The Bambatha Watershed : Swedish Missionaries, African Christians and an Evolving Zulu Church in Rural Natal and Zululand 1902-1910

• This study examines the Church of Sweden Mission and the encounter between Swedish missionaries, African Christians and evangelists in Natal and Zululand in the early twentieth century. The ambition with the present study is to demonstrate that the mission enterprise was dependent on and an integral part of developments in society at large. It attends to the issue of how the idea of folk Christianisation and the establishing of a territorial folk church on the mission field originated in the Swedish society and was put into practice in South Africa. It describes how the goals implied attempted to both change and preserve African society. This was a task mainly assigned the African evangelists. By closely focusing on the particular regions where the Church of Sweden Mission was present, conflicts between pre-capitalistand capitalist, black and white societies are revealed. The 1906 Bambatha uprising became a watershed. The present study demonstrates how the uprising differently affected different regions and also the evolving -Zulu church. in the one region where Christianity was made compatible with African Nationalist claims, it was demonstrated that it was possible to be both a nationalist and a Christian, which paved the way for both religious independency and nationalist resistance and, eventually, large scale conversions.

Subject headings

HUMANIORA  -- Filosofi, etik och religion -- Religionsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Philosophy, Ethics and Religion -- Religious Studies (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Religion

South Africa--church history--1902-1910

Zulus (African people)

Church and State-South Africa

nationalism and religion

Church of SwedenMission

evangelists

missionaries

Swedish

Religionsvetenskap/Teologi

Religion/Theology

Religionsvetenskap/Teologi

Missionsvetenskap

Studies of Missions

Publication and Content Type

vet (subject category)

dok (subject category)