African Apocalypse: The Story of Nontetha Nkwenkwe, a Twentieth-Century South African Prophet (Volume 72)

by Robert R. Edgar, Hilary Sapire (Contributor)

The devastating influenza epidemic of 1918 ripped through southern Africa. In its aftermath, revivalist and millenarian movements sprouted. Prophets appeared bearing messages of resistance, redemption, and renewal. African The Story of Nontetha Nkwenkwe, A Twentieth-Century Prophet is the remarkable story of one such prophet, a middle-aged Xhosa woman named Nontetha. After surviving the deadly virus, Nontetha proclaimed that a series of dreams revealed to her that the influenza had been a punishment from God. Consequently, she embarked on a mission to reform her society. She imposed numerous prohibitions and rules on her followers. In a parallel movement, in 1919, millenarian Israelites congregated in the holy village of Ntabelanga, 100 miles north of Nontetha’s area, to await the end of the world. In May 1921, police killed nearly 200 Israelites near Queenstown in a showdown over attempts to expel the settlers. Accused of sedition by an alarmed government, Nontetha was committed to Fort Beaufort Mental Hospital in 1922. On Nontetha’s death in 1935, officials buried her in an unmarked pauper’s grave. In 1997, Edgar and Sapire located Nontetha’s grave. Of Edgar’s efforts to return Nontetha to her home, the New York Times said, “One would not expect, perhaps, that a mild-mannered professor from Howard University would turn out to be the Indiana Jones of South Africa.” African Apocalypse touches on a variety of themes, including African Christianity, gender, protest, the social history of madness, and the engagement of professional historians in contemporary issues.

213 pages, Paperback

First published December 31, 1999

About the author

Robert R. Edgar is professor of African studies at Howard University and the editor of An African American in South Africa: The Travel Notes of Ralph J. Bunche, also available from Ohio University Press.

Reviews

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Robert R. Edgar is a Professor of African Studies at Howard University in Washington, D.C. Hilary Sapire is a Senior Lecturer of Imperial and Commonwealth History at the University of Birkbeck in London, United Kingdom. Edgar and Sapire’s 2000 biography is entitled African Apocalypse: The Story of Nonteha Nwenkwe, a Twentieth-Century South African Prophet. Nontetha Nkwenkwe was a Christian Xhosa Religious Leader who died in 1935. Nwenkwe was the founder of the Christan Movement known as the Church of the Prophetess Nontetha in South Africa. Nkwenkwe ended her life in a South African Asylum for Black people. The book illustrates what life in a Black Asylum in South Africa was like in the early 20th Century. Chapter 5 is entitled “Dry Bones” (86-107), is on reburying the body of Nontetha Nkwenkwe in a marked grave, a project in which Edgar and Sapire were key people involved in the project. African Apocalypse has an Appendix of three documents written about Nwenkwe by Colonial South African officials, two of the three documents were by officials working in the Colonial South African Mental Health Infrastructure. Edgar’s and Sapire’s book, African Apocalypse is a well-researched and well-done study of the life and times of Nwenkwe, including the reburying of her body in a marked grave.

[Liz · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very interesting story. What I did not expect was the intense elaboration on mental institutions in 1920's South Africa. It was actually interesting stuff. There isn't a lot on Nontetha and the title is a little deceptive...but it is a good biography.