https://ir.unisa.ac.za/handle/10500/4208 2026-05-14T10:06:16Z https://ir.unisa.ac.za/handle/10500/4589 Norwegian missionaries and Zulu converts : a case for Bakhtinian dialogue Roaldset, Hege, 1970- From the arrival of the missionaries in 1844 to the outbreak of the Anglo-Zulu war in 1879, the results of the Norwegian missionary enterprise in Zululand were meagre. The British annexation of Zululand changed the situation, and the missionaries perceived the first decades of the 20th century as “a long great harvest”. A closer examination of the source material challenges this understanding. By using dialogical theory, as propounded by Mikhail M. Bakhtin, as a starting point, we may come closer to explaining the missionaries’ relative lack of success. Bakhtin stated that each utterance has an addressee and that the speaker formulates the utterance with the addressee and his/her future reactions in mind. If we envisage the encounter between Zulus and Norwegians accordingly, we find that the Norwegian missionaries failed to recognise that the two cultures were engaged in ongoing dialogue and negotiations. Peer reviewed 2010-01-01T00:00:00Z https://ir.unisa.ac.za/handle/10500/4588 Race, politics and religion : the first Catholic mission in Zululand (1895-1907) Denis, Philippe, 1952- This paper explores the strategies deployed by the Catholic authorities in the late 19th century to gain access to Zululand, their approach to race relations and their relationship to the colonial enterprise in general. The first Catholic mission in Zululand was established in 1895 through a remarkable conjunction of events: the intervention of an ecclesiastical visitator, the decision made by John Dunn, the “white chief”, on his death bed to entrust the education of his children to the Catholic Church and Bishop Jolivet’s friendship with the British resident commissioner. The Catholic missionaries empathised with the Zulu culture, but remained imbued with colonial prejudices. They treated the first black Oblate and the first black priest in a discriminatory manner. Peer reviewed 2010-01-01T00:00:00Z https://ir.unisa.ac.za/handle/10500/4573 Abandoned ideals of brotherhood? A masculinity perspective on the relationship between 19th century Norwegian Missionaries and Zulu Pastors Tjelle, Kristin Fjelde, 1965- The Lutheran Norwegian Missionary Society (NMS) sent in 1844 its first missionaries to the Zulus. The NMS’ goal was to establish native churches which become self-supporting, self-governing and self-propagating. This “three-self” formula was to be accomplished by winning individual souls to Christianity, organising them into churches and providing them with trained, indigenous ministry. Baleni kaNdlela Mthimkhulu was the first Zulu pastor to be ordained in NMS in 1893. The paper asks why it took so long for NMS missionaries to fulfil their original objective of recruiting, educating and ordaining indigenous church personnel. Furthermore, why were the Zulu pastors after ordination still treated as the missionaries’ subordinates? The questions are discussed from a masculinity perspective. The paper argues that internal church relations between these groups of men were influenced by external political and societal power relations where white masculinity had hegemony. The Norwegian missionaries’ ambivalent understanding of the Zulu man reflected common colonial discourses, where Zulu men on one hand were portrayed as physical strong and well-gifted men with rich potential, on the other hand as unstable, emotional and childish men. Peer reviewed 2010-01-01T00:00:00Z https://ir.unisa.ac.za/handle/10500/4571 A broken land and a healing community : Zulu Zionism and healing in the case of George Khambule (1884-1949) Draper, Jonathan A. The destruction of the Zulu Kingdom in the Nineteenth Century, the Bambatha Rebellion, the First World War and Spanish Influenza in the Twentieth Century destabilised Zulu culture, created widespread death and suffering, and also led to a longing for healing among the Zulu people. George Khambule's experience in Nquthu and the Western Front, together with his near death experience from Influenza resulted in his call to become a prophet and his foundation of iBandla Labancwele in 1918. His healing practice is analyzed and compared with the contemporary healing practice of Charles Johnson at St. Augustine's Mission, Nquthu, as competitive cultural and social phenomena. Peer reviewed 2010-01-01T00:00:00Z