15 Facts About Isaiah Shembe

Isaiah Shembe was born in 1865, at Ntabamhlophe, in the Drakensberg region of Natal.

Isaiah Shembe's mother Sitheya, the daughter of Malindi Hadebe, was born at Mtimkulu.

Isaiah Shembe's family left Natal for the adjacent Harrismith district of the Orange Free State in the 1880s, ending up there as tenants for an Afrikaner family named the Grabes.

Isaiah Shembe's Master was Conrad Grabes, the owner of Buwelshoek Farm The young Shembe appears to have laboured for this Boer family as well, and spent considerable time working with the farm's horses.

Isaiah Shembe was visited by God on many occasions during these years.

Isaiah Shembe heard the voice of God taught him how to pray.

Isaiah Shembe started visiting the Wesleyan Church that was nearby.

Isaiah Shembe did not spend much time there because the laws that he was taught in vision by the Word, were not followed in the church.

Between 1906 and 1910, Isaiah Shembe was a minor evangelist in Leshega's church.

Isaiah Shembe claimed that the Word ordered him to leave his wives and family and go to Natal.

Isaiah Shembe formed the Ibandla lamaNazaretha in 1913, with his converts consisting primarily of poverty-stricken migrants living at the margins of Natal's urban areas.

Isaiah Shembe established a yearly pilgrimage to the Holy Mountain of Nhlangakazi, an event that was central to the Nazarites.

Isaiah Shembe advocated worship on the biblical Sabbath, rather than on Sunday.

Isaiah Shembe chose to identify instead with the Sabbath of God, Jehovah.

Isaiah Shembe saw the Sabbath as essential to the wholeness and well-being of Africans.