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Nxele and Ntsikana : a critical study of the religious outlooks of two nineteenth century Xhosa Prophets and their consequences for Xhosa Christian practice in the Eastern Cape

Includes bibliographical references.

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Main Author: Tisani, Ezra Vuyisile
Other Authors: Setiloane,Gabriel M
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Department of Religious Studies 2015
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access_status_str Open Access
author Tisani, Ezra Vuyisile
author2 Setiloane,Gabriel M
author_browse Setiloane,Gabriel M
Tisani, Ezra Vuyisile
author_facet Setiloane,Gabriel M
Tisani, Ezra Vuyisile
author_sort Tisani, Ezra Vuyisile
collection Thesis
description Includes bibliographical references.
format Thesis
id oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/15882
institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:32:51.499Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2015
publishDateRange 2015
publishDateSort 2015
publisher Department of Religious Studies
publisherStr Department of Religious Studies
record_format dspace
source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/15882 Nxele and Ntsikana : a critical study of the religious outlooks of two nineteenth century Xhosa Prophets and their consequences for Xhosa Christian practice in the Eastern Cape Tisani, Ezra Vuyisile Setiloane,Gabriel M Religious Studies Includes bibliographical references. This research into the religious outlooks of two Xhosa prophets of the nineteenth century establishes the importance of sociopolitical factors as determinants for theology. A need has been felt therefore to investigate matters of a historical nature in the inquiry on the existence of diverse religious reactions of amaXhosa to Christianity. It has been on that same basis that the missionary activity of that same era has been evaluated in this study. Part one deals with the social life of amaXhosa as well as their political systems. It is recognised that land was regarded as an essential component of the religious life of amaXhosa. The close integration of the socio-political, economic and religious spheres of the life of amaXhosa determined that their religious ritual should be a celebration of that unity of life. The chief and inyanga were essential officiants at such religious rituals. All this arrangement accounted for a cohesion in the African traditional life. There were at the same time in-built measures for social control. Part two attempts to evaluate the reaction of nineteenth century missionaries to Xhosa traditional religion. Here there is recognition that in the coming together of amaXhosa and Europeans, there were meeting exponents of different symbolic universes. A faithful adherence to what accounted for traditional background on the part of any of the two sectors, meant that there would be conflict. Because European Christian religion had the necessary strong, political and military supportive structure, it did not simply survive but made divisions in the Xhosa religious life. This it did by posing demands that Xhosa converts should make a complete break with their past. The study ends by concluding that Western Christian religion erred in the demand to Europeanise Africans. It is suggested that so long as the tendency to destroy African traditional practices persists, there will be conflict within the church in South Africa. The church needs to relate its programme to the life of its African context. 2015-12-20T15:40:33Z 2015-12-20T15:40:33Z 1987 Master Thesis Masters MA http://hdl.handle.net/11427/15882 eng application/pdf Department of Religious Studies Faculty of Humanities University of Cape Town
spellingShingle Religious Studies
Tisani, Ezra Vuyisile
Nxele and Ntsikana : a critical study of the religious outlooks of two nineteenth century Xhosa Prophets and their consequences for Xhosa Christian practice in the Eastern Cape
thesis_degree_str Master's
title Nxele and Ntsikana : a critical study of the religious outlooks of two nineteenth century Xhosa Prophets and their consequences for Xhosa Christian practice in the Eastern Cape
title_full Nxele and Ntsikana : a critical study of the religious outlooks of two nineteenth century Xhosa Prophets and their consequences for Xhosa Christian practice in the Eastern Cape
title_fullStr Nxele and Ntsikana : a critical study of the religious outlooks of two nineteenth century Xhosa Prophets and their consequences for Xhosa Christian practice in the Eastern Cape
title_full_unstemmed Nxele and Ntsikana : a critical study of the religious outlooks of two nineteenth century Xhosa Prophets and their consequences for Xhosa Christian practice in the Eastern Cape
title_short Nxele and Ntsikana : a critical study of the religious outlooks of two nineteenth century Xhosa Prophets and their consequences for Xhosa Christian practice in the Eastern Cape
title_sort nxele and ntsikana a critical study of the religious outlooks of two nineteenth century xhosa prophets and their consequences for xhosa christian practice in the eastern cape
topic Religious Studies
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/15882
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