School of Oriental and African Studies

Shembe, Prophet Isaiah

IDENTITY STATEMENT

Reference code(s): GB 0102 MS 380453

Held at: School of Oriental and African Studies

Title: Shembe, Prophet Isaiah

Date(s): c1932

Level of description: Collection (fonds)

Extent: 3 volumes

Name of creator(s): Shembe | Isaiah | 1870-1935 | Zulu religious leader

CONTEXT

Administrative/Biographical history:

The Nazareth Baptist Church was founded by Isaiah Shembe, the Zulu religious leader and healer, in Natal in 1910. The amaNazarites are the oldest African independent church in South Africa. For further information see A Vilakazi, Shembe: the revitalization of African Society (1986).

CONTENT

Scope and content/abstract:

Photocopies of three manuscript notebooks containing chronicles of the Nazareth Baptist Church, written c1932, ranging from accounts of miraculous events to the day to day life of the Church in Inanda, letters to dissident priests and accounts of church finances.

ACCESS AND USE

Language/scripts of material: Zulu

System of arrangement:

Conditions governing access:

Unrestricted.

Conditions governing reproduction:

No publication without written permission. Apply to archivist in the first instance.

Physical characteristics:

Finding aids:

ARCHIVAL INFORMATION

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:

Accruals:

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Presented by Dr Elizabeth Gunner in 1986.

ALLIED MATERIALS

Existence and location of originals:

Existence and location of copies:

Related material:

The School of Oriental and African Studies holds a file containing photocopies of correspondence of Londa N Shembe (Isaiah Shembe's son) with Professor Bengt Sundkler, 1975 (Ref: MS 249203), and a typescript of the Rev John Langaliba Dube's 'Shembe - a Biography', translated into English by M Yengwa, 1976 (Ref: MS 380082).

Publication note:

DESCRIPTION NOTES

Note:

Archivist's note: Compiled by Rachel Kemsley as part of the RSLP AIM25 project. Sources: http://www.ucalgary.ca/~nurelweb/books/shembe/s-index.html
http://www.gospelcom.net/dacb/stories/southafrica/shembe_isiah.html

Rules or conventions: Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions: May 2002

INDEX ENTRIES

Subjects
Religious experience | Religion
Religious leaders | Religious groups
Religious movements | Religious institutions

Personal names
Shembe | Isaiah | 1870-1935 | Zulu religious leader

Corporate names
Nazareth Baptist Church | Inanda, South Africa

Places
Inanda | Gauteng | South Africa | Southern Africa