The Historical Sociology of Independent Churches in South East Africa

Three decades ago Bengt Sundkler produced the standard work on independent churches in South Africa. More refined work has since been done on similar movements elsewhere in Africa, but in South Afirica Sundkler has only been bettered by Sundkler. 1 This iessay examines Sundkler's classifications of "Ethiopian" and "Zionist" with respect to churches in Natal and Zululand. It will be argued that Sundkler's classificatio;ns make excellent sense from a longitudinal or historical point of view but are misleading when used to describe the poles of a continuum. The social ,origins and motives of Ethiopian independents will be shown to be dramatically different from those of the Zionists who appeared some decades later.