Wintertime U.S.A.

I live in the Midwest. For whatever reason some long time ago, people decided that would be a good idea... or at least a very cold one.

Life as a Nazarite

Okay, so I am back living in the United States facing unemployment/underemployment and the single best winter the upper Midwest has ever received. When I am not providing people with far too many drinkable calories, watching Steve Wilkos throw chairs around while sweating on a treadmill, or biking along muddy trails, I spend a lot of time remembering where I have been. I have done a lot really quickly, and this being the first time I am not actively doing some thing massive in my life since I was into death metal; I have a lot to think about.

I went though my massive collection of photos from the research I did in South Africa in 2009; there was not a shortage of them. I looked back at the blog post i did a couple of years ago about my research and it doesn't even justify how important or amazing the work was. So I have decided to post a collection of picture from those months really showing how life changing the experience was for me and how unique and beautiful of a world the Shembe community has created.

I returned to Durban after studying abroad there. With lot of planning and even more help from Prof. Dale Wallace, I immediately starting living with a family of amazing Shembe followers in Musgrave. The family included Gogo, Nuntu, Zahkona, Phiwo, Yoli, Njabulo, Lusanda, and an infinitive rotating amount of cousins so that the tiny two bedroom apartment was never less then 3 people past capacity.

The first month of my time was taken up by library research, adjustments to living, and Sabbath observance. This included going to Elinda in the north of Zululand near the Zulu Royal Family's homestead in Empangeni. There I saw lots of ceremonies, including the wedding ceremony.

In July I moved to eBuhleni in the far reaches of the outer township of Inanda near the Inanda Dam. eBuhleni is the holy city of the Nazarites, and this means that anyone living here must practice the Shembe traditions at all times including never wearing shoes. eBuhleni is a hill, the bottom is the entrance and the rough and thorny walk up to the ceremonial ground is surround by extremely densely packed city. I live in a tent on top of the hill, but my family stayed in a house at the bottom where I spent the majority of my time.

Oh course, the reason I was there was to research the church... and I did. Hours and hours of research. Research from the crack of dawn until the midnight and 2 a.m. mass. I spent time with people dancing, in one of the many services each day, kneeling for hours, going to baptisms, weddings, virginity testing, circumcision, ancestor ceremonies, weddings, puberty rites, and to top it off more kneeling. Seriously, the Nazarites kneel all the time. That is hands down the most impressive thing they do. All while wear heavy clothes in the beating African sun. I went through close 2000 photos of people in white robes to pick out a few great ones.

Of course, Shembe is famous for dancing, and I saw hours and hours of it.

This blog is not about Shembe though, it is about me. I have written a lot on the topic and the amazing people who make up the church. Most importantly, the family who took me in and took care of me is what I would like to share. So here is a picture of my family, one that captures my life for that time, and one of my family and me leaving Ebuhleni.