When playing a Tibetan singing bowl, peacefulness rings out into the air. It is interesting to note that the musical structure of Isaiah Shembe's ukusina and the sacred music of Tibet is similar. And can be traced to the source.

Isaiah asked his followers not to weep when he died because though his death, God intended using him elsewhere, where he would provoke a world war that would lead to the liberation of Africa. Isaiah died May 2 1936 : "Be strong you heroes. At the end of all that pain you will come to a place of rest." Shembe was born in 1865. In the Nongoma district there is a mountain range called Mzazela. Ekuphakameni is the main temple of the Shembe church. The word means “a place of spiritual upliftment.”

A rounded artist is called igaqu. Shembe was a typical igaqu as he was able to merge the three art forms namely poetry, music and dance very successfully.

THE HYMNS OF ISAIAH SHEMBE

Lalela Zulu :

”Listen O Zulu
Listen, her are people who pester me :
About our land they bother me .

We have the nations conspiring
Conspiring against you ;
They make bird-like noises

When we talk of birds, we talk of amahlokohloko
Which consume the harvest in the field
The field of Dingane and Senzangakhona

Lo! See how they have laid it to waste.
Mnyayiza tells us they have :
Mnyayiza the scion of Ndabuko

The Prophet, Isaiah Shembe was the instigator of the Durban bead and craft traders on the beachfront. Isaiah Shembe in reaction to the many African ladies being employed as domestic servants, called a meeting. He asked the ladies to learn to do beadworks as he had an idea to set up informal markets on the beachfront.

The prophet Isaiah Shembe was many things.

Robert Papini of the Kwa Muhle museum has researched and written the following: Shembe was remembered as “a compound of gentleness and severity who loved all things.” He had ‘green fingers' and would tell his sons not to sever trees branches asking, ‘How if I were to cut of the fingers from your hand?”

On the communal farms he established throughout Natal , Shembe pioneered rational and humane treatment of livestock.

As a young man Isaiah Shembe was a musician, playing the accordion at functions and weddings. He is referred to as the first ‘maskanda' (the urban Zulu ‘musikante' musician).

Shembe was known as the reincarnation of a snake; ‘the honoured viper of grace.' When a mamba appeared on Ekuphakemeni dance ground, the men asked if they could kill it, but Shembe warned that this was in fact a person.

He met with uNkulunkulu on the sacred mountaintops of KwaZulu Natal. He waited two weeks in the mountain before hearing from uNkulunkulu.

“Because he is Righteous.
He remembered Africa .
He did not forget his people.
He sent Isaiah as his servant.” Isaiah Shembe Hymn

His compositions were mighty and had an indelible impact that reverberates to this day! Isaiah Shembe's compositions are performed by regimented communities of people in a constant and meditative interaction of movement and rhythm. Words can barely describe a sighting of this ritual performance. It is powerful and has developed the description, ukusina, meaning sacred dance.

The melody of the ukusina compositions are played on lengthy steel horns. These were probably developed from antelope horns during the life-time of the Prophet.

Isaiah was not to know that posthumously he would be awarded the copyright for the vuvuzela, however he did make the following prophecy at his death. He told his followers not to mourn him as he was going to the afterlife to start a war that would free his African people.

Isaiah Shembe was known to be a deeply humble and modest man. Pictures that exist of him are few. There is a vivid depiction of him washing his disciples' feet; and another astride his beloved horse.

“Shembe's old grey horse was almost as famous as himself. Since it responded in kind when converts danced around it.” Papini

The humility of the prophet is outstanding. It was known he could communicate with animals. He would play his uhadi mouthbow throughout the night as a meditation. His teachings were through music, the sacred dance and the hymns in call and response.

Isaiah Shembe had many followers in his lifetime. Isaiah followed the ancient African religion established in Ethiopia . In the four generations since the death of the Prophet Isaiah, ‘ Shembe Church ' has grown into a major church boasting 4.5 million members!

The prophet Isaiah Shembe's places of worship were outdoors, denoted by an encircling of white stones, often laid around a great grandfather tree.

His second born son, Shembe II, built a huge church hall at his father's home in Ekuphakemeni. He went as far as altering his father's hymns. After his death in 1976, one of his sons, Shembe III took over the church and there has been turmoil ever since. Shembe III was known as ‘Pillar of Fire'. He was assassinated by the apartheid government in 1989. Black on black violence was initiated by the government, Shembe III was preaching against this. Shembe IV was inaugurated into the church at the age of 8. From prophet, to businessman, to revolutionary, to Pope?

The Buddha has been dead three thousand years. Imagine if his children down the generations had taken the throne? We would have Buddha number 150 in power today. And the Buddha never wanted power. His teachings have been preserved through the soveriegnty of his message.

The Shembe church is all split up as they have drifted from the original teaching of their prophet. One hopes for the miracle that will re-create the unity. One prays the current tributaries of the Shembe will meet and flow back into the same great river that flows from the source.

”God you are the Sun. Shine upon us all. Your ways are numerous. Through which you express love for a human being.”
The home the prophet Isaiah Shembe lived in.	The church hall of Ekuphakemeni built by Shembe II in 1940	Youth of the shembe Church fraction at Ekuphakemeni take a break after the service.