Zionism by Barry Morton
This document contains most of the main written documents relating to Engenas Lekganyane prior to... more This document contains most of the main written documents relating to Engenas Lekganyane prior to his death in 1948. Also included are a number of unpublished interviews and traditions obtained from his early followers.
This paper, using a large group of hitherto unknown vernacular newspaper articles, provides a det... more This paper, using a large group of hitherto unknown vernacular newspaper articles, provides a detailed look into the evangelical activities of Bishop Edward Lekganyane, the flamboyant leader of the Zion Christian Church 1949-67. There is an account of the installation of Lekganyane, and numerous descriptions of his preaching, as well as reports from his two main annual conferences. The paper also shows a shift in his preaching in late 1952.
Using recently-found archival files and maps, this paper shows that Engenas Lekganyane and his fa... more Using recently-found archival files and maps, this paper shows that Engenas Lekganyane and his family were not subjects of the Mamabolo chieftaincy, as has been assumed. Instead, his family were members of a small, breakaway faction that lived on various farms adjacent to the main Mamabolo location
This paper explores the evidence relating to Edward Lekganyane's vanishing from Zion City Moriah ... more This paper explores the evidence relating to Edward Lekganyane's vanishing from Zion City Moriah in the 1940s in the years prior to his father's death.
The paper contrasts Edward's version of his allegedly divine mission to Durban with evidence that he may have been imprisoned under an alias that he admitted to using at this time.
New Contree Vol 69, Jul 2014
The IBandla lamaNazaretha (Nazarites) are one of the largest and best-studied African-initiated c... more The IBandla lamaNazaretha (Nazarites) are one of the largest and best-studied African-initiated churches in southern Africa. Despite considerable scholarly efforts, the biography of Isaiah Shembe, who founded the church in 1913, has remained difficult to unravel. Shembe and his successors have maintained that he was a prophet sent directly by God to the Zulu nation, and a large corpus of church scriptures emphasizing this have obscured our understanding of his background. This article argues though, that Isaiah Shembe was neither a prophet (as his believers maintain) nor someone who developed his religious ideas autochthonously (as most academics maintain).
This paper demonstrates, using archival files from South African sources in the 1920s, that Samue... more This paper demonstrates, using archival files from South African sources in the 1920s, that Samuel Mutendi's account of his early religious life as the founder of the Zimbabwean ZCC is factually incorrect and almost certainly intentionally altered.
Studia Historiae Ecclesiasticae, 2017
This response to Marius Nel's 2016 article (in Studia Historiae Ecclesiasticae no. 42, 1, 62-85) ... more This response to Marius Nel's 2016 article (in Studia Historiae Ecclesiasticae no. 42, 1, 62-85) uses primary source material to refute his claims that John G Lake, the initiator of Pentecostalism in southern Africa, was an upstanding man of God. A wide array of American and South African sources show that Lake invented an extensive but fictitious life story, while also creating a similarly dubious divine calling that obscured his involvement in gruesome killings in America. Once in South Africa, he used invented "miracles" to raise funds abroad for the Apostolic Faith Mission. Before long, he faced many accusations of duplicity from inside his own church.
During his career as a faith healer, John G Lake constructed a falsified biography that served to... more During his career as a faith healer, John G Lake constructed a falsified biography that served to both legitimize his leadership in the Pentecostal movement and to provide evidence of miracles that he effected. This paper, which focuses on his activities prior to his South African mission of 1908-13, shows that the vast majority of his early biography is mere fiction. He was never an ordained minister as he claimed, nor was he a successful businessman. Later on, after he became involved in a series of brutal killings in Zion, IL, in 1907, he was forced to reinvent himself after fleeing the area. In order to hide this sordid past, he invented a series of visions that allegedly called him to minister in Africa.
This paper argues that John Alexander Dowie invented a new form of faith healing spectacle in the... more This paper argues that John Alexander Dowie invented a new form of faith healing spectacle in the 1880s that was substantively different to all previous forms of "Divine Healing". In order to construct his new faith healing public performances, Dowie drew from two secular gnostic traditions--Spiritualism and the "Mind Cure" Movement.
Studia Historiae Ecclesiasticae, 2016
This article argues that the little-known Elias Letwaba was the most influential African Pentecos... more This article argues that the little-known Elias Letwaba was the most influential African Pentecostal in southern African religious history. Using an array of primary sources, the article demonstrates the rapid growth of Pentecostal communities in the Northern Transvaal under Letwaba's control. Unlike other African Pentecostal ministers who inevitably abandoned the movement, Letwaba received significant support, funding, and publicity for his efforts. These factors, combined with his strong leadership role, contributed to his remaining within the white-led Apostolic Faith Mission and building up its African membership. As the founder of South Africa's first black-run seminary, the Patmos Bible School, Letwaba was able to propound and spread classic Pentecostal theology, although he placed a strong personal emphasis on holiness. He also placed a strong emphasis on faith healing as a means of attracting converts, and trained numerous evangelists to do likewise.
This article argues that Zionist Christianity emerged in South Africa out of the peasant revolt t... more This article argues that Zionist Christianity emerged in South Africa out of the peasant revolt that occurred in the Boer Republics during and after the South African War. Using the experiences of early Zionist leaders Daniel Nkonyane and Engenas Lekganyane, the article demonstrates the continuity of their theology with the ideology of the ‘Rebellion From Below’ first described by Jeremy Krikler. The early Zionists, like their predecessors, were primarily interested in recreating a world based on communal politics and land ownership – a world without rents, landlords, or white supervision.
Books by Barry Morton
Building a Nation A History of Botswana 1800-1910, 1996
This is a scanned copy of the original 1996 text, which provides a comprehensive account of Botsw... more This is a scanned copy of the original 1996 text, which provides a comprehensive account of Botswana's nineteenth-century roots. The book chronicles the political, social, and economic changes affecting the various communities, which were incorporated into the Bechuanaland Protectorate. Beginning with an introduction to the nature of History and the kinds of sources used, the new edition looks briefly at Southern African Communities before 1800. It then continues with a re-examination of the period of Bakololo and Amandebele invasions (1823-44) and traces the process by which Batswana rulers were able to build up their own authority and resist outside incursions through their participation in the trade of guns for game products. A full account of the 1852-53 Batswana victory over the Transvaal Boers is included. Other chapters examine such issues as Christian evangelization, education, shifting patterns of indigenous servitude, and the subjugation by Batswana of non-Batswana speaking communities, such as Khoisan speakers, Wayeyi and Bakgalagari. The myth of Batswana seeking a British Protectorate is rejected in its chapter on the coming and consolidation of British rule. The final chapter traces the beginning of a separate territorial consciousness beginning in the early campaigns to keep the Protectorate free of the rule of neighboring settler colonies. A revised 1999 edition formatted for schools has also been previously posted, as well as its manuscript.
This is a revised version of Comrade Fish, originally published by the now-defunct Pula Press in ... more This is a revised version of Comrade Fish, originally published by the now-defunct Pula Press in 1999.
Comrade Fish is the autobiography of a Motswana peasant who came to be an ANC member as a migrant worker in South Africa. After years in the movement, he was a Treason Trialist, and then a key member of the ANC underground from 1961 through the 1980s.
The Making of a President: Sir Ketumile Masire's Early Years, 1994
Over the past three decades, His Excellency Sir Ketumile Masire has been the leading architect of... more Over the past three decades, His Excellency Sir Ketumile Masire has been the leading architect of modern Botswana. Yet despite his importance very little is known about him. The following account of his rise to leadership is a revised version of a nine-part series which appeared in the Botswana Gazette newspaper in July-September 1993. We are indebted to the Gazette's managing editor, Clara Taukobong Olsen, and her staff for their help in preparing the series. As was the case with our original articles, this text merely seeks to shed light on aspects of the President's early life. The material we have collected is inadequate for a more comprehensive biography. Moreover, the time is not yet ripe for such a project as some of its most important chapters belong to our present future. We also feel that the Masire presidency is still too recent to give us sufficient historical perspective, and so we stopped at 1980. But we hope that modest effort has at least made a start at describing a man with an interesting and important career.
Historical Dictionary of Botswana Fifth Edition , 2018
The death of Botswana's last founding father, Sir Ketumile Quett Masire, in June 2017, marked the... more The death of Botswana's last founding father, Sir Ketumile Quett Masire, in June 2017, marked the end of an era. Since the release of the Fourth Edition of Historical Dictionary of Botswana in 2008, Botswana has gone through its most turbulent and divided decade to date. Throughout September 2016, when Botswana celebrated its 50th anniversary of independence, all the successes of the Seretse and Masire era were sources of massive national pride. Botswana had expanded provisions of electricity, water, education, and health services to almost all of its people and become a model nation that owned its natural resources and plowed the profits back into the nation's development. Despite these successes, Botswana has a high unemployment rate (about 20 percent) and a much larger cohort of the underemployed. This fifth edition of Historical Dictionary of Botswana contains a chronology, an introduction, appendixes, an extensive bibliography, and more than 700 crossreferenced entries on important personalities and aspects of the country's politics, economy, foreign relations, religion, and culture. This book is an excellent resource for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Botswana.
Botswana History by Barry Morton
Botswana has two linked myths that are central to the nation's identity. One is that the Batswana... more Botswana has two linked myths that are central to the nation's identity. One is that the Batswana chiefs invited the British to colonize and "protect" them in 1885 from Boer aggression. The second is that Queen Victoria herself, guaranteed to continue this protection in 1895 when the Three Dikgosi ventured to England in 1895.
The paper will not only demonstrate that both parts of this mythology are patently false, but will then go on to show why the Batswana went on to believe these ideas. Both parts of the myth essentially were used by the British to mask their predatory actions in annexing Botswana, but the Batswana turned the myths against the British as a political tactic during the Incorporation era. Once this happened, the myths became central to the national identity.
This paper explores the changing consciousness of Botswana's first nationalist, and makes use of ... more This paper explores the changing consciousness of Botswana's first nationalist, and makes use of his extensive writings. It shows his evolution from corrupt political insider after World War I to radical agitator in the late 1920s. Later on, during the 1930s, his misogyny and reinsertion into the machinery of government led him to revert to a conservative tribalist.
This piece of oral tradition is the first ever collected relating to the split between the Bangwa... more This piece of oral tradition is the first ever collected relating to the split between the Bangwato and Batawana, events that took place around 1795. It is also among the earliest group of oral traditions recorded in the Bechuanaland Protectorate, and was taken down by W C Willoughby at Palapye between 1901-1904. It has been transcribed into modern Setswana orthography by Dr Thapelo Otlogetswe.
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Zionism by Barry Morton
The paper contrasts Edward's version of his allegedly divine mission to Durban with evidence that he may have been imprisoned under an alias that he admitted to using at this time.
Books by Barry Morton
Comrade Fish is the autobiography of a Motswana peasant who came to be an ANC member as a migrant worker in South Africa. After years in the movement, he was a Treason Trialist, and then a key member of the ANC underground from 1961 through the 1980s.
Botswana History by Barry Morton
The paper will not only demonstrate that both parts of this mythology are patently false, but will then go on to show why the Batswana went on to believe these ideas. Both parts of the myth essentially were used by the British to mask their predatory actions in annexing Botswana, but the Batswana turned the myths against the British as a political tactic during the Incorporation era. Once this happened, the myths became central to the national identity.
The paper contrasts Edward's version of his allegedly divine mission to Durban with evidence that he may have been imprisoned under an alias that he admitted to using at this time.
Comrade Fish is the autobiography of a Motswana peasant who came to be an ANC member as a migrant worker in South Africa. After years in the movement, he was a Treason Trialist, and then a key member of the ANC underground from 1961 through the 1980s.
The paper will not only demonstrate that both parts of this mythology are patently false, but will then go on to show why the Batswana went on to believe these ideas. Both parts of the myth essentially were used by the British to mask their predatory actions in annexing Botswana, but the Batswana turned the myths against the British as a political tactic during the Incorporation era. Once this happened, the myths became central to the national identity.