Shembe, noun
- Origin:
- Named for Isaiah Shembe (c1867–1935), the church’s founder, or for his son and successor Johannes Galilee Shembe.
A colloquial name for the Zionist church iBandla lamaNazaretha (‘the Church of the Nazarene’), which broke away from the African Baptist Church in 1911, and blends Christian beliefs with traditional Zulu cultural and organizational practices. Also attributive.
- Note:
- Also known as the Nazareth Baptist Church or the Zulu Church of Nazareth, the church reveres its founder, Isaiah Shembe, as a saint who is believed to be present in spirit at the church’s holy village of Ekuphakameni, near Durban. In the 1970s, after the death of its second leader, Isaiah Shembe’s son Johannes Galilee Shembe, the church split into two factions, one led by a son and the other by a grandson of the founder.
1941 W.M.B. Nhlapo in Bantu World 1 Mar. 9I have been fortunate to see two well-established churches; Shembe in Natal and Mahona in the Free State. All the other Zionist churches are but tiny and poor shadows of these two.
1989 S. Kahn in Weekly Mail 3 Mar. 27A friend is writing the songs, whose influence comes from amahuba (church music) done by the Shembe church deep in Zululand.
A colloquial name for the Zionist church iBandla lamaNazaretha (‘the Church of the Nazarene’), which broke away from the African Baptist Church in 1911, and blends Christian beliefs with traditional Zulu cultural and organizational practices. Also attributive.
- Derivatives:
- Hence Shembeite noun, a member of the Shembe church.1979 Argus 29 Dec. 2At least two Shembeites died when more than 1 000 followers of the Rev A K Shembe, brandishing machine-guns and other firearms, ambushed a large group of pilgrims headed by the Rev Londa Shembe.
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