July is the holy month for the Shembes, a religious sect that has one of the largest followings in Africa. Thokozani Mtshali joined them on their annual pilgrimage to the Place of Beauty
Up the Inanda highway north of Durban, through the green hills and valleys, is a rutted dirt road that winds its way to a hilltop of pervasive whiteness.
Most houses are painted white. Stones along the pavements are white. And the villagers, who walk the narrow streets barefoot, are dressed in long white robes, the women with cowls. The atmosphere, faintly Islamic, is of a religious settlement, which indeed it is.
This is Ekuphakameni, the Place of Highness, spiritual heart of South Africa’s fastest growing faith – the Nazarene Baptist Church whose followers are known as the Shembes.
There are thousands of religious sects like this in South Africa. It has been estimated that 30% of all Africans who regard themselves as Christians belong to one or other of these sects, known collectively as African Initiated Churches (AIC). Some are small, involving only a few dozen people. Others are huge, with millions of followers. Biggest of all are the Zion Christian Church (ZCC), which has its headquarters at Zion City Moria near Pietersburg in the Northern Province, and the Shembes.
The Shembe sect was founded in 1912 by a spiritual leader of remarkable magnetism named Isaiah Shembe, who was born in Escourt and later settled at Ekuphakameni. His home, now a ruin, is in the valley below Ekuphakameni.
Shembe was in his seventies when he died on May 2 1935. Today his followers regard him as more than just the founder of their church. Although he is presented to followers as a messiah, most talk about him as though he is God. The theology he founded is a blend of traditional African religion and Christianity – members of the Shembe see him as occupying a place alongside Jesus Christ in the collective Christian deity.
Further down the dusty road, past Inanda Waterfall and across Inanda Dam, is Ebuhleni, the Place of Beauty. Here the Shembes have spent the past 30 days of their holy month, July. It is one of three pilgrimages that they make each year, as instructed by Shembe, to engage in mass worship of God.
It’s Friday afternoon, July 30, and the pilgrimage is reaching its climax. The women are preparing food for their families. More than 50 000 pilgrims, mostly women and children, have spent a month here, housed in makeshift amadokodo – tiny mud houses, huts and shacks made of grass, plastic and old pieces of corrugated iron. Now, the men are arriving and the crowd is swelling. By nightfall, there will be more than 100 000 worshippers at Ebulheni.
About 500m from the main gates, marshals are commanding the flow of traffic as buses, minibus taxis and cars, all bearing stickers proclaiming “Shembe is the way”, flock to the place. At the gates, pilgrims, tourists and reporters are all instructed to take off their shoes.
Women, though a majority among the pilgrims, are giving right of way to men. In a sight that would offend feminists, they bow with hands on their knees whenever addressing a man.
All the men are bearded, for Shembes are prohibited from shaving – as all Shembes are forbidden to smoke, drink and keep domestic cats and dogs in their homes. They believe dogs and cats have their own separate hell, based on a Shembe contention that these animals can be used to bewitch other people.
There are no dogs or cats at Ebuhleni – but there are plenty of goats, destined for the pot.
The routine at the site has been the same each day throughout July: five prayers a day, starting at midnight. On Sunday, there will be hours of dancing to mark the end of the holy month, and mass marriages of more than 50 couples, conducted simultaneously, in the vast open space in the bush that is marked out as a temple.
There are no marriages today. But there are other rites: Friday and Saturday are the days for baptism, and men, women and children – some in white robes, some in Zulu dress – are at the Inanda River being cleansed of their sins.
Friday is a busy day. Between 9am and lunchtime prayers, some pilgrims not at the river have been enjoying the drumming and singing of Zulu hymns, while others have been preparing traditional Zulu regalia for the dance on Sunday.
Before sunset on Friday, all the fires are extinguished – the Sabbath starts at 6pm. Shembes are prohibited from lighting fires, cooking, washing or having sex on a Saturday. “We follow the laws of Moses. We observe the Sabbath as the day of God,” explains Reverend MB Mpanza. “We pray and rest.”
S’phiwe Gumede, a student in Durban, supports Mpanza: “If Sunday is the first day of the week, the seventh day which God used for His rest after He had made the world is the Saturday.”
Saturday July 31 has come. Today, the current Bishop, Vimbeni Shembe, in his address, is also expected to declare the official end of the pilgrimage. Marshals have ensured that all pilgrims are kneeling in their designated areas: married women in one space, virgins in another, chiefs, religious ministers, men and boys. Then comes a song through the loudspeakers tied on to trees around the temple area. The song is an indication that the bishop is coming to give his address. That’s when the kneeling pilgrims raise their hands up and shout: “Bayethe, uyingcwele [Your majesty, glory on you]!” yell the Shembes as the bishop takes the podium.
It seems Shembe’s address touches all of them as his speech is constantly interrupted by the shouting of “glory, glory” and “amen” which they repeat three times.
Shembe starts his speech by informing his followers that he is amazed at the fast growth rate of the church. “Last week,” he says, “I received an invitation to come and baptise some 800 inmates at Durban- Westville prison who have turned born-again Shembes.”
“Amen, amen, amen, glory on you!” responds the congregation.
Shembe then recounts miracles that he has done for his people since the gathering commenced. “Last week, a woman brought her child to me. The child was blind, he didn’t have eyes at all. I was shocked because that was something I’d never seen in my life. I didn’t know what to do,” says Shembe, “but I gave the woman a little bottle of Vaseline and asked her to smear it where the eyes were supposed to be. And yesterday I was so surprised when the woman came back to me with her child who [now] has eyes.”
Now, the “amen” and the “glory” grow bigger than before. But Shembe interrupts: “So much has happened in this church. It shows that the holy father of Ekuphakameni is great. A man came to me. He told me his firm was cutting its labour force. He was among those to be retrenched but the man just called Shembe’s name and then a white man [probably one of the firm’s managers] came and separated the man from the rest and instructed him to continue with his job.”
He begins his summing-up by mentioning another man who escaped unlawful imprisonment just because he called on Shembe. But the man, says the bishop, “didn’t escape, but Shembe took him out of prison, without him having to break any prison gates”. He then mentions something about a death of four hired assassins on their way to kill a Shembe believer -they died when the car they were driving was overturned.
The bishop’s speech is less about respect for God and more on how to evade social troubles like unemployment, poverty, crime and murder, giving birth to deformed children and so on.
At the end of his speech he tells the pilgrims he needs some money donated for his feet, and he sits down. His right-hand man stands up to clarify the meaning of feet: Shembe needs donations to buy two cars. And he thanks the pilgrims for their previous donations because Shembe has managed to buy a minibus and a truck.
The pilgrims continue to kneel, although the service has clearly come to an end. An elder notes that Shembe hasn’t declared the function over and walks slowly on the tips of his toes to remind him to do so. Shembe does as he is reminded.
Tens of thousands of pilgrims form queues, lining up to give donations as requested. Donating money has always been the the Shembes’s second most important daily practice, even if not requested. If you give money to Shembe, whom they refer to as “Father”, they believe you will become rich. Many also carry bottles of pure water and Vaseline which they have bought in the church and intend giving to the bishop to bless so that they will be protected from evil spirits and misfortunes.
But it’s because of such requests for donations that today the Shembes are split into two dynasties. Founder Isaiah Shembe had two sons, Johannes and Amos, and on his death in 1935, Johannes, as an elder son, took over. When Johannes died in 1976 his eldest son, Londa Shembe, was expected to become bishop – but his uncle Amos wasn’t prepared to accept this. A bitter rivalry broke out between them, splitting the movement.
Amos established his own headquarters at Ebuhleni, 16km from Ekupahkameni.
In 1989 Londa Shembe was killed in an unsolved murder, leaving his branch leaderless until his eldest son Vukile, a student at the University of Zululand, took over on turning 18 last year. Meanwhile Amos died in 1995 and was succeeded by his son, Vimbeni.
The rivalry reflects a darker side of many sects in the AIC and other groupings – they are a form of family business. Aside from bringing spiritual comfort and a God-fearing lifestyle – liquor and smoking are among many taboos – to millions of people, these sects are also a big businesses for the ecclesiastics who run them.
All AICs run like kingdoms: when the founder dies, the elder son takes over – or the uncles squabble over who should or should not lead the sect. Splinter groups have split off from most of the bigger sects, including the ZCC to the St John Apostolic Church.
Next year on the first week of January, the Shembes will undertake a 70km barefoot journey lasting two or three days to Mount Nhlangakazi, further north of Inanda.
It is to this mountain that Shembes believe God instructed Isaiah Shembe to come, so that He could hand down all the orders and rules for the foundation of the church. Mount Nhlangakazi is the Shembes’ equivalent of Mount Sinai – where according to the Bible God gave the 10 commandments to Moses.
The mountain is a controversial site. Although many non-believers claim that Shembe died in a plunge off a cliff on the edge of the mountain, Shembes say this is a lie and that their founder actually took ill and died during a trip through the province.