Missionalia 33:1 (April 2005) 5-19 5

Willem Saayman· .

PROPHECY IN THE HISTORY OFSOUTH AFRICA

ABSTRACT
A brief survey of four prophetic figures in the history of South Africa (Ntsikana,'
Nongqawuse, Siener van Rensburg and Beyers Naude) show that a prophet is a
visionary intermediary, mediating a message between an authority (God) and an
audience. Operating in stressful situations, prophets speak and act with the authority'l .
conferred on them by appreciative audiences, often in alliance with (or in opposition
to) political powers. The HIVIAids pandemic and poverty are stressful situations
calling for prophetic voices in contemporary South Africa.

PROLEGOMENA

It is impossible to present a complete overview of prophets and prophecy in

the history of South Africa in one paper. I therefore decided 4:0 attempt a sort
of social-analytical narrative (if such an animal exists!) about a few leading
prophetic figures in the history of South Africa. The choice is in some sense
arbitrary, and does not imply that these were the most important or most
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influential prophets. "

In order to do this, I provide a working definition.of prophecy. Following
Overholt (1989), I describe a prophet as a visionary intermediary, mediatlng~
some message between an authority (God), and an audience. All three.'
elements are important in the prophetiC process, as it does not consist of one-
way traffic from authority to audience. It consists rather of a pattern.of
interrelationships among' authority, prophet and audience' which involves
revelation, proclamation, feedback and supernatural confirmation (:22): a
thoroughly interactive process . As Overholt (:81) also pOints out, prophetic
figures "appear in societies in times of crisis...:... at the personal, family or some
wider societal level in which the normal order of things seems to be threaten-
ed with collapse." Prophecy is therefore, apart from other .things, a social
phenomenon. '
It is necessary to add a word about prophets and prophecy in Africa. It is
important in Africa to differentiate between prophets and seers, diviners or
mediums. The latter group can be said to act not on their own 'initiative, but
on the initiative of their clients; they are consultants and not leaders of men .

• Willem A. Saayman is professor emeritus of Missiology. He taught at the University of South

Africa (Unisa) from 1978 to 1998 and was the General Secretary of SAMS from 1992 to 2001.
He is still attached to the University of South Africa as a supervisor of postgraduate students.
 6 Saayman

Prophets, on the other hand, "speak forth the divine word directly without
reading it off a symbolic medium ... It is this directness of communication,
scope of leadership, and tendency towards novelty which distinguishes the
Pfc:>phet from the diviner" (Ray, in Hodgson 1985: 171). Furthermore prophets
do not act on the initiative of their audience/clients. Instead, they u ••• go directly
to the people and inspire religious and political movements ... prophets are
often sources of creative religious change" (: 171). It is the~e social dynam ics,
the initiation of religious change which will mostly interest me·in this paper,
rather than the issue of true and false' prophecy (Le. foretelling the future),
which will be addressed only i~ an oblique way.

NTSIKANA (c.1780 - c.1821)

Ntsikana was born around 1780 as a member of an important Xhosa clan. His
father was a councillor of king Ngqika and Ntsikana had a traditional Xhosa
upbringing. It is not clear whether he had any contact with white missionaries,
although there is an oral tradition that as a child he had heard a sermon of Dr
Van Der Kemp. What one can safely deduce is that his contact with white .
missionaries was at best minimal. By the year 1815, when he was already a
married man, he converted to Christianity. Apart from the vague possibility
that he had heard Van Der Kemp, missionaries apparently played no role in
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Ntsikana's conversion (Hodgson 1985:129-136). .

Immediately after his conversion Ntsikana started holding two daily
meetings for all the people living at his homestead. At these meetings there
were singing, praying and preaching. Especially singing played an important
role in his ministry, and we know today of at least four hymns which he
composed and which were the first indigenous Christian hymns in Xhosa. The
best-known of these was his so-called' Great Hymn', in which Ntsikana acted
as the traditional eulogist singing the praises of his new king, God himself.
The hy.mn in its earliest published form goes thus (in Hodgson 1985:249):
He who is our mantle of cOmfort.
The giver of life, ancient on high
He is the Creator of the Heavens
and the ever buming stars:
,. God is mighty in the heavens
• and whir1s the stars roundtin the sky.
We call on him in his dW1iiiling place,
That he might be o~ighty leader,
For he makes the'olind to see:
We adore him as the only good,
rhe alone is a sure defense,

A
,?
e alone is a trusty shield,
He alone is our bush of refuge:
",Even HE - the giver of life on high,
, Who is the Creator of the heavens:
 The history of prophecy in South Africa 7

Ntsikana's genius lay in his ability to use well-known traditional concepts and
fill them with new content, perhaps nothing less than a new faith. This is all
the more remarkable if we keep in mind his lack of contact with Christian
missionaries and his inability to make use of Christian scriptures. He indeed
placed great emphasis on 'the word of God,' which for him w'as a word God
directly revealed to him. According to oral tradition this word was revealed on
the hem of his cloak. Ntsikana therefore succeeded in maintaining the
connection with traditional Xhosa religion, while at the same time making the
tranSition to a new religion easier. In Hodgson's words (1985:222):

Although it was primarily anew form of religious association, the ties of clan and
lineage among the disciples satisfied the need for a corporate sense of belonging and
integration within Xhosa society as a whole, rather than as a group apart like the
mission station people. Through Ntsikana they expressed their new beliefs and
practices as part of the Xhosa world, Ii~ing among Xhosa in a Xhosa way.

According to Hodgson (:163) his greatest novelty lay in the completely new
concept of time he introduced. Sometimes he acted like the traditional imboni
or seer, advising his chief on important events in the near luture,"but it was
his prophecies relating to a distant future that caused problems because they
introduced a radical new concept of time which was outside his people's
reality" (:163). Two of Ntsikana's important prophecies dealt with the pene-
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tration of Xhosaland by the Mfengu and the whites. About the latter he
prophesied:

There is another race with long hair (resembling tails of cattle) coming from the west.
This is a wise race; be careful not to take all their wisdom. The main thing for you to
receive from them is the word of GOd. Take care of the button which has no hole
(money), it will mislead many. These are my witnesses who will bear me record. If you
do not accept the word, I see this land being taken from the Ngqikas, and divided out
to white men .... (Hodgson 1985: 164).

As far as his political role in his tribe was concerned, Ntsikana remained a
councillor to King Ngqika even after "this [new] thing (had) entered him, this
thing that hated sin" (Ntsikana's own characterisation of his new faith, in
Hodgson 1985:158). These were turbulent and eventful times on the Eastern
Cape border. Bloody confrontations followed each other as the colonists
sought to push the Xhosa further and further north-eastwards. Alliances, of :
convenience between groups of trekboers and various Xhosa sub-groups
resulted also in internecine strife among the Xhosa. Ngqika's grandfather as
well as his father were killed in battle. As Ngqika was still a minor, he became
the ward of his uncle Ndlambe, who also served as regent. An uneasy
relationship existed between them, and this flared into enmity when Ngqika
came of age at a time when Ndlambe was at his most powerful.
 8 Saayman

Confrontation followed confrontation, reaching its peak in 1818 in the war

of Amalinde (1818). Ntsikana counselled Ngqika not to go to war against the
other Xhosa leaders gathered around Ndlambe. This advice was rejected by
Ngqika's other councillors, as they felt that the source of this advice was a
new, strange, God, not the traditional God. 1 This strange new God with his
pacifism was contrary to their understanding of Xhosa tradition (:204-206).
The link between Ntsikana's political advice and his new faith is described
thus· by Hodgson (: 166):

The Xhosa response to the white advance is generally seen in terms of two opposing
'strategies for survival'. The one is for resistance and is epitomized by.the leadership
of Ndlambe with Nxele as his adviser. The other is for collaboration as followed by
Ngqika and Ntsikana is supposed to have given him full support. But we shall see that
though Ntsikana accepted the white man's religion, he cou'nselled Ngqikaagainst
asking the British for aid in deciding the struggle for power with Ndlambe. Those who
would see him 'purely as a political innovator, articulating the need for change, do not
do justice to his Christian conviction and the price he paid for his witness in the form
, of persecution and suffering at the hands of both black and white. '

According to his holistic African world-view, Ntsikana did not see any
contradiction between political involvement and his faith. His n~w-foLind faith
became for him the well-spring of his political actions. This is one reason why
his heritage could be easily integrated with growing African nationalism. I n this
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respect one dimension was of great importance: his claim that God had
revealed himself directly to him (Ntsikana): "His appeal is precisely because
he seems so unrelated to Vanderkemp and is revered as one sent directly by
God as a· prophet to the black people" (Hodgson 1985: 1831).

NONGQAWUSE (c.1841 -?)

Into the unstable Eastern Cape brew of bloody conflict over land ownership,
discontent and r.eligious change was born around 1841 a young girl,
Nbng·qawuse. She was an orphan; her parents may have been killed in the
War of Mlanjeni. Her uncle, Mhlakaza, was her guardian. He regarded himself
as a Christian and a 'Gospel man', having accompanied the Anglican Arch-'
deacon Merriman on various preaching expeditions around the Eastern Cape
(Peires 1989:30~9. , ,Iakaza developed his own dual religious system con-
taining dimension' . both Christianity and Traditional Religion, as part of
which he startec;l reaching a cattle-killing message (:3081). It is very impor-
tant to take iAtO consideration the context within which the cattle-killing
m7age s~arted spreading. A great epidemic of lung sickness had reached

1 More about this in the section on Nongqawuse below.

 The history of prophecy in South Africa 9

Xhosaland in 1855. It caused incredible havoc, killing between 50% and

100% of cattle in some areas. As there was no remedy for the sickness and
it was so highly contagious, 'many Xhosa "began to believe that their cattle
were rotten and impure, and they might CiS well kill them since they were
probably going to die anyway" (:312). ' .
It was in these circumstances that Nongqawuse, while guarding the crops
against birds one day in 1856, heard her name called. According to the best
written records (based on oral tradition) the message she received was the
following: ' , .

Tell that the whole community will rise from the dead; an~ that all cattle living now must
be slaugthei"ed, for they have been reared by contaminated hands because there are
people about who deal in witchcraft. "
There should be no cultivation, but great new grain pits must be dug, new houses must
be built, and great strong cattle enclosures must be erected. Cut out new milksacks
and weave many doors from buka rO,ots: So says the chief Napakade, the descendant
of Sifuba-sibanzi2. The people must leave their witchcraft, for soon they will be
examined by diviners,(Peires 1989:79).

Discussions about the exact meaning ofthe message would follow, and minor
adjustments would be made, (for example, selling rather than killing th~
cattle), but this was the basic message which set in motion the tragedy of the
Great Xhosa Cattle-killing Movement. 3 Some 'Xhosa immediately accepted,
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or at least partly accepted, the message, while others immediately rejected

it and a great number adopted a wait-and-see attitude. The attitude of, the
various kings, and especially of Sarhili of the Gcaleka (recognised as overall
king of all the Xhosa, including those in British Kaffraria), was very important
and they were lobbied by spokespeople of the two 'camps' that developed:
the 'soft' party of believers, and the 'hard' party of unbelievers (the
characterisation was made by the Xhosa themselves). '
Many delegations, official and private, went down ,to the Gxarha river
where Nongqawuse lived, either to hear,the message from her own lips or in
the hope of encountering the spirits speaking on behalf of the 'new p~ople.'

2 Napakade, the Eternal One, presented himself as an indigenous divinity ofthe Xhosa people.
Sifuba-Sibanzi, the Broad-Chested One, presents a more complicated identity. He was also
regarded as an indigenous divinity, but it seems probable that he actually resulted from a fusion
of Xhosa Traditional Religion and mission Christianity, Many Xhosa indeed ascribe the name
(today a recognised praise name for Jesus Christ) to the teachings of Ntsik~na. According to
Peires (1989: 137) the juxtaposition of the two names 'probably reflects the Christian dichotomy
between God and Christ, and Xhosa uncertainty regarding the relative status of the two',
creating problems 'in defining a relationship in which God/Napakade is senior but ChristlSifuba-
sibanzi is more active.'
3 The material in the rest of this paragraph is based on Peires (1989).
 10 Saayman

Nongqawuse steadfastly stuck to her original prophecy, also later when dis-
appointment,in the delay of the promise'had begun to set in. Cultivation came
to an end directly, but (as can be expected from people for whom cattle
literally was life) the slaughtering of the cattle went ,ahead in fits and starts.
People mostly killed part of their herds, retaining the milk cows or favourite
oxen. With every disappointment in the delay of the fulfilment of the promise,
paradoxi9ally th~ pressure on the unbelievers increased, as they were blamed
fo~ the delay. It seems that the scale swung in the believers' -favour mainly for
two reasons: the support of king Sarhili (and king Sandile in British Kaffraria),
and the evil machinations of Governor Grey. Grey warned the kings to stop
the cattle-killing, but once he realised that they were going to press ahead, he
.started planning how to use the tragedy to. the best advantage of the Cape
Colony, once and for all breaking Xhosa power and obtaining labour~rs for
the c O l o n y . ' ,
By the end of 1858 the devastation was complete. Arou,nd 40,000 to
50,000 Xhosa had died, more than 150,000 became displaced refugees,
around 400,000 head of cattle had been killed, and 600,000 acres cif Xhosa
land were, lost to the British (Peires 19~9:319). All because of the irr~tional
prophecies ofa Y9un9 Xhosa girl- or was it? Peires (:123) suggests that it.
wa~ not quite so simple. He proposes three contextual. factors at work iNhich:
made the prophecies seem logical (if 'not attractive) to the Xhosa in the:
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1850s: . . ' I '

• the: form which the movement took, namely the killing of cattle, was.
suggested and determined by the lungsickness epidemic, of 1,854 .
•' T!le resurrection ,of the: dead was only an aspect of a much wider event'
'!Vhich t~e Xhosa believed to be in prospect, namely the'regeneration of
'. the earth and the re-enactment of the original Creation ..~' .
• , The movement was by no means a 'pagan reaction,' but one which
. combined Christian and pre-Christian elements, fused under the heroic
leadership of the"expected redeemer, the son of Sifuba-sibanzi,' the
Broad~Chested-One:

SIENERVAN RENSBURG

For my ne~ c~~ ~e

move' fr~n:'",
Jhe Eastern to the WesterI') , ~ape
Transvaal. Ne~he town ,of Wolmaransstad was born in 1864 a boy, Nico~
laas Janse van Rensburg, destined to become known as Siener (SeerA) van
• 1( ... - f • "

/'
-j .' ...... "
~
' I ',,'
/'
/" ,
f', , . . " / 1 ,
4 As he became generally known by the name 'Siener' van Rensburg. I use this Afrikaansfc?rm
of his name throughout this paper., ' " I
 The history of prophecy in South Africa 11

Rensburg. He was born to poor farming parents, his father having been a
teenaged Voortrekk~r. He attended school for no more than 20 days, as his
help was needed in farm labour .. His mother eventually taught him to read with
the help of the Bible, the only book he ever read. As a boy Siener was not as
strong and robust as his brothers, to the disappOintment of his hardworking
father. While still a toddler his mother noticed that he had the ability to 'see'
things not visible to other people. As was widely accept~d among Afrikaners
at that time, this ability was considered to be a special gift from God. 5 Siener's
parents were devout Christians, members of the Reformed Church at Wol-
maransstad, and this was the atmosphere in which he grew up.
Siener experienced many hardships while growing up. His father was
very poor and often had to leave his family alone on .the farm while he went
on ox wagon trips to barter and try to earn money. When Siener was 16 years
old he joined the Boer com mandos in the First Anglo-Boer War, remaining in
the field for the duration of the war: Eventually he would also join the
commandos in the Second Anglo-Boer War and remain in the field to the
bitter end. As a soldier he was a contradiction in terms, because he abhorred
violence and through all his years on commando he never carried a gun.
Siener was very aware of the fact that he had to use his gift in the service of
his people (described as the Afrikaner Boer Nation).6 Eventually this gift in
service of his people brought him much pain and sorrow, because he "'saw"
how his people ... would be oppressed, downtrodden, and how traitorous
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some of his own would be" (Snyman 1999: 19-25). .

It is impossible to give an overview of Siener's visions. From 1871, at the
age of seven, until his death in 1926 "he had more than 700 visions about his
people in South Africa, other nations, as well as world affairs" (:14). A majority
of his visions were written down by one of his daughters at his instruction,
while many more were transmitted orally until written down.? Where other
nations and "world affairs" featured in his visions, it was mainly in direct or
indirect relationship to South African, and especially Afrik?lner affairs. Today
his visions carry great weight with right wing Afrikaners,s although one

5 Afrikaners had a name for such gifted people: they were "met die helm gebore" (lit. "born with
the caul").
6 This was probably why he went on commando though a pacifist, in order to use his gift to help
the Boer fighters through his visions.
7 The main body of his visions has been collected and published by Snyman (1999).
8 The Mail and Guardian newspaper of 1-8 Jan 2004 (:4) reported that a Mr J van Heerden, a
leader of one of the most virulent Rightwing groups (The Israel Vision) stated: 'We will not
endure the hardships anymore. If you read the Bible, listen to the prophecies of Siener - it says
we will rise against our oppressors. The signs of the times are there for all to see. The Israelites'
 12 Saayman

sometimes has to stretch one's imagination to make sense of their inter-

pretations. So, for example, a vision he had on 3 September 1917 is today
interpreted as a prophecy about the dismantling of apartheid. The vision (in
Snyman 1999:301) reads thus:

Many black and white goats are mixed together east of Johannesburg. A road runs
from East to West and in this road a little 'Kaffir' is driving pigs this way. Many donkey
carts assemble in the Free State; a dusty road runs West and I suddenly take this
road.

And the interpretation runs thus:

With this vision, Van Rensburg saw the dismantling of apartheid coming (black and
white goats mixed together). England (pigs) under pressure from Africa (little 'Kaffir),
influences our leaders. The Afrikaners stand together for unity and self-preservation
(donkey carts assembling). But they return to their fixed traditions and erstwhile home
(republics?) (A dusty road and I suddenly take this road).9

Siener was no charlatan. During the Second Anglo-Boer War he had visions
which, for example, saved General de Wet from losing a decisive battle
(Snyman 1999:57-59) and prevented President Steyn from being captured by
the British (:59-61). It is probably for this reason that right wing Afrikaners
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revere him so much and hold on faithfully to his vision of another "free Boer
republic" (:210-239).10

BEYERS NAUDE (1915-2004)

I h.ave opted for an approach in which I tell the story of prophets in South
Africa according to individual life stories. With the story of Beyers Naude a
proviso is in order: he belongs to a group which may be called the Struggle
Prophets, referring to the era of the struggle against apartheid. This group
really formed a prophetic community and would include prophets such as

time has come;'

9 The interpretations were 'B~ provided by Siener himself, and are obviously embroidered
upon by listeners over th~rs. So, for example, a vision he had on 2 October 1923 is today
iriierpreted as a prediction of the Chernobyl disaster. In such cases Siener would provide the
primary interpretation cif symbolic figures, while the concrete application in terms of actual
people an events would be added later by his followers.
10 It is ry interesting to see the similarities between Siener's visions and the fantastic coup
plan f the so-called 'Boeremag,' the'militant right-wing Afrikaner movement that allegedly
plotted the overthrow of the South African government after 1994. These details have emerged
in the Boeremag Trial, first treason trial 'of the democratic South Africa.
 The history of prophecy in South Africa 13

Desmond Tutu, Allan Boesak, Frank Chi kane and others. I am therefore
telling the story of Naude as representative of a community of prophets.
Naude was born an Afrikaner of the Afrikaners; son of a prominent Dutch
Reformed Church (ORC) minister who was chaplain to one of the very
important Boer generals during the Second Anglo-Boer War, G.eneral C.F.
Beyers (after whom Beyers Naude was named), and a founder member of
the .Afrikaner Broederbond. 11 He therefore grew up in a very pious and
patriotic home, attended Stellenbosch University and became"a ORC minister
himself. He served iil various congregations before being called to a congre-
gation in Johannesburg (Aasvo~lkop) and was eventually elected moderator
of the Southern Transvaal Synod of the ORC. By that time he was a
prominent member of the Broederbond himself.
" In terms of pedigree and performance Naude was therefore an Afrikaner
leader, destined for great things if he toed the line. This however became"
impossible for him as a result of ecumenical encounters which convinced him
that the race policy in state and church was basically unjust and 'in conflict
with the clear demands of the gospel. The Sharpeville massacre in March
1960 and the subsequent Cotteslbe Consultation called by the WCC was the
turning point in his life. He started an institute (the Christian Institute of South
Africa), meant to be the forerunner of a confessing church along the lines of
the German Confessing Church during the Second World War (De Gruchy
1985:17).
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The mouthpiece ofthe organisation was the monthly journal, Pro Veritate,'
and although ecumenical in nature, the aim was specifically to reach out to
Afrikaner clergy and laity in the ORC. The three main issues addressed were
the unity of the 9hurch, ecumenical participation, and the struggle against
apartheid (De ~ruchy 1~85: 14). It was his involvement in the Christian Insti-
tute (CI) and Pro Veritate which precipitated Naude's break with the ORC,
since the church demanded that he distance himselffrom these com mitments
if he wished to remain an ordai'ned minister and moderator of the church. He
did not see his way open to do this and after preaching his farewell sermon
to his congregation on the'verse"Obey God rather than man," he lost his
status as a mini~ter and to all intents and purposes left the ORC. He con-
tinued his involvement in the CI and Pro Veritate until both were shut down
by the government and N~iudeserved with a banning order in 1977.
Naude's main prophetic contribution was his willingness as white Afri-
" kaner to cross the racial divide unconditionally and through his own involve-
ment to provide an opportunity for many people to catch a glimpse of the

11 All the material in this section is based on Villa-Vicencio 1985:3-13, unless indicated
otherwise.
 14 Saayman

other South African world out there. Naude himself very soon realised that
.liberation was not something which whites could "do for" black South Africans.
Being 'a voice for the voiceless' was important, but listening to the voiceless
and aiding their empowerment tofight their own battle was much more impor-
tant. Walshe (in De Gruchy 1985: 17) puts it thus:

Naude and the Christian Institute had a long way to go before coming to the full
realisation of the centrality of the black viewpoint for the future of Christianity and of
justice in South Africa. Nevertheless, something new had been started in the Institute.
A prophetiC Chrisiian voice' was being heard and simultaneously there emerged the
prospect of a prophetic ecumenical movement.

It is greatly to Naude's credit as prophet that, once he became aware of the

centrality of black thinking through his greater exposure to and involvement
in the. black
.
world, he was. willing to accept the challenge. As a result,

every.effort was made to relate to black consciousness organisations, trade unions

and black leaders ... The CI was rapidly moving away from an organisation aimed
primarily at changing while attitudes and the white church, to one which understood
;~ ~~s role as that of support for the b,lack struggle for justice and liberation" (De Gruchy
1985:22).
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In this role Naude earned so much support, credibility and trust that, though
not a member of the ANC himself, this Afrikaner of Afrikaners was included
in that organisation's team which initiated negotiations with the National Party
government for the change to a democratic dispensation in 1991.

CONCLUSIONS

I wish to draw some preliminary conclusions about the role of prophets in

South African history. .

Prophets and their role in stressful situations

Lc;lrge scale religious' change (from Traditional Religion to Christianity) took

place amidst the upheay Is associated with colonialism. Ntsikana and
Nongqawuse acted in, "h crisis situations. This is not strange, because
"Prophetic figures te/ to appear in societies in times of crisis - in situations
atJhe personal, family or some societal level in which the normal order of
 The history of prophecy in South Africa 15

things seems to be threatened with collapse" (Overholt 1989:81).12 Both

colonialism and large scale conversion to Christianity were certainly experi-
enced as threats to the normal order of things. Ntsikana prophesied and
acted in favour of a pacifist, measured and controlled adaptation to a new
order in which the Xhosa prophets would control the pace and the content of
change. One would therefore perhaps be justified in characterising him as a
prophet of inculturation (in today's terms).13 Nongqawuse proclaimed an
apocalyptic message of a restoration of the old order. At the time of her
appearance, the results of European incursion, loss of land and wealth, all
apparently in the name of a new religion, had become unbearably stressful.
I think Shirley Thorpe (1982) is correct therefore in characterising the cattle-
killing of which Nongqawuse was the prophet as a "millenarian response" to
stress:

A millenarian movement is one in which believers envision a new age, a millennium,

which will arrive if people follow certain injunctions; but their vision of the future is
heavily influenced by an idealized picture of the past. Millenarian mQvements have
been described as reactionary or backward looking because the golden age is
supposedly modeled on ideal notions about the past and because the techniques for
creating a new age seem to be irrational and unlikely to succeed, at least from the
point of view of outside observers. This is too simplistic, however, since millenarian
movements are equally an attempt to cope with the present, to change it, and to create
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a more promising future (Keller in Thorpe 1982:136). .

In the light of continual European encroachment onto Xhosa land, bloody

wars, and several treaties signed and dishonoured, distrust and confusion
grew into despair. In these circumstances the prophetic promise of a glorious
millennium based on an idealised vision of the pas(to be attained after .the
people had been cleansed of sin and had made a (supreme) sacrifice of
devotion and dedication, became an attractive possibility to deal with the
overly stressful present (Thorpe 1982:135f).

"God sent me ... ": the question of authority

,
Inherent in any prophetic action or message is the claim to authority:

12 Beyers Naude an·d the struggle prophets were also active in a very stressful situation.
Although Siener van Rensburg's prophetic career spanned a long time, he actually also
achieved his status as a prophet during the Anglo-Boer War years, a time of great stress for
Afrikaners.
13 '[Ntsikana'sj response, far from on the one hand rejecting his own culture, ·or on the other
simply protecting it, was to en,rich and enlarge it. He was not taking a leap into someone else's
culture and failing to get there'_(Hodgson 1985:181).
 Saayman
16
d teak or act simply on my own authority; I have been sent
~r~p~iethero
y
a~~h~~ty (God). Obviou~ly no group of hearers will accept this
· g·thout further ado. The claim to speak or act on behalf of an
c Iaim
th 'tWI t"ve sender needs corroboration
. 0 f some k'In. 'd Ad'
n In thOIS process
~hue a~~i~~ce plays a very important role. Their ro~e is so crucial th~t Overholt
(1989:71) indeed argues that people choose their own prophets, In that

... they attribute authority to the~, because they perceive in ~he p~o.clamation continuity
with the cultural traditions sufficIent to make what they say mtelllglble and at the same
time innovations sufficient to offer the possibility of a new interpretation that will bring
qrder out of what is perceived as chaos.

For this to happen, the audience must be convinced of the effectiveness of

the prophet's words and/or actions. This effectiveness is usually experienced
in rhetorical skill (the ability to proclaim a message and adapt it where
necessary; which makes sense outof a chaotic and stressful situation) and/or
supernatural confirmation in deed (fulfilled prophecy) (:71). A prophet claiming
to speak in the name of God is therefore in a sense dependent for authority
both on God and on the audience.
Itis quite interesting to view the history of prophecy in South Africa from
this vantage point. Nongqawuse provides perhaps the clearest exam pie of the
important role played by the audience in attributing authority. It has been
Reproduced by Sabinet Gateway under licence granted by the Publisher (dated 2013)

indubitably established that the cattle-killing message was already drifting

aroi,lnd before she started her prophetic career. She started proclaiming her
mess~ge, with great rhetorical skill and gave it wide credibility. Although she
could not pOint to any supernatural confirmation to confirm her prophetiC
authority (indeed, quite the opposite - failure followed failure), she skilfully
aqapted the basic message to changing circumstances and with the help of
powerful aides such as her uncle Mhlakaza and others, managed to convince
enough of the Xhosa about her prophetiC authority to drive the process to its
disastrous conclusion.
In the case of Siener van Rensburg, though, he seems not to have had
the same rhetorical skill, although the fact that he couched his prophecies in
language and images redolent of Old Testament language and imagery no
doubt contributed to the prophetic authority attributed to him in the Afrikaner
community. At the same/o;ttime he could indeed point to supernatural
confirmation in his war p}"ophecies. As for Beyers Naude and the struggle
prophets" this provides1)erhaps the clearest instance of prophetiC authority
ariSing from the community.
Thif:reis, though, another dimension to the question of prophetiC
authoritY. hat is the relationship between prophets and the ruling powers. A
much ed Hebr~wterm for prophet is nabi. Wlirthwein (in Overholt 1989:74)
says thafthe call to be a nabi "is a call to an office like that of king, priest, or
 The history of prophecy in South Africa 17

wise man, in which a fixed function ~ and not the specific tasks or attitudes
of a given individual - is central." It is therefore expected of the prophet "to
undergird the welfare of the nation'through acts of intercession andprocla-
mations about the future." In this understanding ofothe term prophet there is
then ,a close alliance between the proph~t and the ruling powers. As an
example of this WOrthwein (in Overholt 1989: 74) refers to Amos, who started
out his prophetic career as a.nabi in Bethel but then was conscience bound:
also to prophesy a message of doom, as a result of which he was expelled
from his prophetic 'office in Bethel. In terms of my historical narrative above
this is also an interesting point to consider: Nongqawuse,' ward 01 a recog-
nised councillor with some prophetic'dimensions to his actions, can be
considered in nabi terms. Certainly she would not,have been able to drive her,
prophetic movement to its logical disastrous conclusion without strong sup-'
port from the Xhosa ruling powers. It is equally clear in the case of Siener-van
Rensburg that he was fulfilling an expected social function in the armies ofthe
Boer Republics. His strongest allies were indeed the Boer generals. Which
brings us to Beyers Naude, whose history shows remarkabte similarities to
that of Amos. Naude in :his early years-fulfilled a function as '!court prophet"
in the Afrikaner community. When he became convinc~d of the fact that the
road would lead to disaster, though, he became in Afrikaner terms a prophet.
Reproduced by Sabinet Gateway under licence granted by the Publisher (dated 2013)

of doom and was kicked out of "the court," but remained a prophet. The'
question of the social location of ,a prophet is therefore of great importance
in understanding prophetic authority. To.conclude this paragraph I therefore
wish to quote Overholt (:75) at some length:

First, social roles and expectations are understood to be culturally defined, which
• means that the 'social location in which a prophet carries out his (sic) activity is relevant " .
to the problem of understanding the nature of his authority. SecOnd, sociallocstion has
. to be defined broadly to include not just institutional settings in the strict sense but
whole culturally determined patterns of expectation on' the part of the prophet's
audience as well.

What I have said in the previous paragr?lphs stiould noJ.in any way inter- be
preted as a disclaimer to any divine authority. If'l poin'tout the role of the
audience or ruling powers in attributing prophetiC authority, I do not mean to
imply that there is no place for a call to divine authority. The fact that the
aud)e'nce c~>ntributes to the phenomenqn pfprophe~ic_authority d9~S "lot tmply
that. they can actually confer prophetic powers at. wjll. The fact'that the
prophet claims to be acting on divine authority means, as ()verholt (:72)
pOints out, "that they already have, or are perceived to have these powers."
What the audience does, then, is to confirm the prophets in their role (:72).
 18 Saayman

And what about the present?

"Where have all the prophets gone?" ask both Cedric Mayson (2000) and
Hennie Pieterse (2000), with reference to the period since the first democratic
elections in 1994. "The reason for the silence of the church and for 'religion's
incapacity to take us forward''', says Mayson (2000:59), "is that religion does·
not know which way to go. It has not found its role in the new South Africa."
In terms specifically of the Christian faith community, it seems as if the
consensus was, "Let us return to being ·the church and take care of real
church business", which generally meant turning back inward to issues of
self-preservation (:60). Pieterse (2000:89) argues that a consensus must
exist about "a situation of oppression and suffering and an attack on human
dignity due to a government applying an oppressive ideology or political
system" before prophets can arise. Since there is no such consensus, we are
living in a time of prophetic silence. Can the review of a few individual
prophets in the history of South Africa perhaps help us understand this
situation better? I think so. -
We have seen above that ·prophets arise especially in times ofgreat
existential stress in a given community. In South Africa these times of stress
generally arose on the racist fault line running through our community. More
than 300 years of colonialism and racism, culminating in apartheid, have
Reproduced by Sabinet Gateway under licence granted by the Publisher (dated 2013)

conditioned us to expect that prophets will show the way out of this specific
crisis~ Since 1994 the situation has, however, changed dramatically. Racism
is still alive and well, but the institutions that keep racism alive have changed.
It is commonly accepted that the democratic elections of 1994 propelled
South Africa into the modern world, dominated as it is by a globalised pOlitical
economy (cf. Pieterse 2000:83). This has radically changed the social
dynamics at work in our society. Although there will always be homegrown
situations of crisis (for such is the nature of humanity), our crisis situations in
the present dispensation will rather be dominated by the effects of
globalisation (cf. Kim 2001; Saayman 2003). .
We are already experiencing two crises which can be termed global:.the
AIDS'pandemic and poverty. 14 We should perhaps be looking for our present
generation of prophets amo,ng the activists at work in these areas. Two
possibilities come to mi'1d;<lRAC (the Treatment Action Campaign, and
especi~IIy its leader, M~?chie Achmat) in the area of AIDS, and the Jubilee
campaign (in which Af,chbishopNdungane of Cape Town plays a leading role)

L .
in the area of poverty. If we cannot identify prophets in their ranks yet, another

7
14 I cannot argue the precise dimension of the crises here, but refer to Saayman 2003 and the
literature mentioned there.
 The history of prophecy in South Africa 19

possibility arises from mthistorical analysis: maybe-the awareness of the

crises in the community is not such yet that prophetic authority can be
attributed to leading individuals. ~
This seems to be the case especially in the case of HIV/AIDS. Political
leaders send out am bivalent, if not contradictory and vacillating, sig nals about
the pandemic, and many communities,(especially religious communities)
seem still to be in i::lenial. Many religious people who are HIV positive either
hide their status for fear of ostracism, or people who have come out openly
complain that they receive little if any religious support; condemnation seems
more likely. In any case,itseems to me th~t)Ne are, not,necessarily suffering
a dearth of prophets, .but rather a lapk of community, awareness to confjrm the
prophetic m~ssage, for as Overholt (1989:183) says: "Prophets canexist.only
in dynamic interaction with an audience." In Christian terms, this is a very
important mis~ionary.and missiological~h~lIenge for the present: using David
Bosch's characterisation of "mission in many modes" to formulate and define
"mission as prophecy" (Botha-;1994) for S'outh Afric<;l rn tlJe 2~ st centiJry.

LIST OF REFERENCES
BOTHA, N.A. 1994. Mission as prophecy: in dialogue with the World Mission Conferences,
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Edinburgh 1910 - San.Antonio 1989. DTh thesis, Unisa:" . .'. . .

DE GRUCHY, J.w. 1985. A short history of the Christian IQstitute, in Resistance and hope.
South African. essays in honour of Beyers Naude, edited by Charles Villa-Vicen'cio & John
de GrUchy. Cape Town: David Philip:14-26; - ,
DU TOIT, C.W. (ed.). 2000. Violence, Truth and Prophetic Sl1ence. Religion and the quest for a·
South African 'common-good. Pretoria: Unisa Press. .
HODGSON, J. '1985. Ntsikana: history and symb"l. Studies in a process of religious change
among' Xhosa~speaking people .. Ph.D thesis, University of Cape Town. . ".
KIM DAE YOONG~ 2001. Vision for mission. Korean and South African churches together fa'cing
. the challenges of globalisation. DTh thesis, Unisa: .' r ' . •
MAYSON, C. 2000. Listening for the prophetic voices: where have all the prophets.gone?
Prophetic silences and the incapacity of religions to take us forward, in Violence, Truth and
Prophetic silence, edited by C.w. du Toi!. Pretoria: Unisa ·Press:55-81. . .'
OVERHOL T, T.w. '1989. Channels of prophecy: The social ay'namics of prophetic activity.
. Minneapolis:'Fortress Press. . '. , . . .
PEIRES, J.B. 1989. The dead will arise. Nongqawuse and the Great Xhosa Cattle-Killing
Movement of 1856-7. Johannesburg: Ravan Press.
PIETERSE, H.J.C. 2000. Where have all the prophets .g,ol)e? PrQphetic silence a.nd the
incapacity of religions to take us forward, in Violence, Truth, and Prophetic Silence, edited
by C.w. du Toi!. Pretoria: Unisa Press:82-97'.. .
SAAYMAN, W. 2003. "Ex Africa semper aliQuid novi:~ Some random reflections on chall,enges
to mission ariSing in Africa in the twenty-first centurY, Mission Studies XX:1 (No.39):57-83.
SNYMAN, A. 1999. Voice of a prophet. Mossel Bay: Vaandel Publishers.
VILLA-VICENCIO, 'C. 1985. A'life of resistance and hope, in Resistance and hope, edited by
Charles VillaNicencio & John de Gruchy. <l:ape Town: David Philip:3-13. '
VILLA-VICENCIO, C. & DE GRUCHY, J.w. (eds). 1985. Resistance and hope. South African
essays in honour of Beyers Naude. Cape,Town:' Dav iti Philin .... . ,
.'