Protestant Replications: The Conversion, Ordination, and Schism of a Zulu Bishop in Colonial Natal
This article examines the story of Mbiyana Ngidi and his five-decade conversion career, leading up to his establishment of an Ethiopianist church in 1890 – the first African Initiated Church in the Colony of Natal in Southern Africa. I focus on three events in his life – conversion, ordination, schi...
| Published in: | Journal of religion in Africa |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Brill
2023
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| In: |
Journal of religion in Africa
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| Further subjects: | B
Ethiopianism
B Ordination B Replication B Christianity B Schism B Conversion |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Summary: | This article examines the story of Mbiyana Ngidi and his five-decade conversion career, leading up to his establishment of an Ethiopianist church in 1890 – the first African Initiated Church in the Colony of Natal in Southern Africa. I focus on three events in his life – conversion, ordination, schism – and suggest that one way of reading these events is as different forms of replication: conversion as identification, ordination as imitation, and schism as reproduction. I engage with the idea in the anthropology of Christianity that Protestants desire a certain type of originality and therefore shun repetition. I argue the opposite, namely that Ngidi’s story shows us how Protestants seek out replicated relations. |
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| ISSN: | 1570-0666 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of religion in Africa
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1163/15700666-12340250 |