From: owner-h-afrarts
To: Multiple recipients of list H-AFRARTS
Subject: FYI: AIC's/Zulu Zion (fwd)
Date: Tuesday, 28 January, 1997 9:25AM
X-Posted from: H-NET List for African History
Date: Sat, 25 Jan 97
From: Irving Hexham
<hexham@acs.ucalgary.ca>
PUBLICATION OF SHEMBE - AMA-NAZARETHA TEXTS IN ENGLISH
Many people on this list will be familiar with the BBC's
Long Search Series of television films. One of the episodes,
entitled Zulu Zion, deals with African
Independent/Indigenous Churches. The last section of that
film provides viewers with a vivid introduction to the
amaNazarites, and the work of the Zulu "prophet" Isaiah
Shembe.
Readers might be interested to know that on the instructions
of Isaiah Shembe's son Johannes Galilee Shembe, the
traditions of the church were collected by the Rev. Petros
M. Dhlomo, who appears in the film, and recorded in a series
of manuscripts which have assumed the status of scripture.
These traditions have been translated into English by
Hans-Juergen Becken who was a friend of Johannes Galilee
Shembe and worked for many years at the Lutheran Theological
Institute at Mapamulu in Natal. The first volume The Story
of Isaiah Shembe: History and Traditions Centered on
Ekuphakameni and Mount Nhlangakasi is available in a new
series, _Sacred History and Traditions of the Amanazaretha_:
Volume 1, which is published by the Edwin Mellen Press, P.O.
Box 450, Lewiston, New York, U.S.A.
Another three volumes of oral history, plus the Hymns,
Catechism and other writings of Shembe and the amaNazarites
are in preparation. This is, I believe, the first time
anyone has attempted to publish the complete record of
sacred writings and traditions of any sub-Saharan African
religious movement.
In-Reply-To: 199701282214.RAA02286@dag.XC.Org