Israelite, noun

Origin:
EnglishShow more Transferred use of general English Israelite a member of the people of God, of the spiritual Israel; perhaps influenced by the American Church of God and Saints of Christ, who named themselves ‘Israelites’ after the Sabbatarian-Baptist belief that Black Africans are descended from the ten lost tribes of Israel.
historical
Usually in the plural : (The) members of a millenarian sect founded in 1918 by Enoch Mgijima, in the Bulhoek district near Queenstown (now Komani) (Eastern Cape). Also attributive.
1926 M. Nathan S. Afr. from Within 177Under the influence of supersitition and credulity, a number of misguided natives, led by a ‘prophet’ named Enoch, and calling themselves Israelites squatted on the commonage at Queenstown, where they attempted to put a communist system into practice, and waited for ‘the coming of the Lord.’
c1936 S. & E. Afr. Yr Bk & Guide 84A religious movement among a small section of the natives, who styled themselves ‘Israelites’ culminated, in May, in a collision with the police at Bulhoek.
1943 ‘J. Burger’ Black Man’s Burden 207In 1918 a Native, Enoch Mgijima, saw visions of a battle between two white Governments, with a baboon crushing them both. The obvious interpretation of this vision disturbed the Native religious sect to which Enoch belonged. He then founded his own sect, called the Israelites.
1961 T. Matshikiza Choc. for my Wife 26There was a religious sect back home in the Cape Province. They were known as the Israelites...He and his followers refused to yield the land they had occupied in the Bullhoek district near Queenstown. They regarded this district as their spiritual home. But the South African Government wanted that piece of land for re-allotment and White occupation. Mgijima said he would not budge. If they were to be forced out of the land the bullets would turn into water. God had told him so. General J.C. Smuts mowed the Israelites down and out of the territory.
1964 M. Benson Afr. Patriots 51The Israelites armed with rough tools charged; the police fired, killing 164 Israelites and wounding nearly as many.
1970 B.A. Pauw in Std Encycl. of Sn Afr. II. 54A seceding group [from the Church of God and Saints of Christ].., using the same name (sc. Israelites), was involved in armed conflict with the police..when 153 ‘Israelites’ were killed.
1980 D.B. Coplan Urbanization of African Performing Arts. 184His (sc. Enoch Mgijima’s) squatter community of ‘Israelites’ was fired upon by police in the notorious Bullhock [sic] Massacre in 1921. Mgijima’s Israelite hymns were a blend of mission hymnody and the Afro-American religious music of the Baptists.
1986 P. Maylam Hist. of Afr. People 162The Israelite Sect was founded in 1918...In 1920 they set up a more permanent encampment on the commonage in order to await the end of the world.
1989 Reader’s Digest Illust. Hist. of S. Afr. 326On 24 May, while the Israelites were at their morning prayers, police armed with machine guns and artillery took up positions on the surrounding hills.
Usually in the plural :(The) members of a millenarian sect founded in 1918 by Enoch Mgijima, in the Bulhoek district near Queenstown (now Komani) (Eastern Cape). Also attributive.
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