in more recent years) has resulted in belief in a God on high, a belief generally accepted among all Nguni-speaking people today. God the creator and sustainer who dwells in heaven has not necessarily replaced belief in the role of the shades. God is rather an addition, an expansion and an updating of religiosity in keeping with the convictions of Westerners in South Africa or by way of a personal and honest acceptance of missionary efforts. What appears to have happened is that the Founding Heroes, those fathers from whom men emerged in traditional creation narratives, have moved 'upstairs' (to quote Monica Wilson) from beneath and in their ascent have taken with...