Africanised Christianity

By Zisanda Solwandle

“Church services take place in a circle made up of stones in a field. Before you get inside the circle, you kneel at the circle door and ask your ancestors to cleanse your heart so that you attend the service with an unbothered heart,” explained Alungile Boqwana.

Alungile Boqwana

Photo credit: Zisanda Solwandle

Alungile Boqwana is a 23-year-old woman who grew up with teachings from the Nazareth Baptist Church, also known as KwaShembe. She started going to the church from a very young age because her family attends the church.

The Nazareth Baptist Church is a sabbath church. Meaning that they attend church on Saturdays instead of Sundays because they believe that the weekends are on a Saturday, which according to them, is the seventh last day that God instructed people to rest and praise Him.

The Nazareth Baptist Church is the second largest church in Africa that is based in South Africa. It was established in 1910 by prophet Isaiah Shembe. The church is said to practice an Africanised form of Christianity because it believes in bible teachings and worshipping God without abandoning its culture and traditions. Hence the church respects traditions and ancestors.

According to Alungile, the Nazareth Baptist church holds its church services outdoors, and one has to carry a mat to sit on. This is done because the church believes in ancient ways of doing things. That is, doing things the way their forefathers did things.

Nazareth Baptist Church women attending service service outdoors

Photo credit: The South African

Hence females are encouraged to keep their virginity until they marry. But because we live in modern times, where not everyone is a virgin, the church conducts virgin examinations, and umam’ Umkhokheli oversees these virginity tests.

Girls confirmed to be virgins are then required to cover their heads with a white cloth called inantsuka. This nantsuka signals that one has succeeded in keeping her virginity. According to Alungile, girls who are no longer virgins wear umNazareth, a church robe like everyone else in the church.

Photograph of virgin girls from Nazareth Baptist Church covering their heads with inantsuka

Photo credit: eNCA

The church expects girls and women to carry themselves in a certain way.

“A female member of the KwaShembe church is not allowed to have hair extensions, wear trousers, drink, smoke, or go out partying. We are also not allowed to date.”

These church rules are believed to be the appropriate way for a woman to carry herself.

Because, as the bible suggests, people are not allowed to have children out of wedlock or commit adultery.

The Nazareth Baptist church mainly practices Zulu traditions and culture, and even though Alungile is not Zulu, she is Xhosa; she sees no problem in her growing up practicing Zulu traditions and culture because she believes that black people’s traditions and culture are similar.

Alungile also believes that the teachings she received from the Nazareth Baptist Church were a crucial part of her transition to womanhood and does not think that there is any other place that could have molded her any more pleasing than her church.

Now, her wish is to see young people join the Nazareth Baptist church and go back to the old way of doing things because she believes that it is a solution to the problems we are facing.

An interview with Alungile Boqwana about her church, Nazareth Baptist church also known as KwaShembe

Edited by Zisanda Solwandle

Reference list

Alungile Boqwana, 23 year old woman from eQutsa in Tsomo, in the Eastern Cape

Dlamini,S. 2015, Inside the world of Shembe, The North Coast Courier, April 16, Accessed from : https://northcoastcourier.co.za/36071/inside-the-world-of-shembe/