1	INTRODUCTION Alleluiav We have seen peace by mother Nku. She was given to us by the Almighty to gather all lost sheep. Mother Christinah Mokotuli Nku, the daughter of Bolibe, an amazing person. She brought salvation to the world. She received instructions from above. She healed the sick though prayers. People got life; the insane recovered; they sing alleluia.vi On Saturday 25 November 2006, the St John’s Apostolic Faith Mission of South Africa celebrated the century that has passed since their founder, Ma Christinah Mokotuli Nku, received her first divine instructions through a vision in 1906. The festivities at Evaton in Sebokeng,vii where Ma Nku’s original church was built, lasted throughout the day and night and included music making by three brass bands, choral singing by seven choirs, and speeches by ten prominent political and religious leaders.viii Amongst the guests of honour were Prof Mathole Motshekga, previously premier of Gauteng, as well as Rev Motlalepula Chabaku, member of Parliament, who also delivered speeches, much to the delight of the congregation, who packed the church to capacity. Special guest of honour, and leading the procession into the church dressed in the attire of an archbishop, was Lazarus Nku, grandchild of Ma Christinah Nku through her son Joel. Introducing the guests to the congregation was Daniel Mathe, another grandson of Ma Nku, and son of her only child still alive, Dorah Mathe. The prominency of Lazarus Nku and Daniel Mathe was not without significance. Lazarus represented the St John’s Apostolic Church of Prophecy that came into being after the rift in the St John’s church in 1972, while Daniel Mathe represented the Evaton branch of the St John’s Apostolic Faith Mission Church. At present they are leading the movement towards re-uniting St John’s. Finally, before the festive service commenced, Ma Dorah, the only living child of Ma Christinah Nku, entered. She is now 88 years old, everybody’s friend but nobody’s fool. She carries the legacy of her mother, the prophet, with dignity. She was the last speaker at the church service. In true prophetic style she re-iterated the history of her mother, and incited the congregation to take her mother’s legacy of prophecy and healing with them into the future. During the service, the above song in honour of Christinah Nku was sung by a choir of St John’s from Soshanguve. The choir master was Rev Nelakhe S Gabela, who researched and compiled the words of the song from historical sources.ix In a unique way the song summarises the life and work of Ma Christinah Nku: she brought peace to the community; she gathered the lost sheep from amongst her people; she brought salvation to the poor and sick; she gave the instructions she received from above through to the faith community; and the healed the sick through prayers. For this she is honoured and remembered. For this she is loved and cherished. This was her contribution to her community: peace, salvation, and healing.
2	AIM, METHOD AND SOURCES
2.1	Aim The aim of this article is to give an overview of the history of Ma Christinah Mokotuli Nku (1894-1988) and to emphasise her healing ministry. Her engagement as prophet, healer and founder of the St John’s Apostolic Faith Mission of South Africa will be traced, as well as her journey with the St John’s Apostolic Church of Prophecy with which she was associated since Rev Petros Masango took over the leadership of the St John’s Apostolic Faith Mission in 1972.
2.2	Research questions The research questions initiating this research were What are the centenary highlights of a church that developed from the visions of a twelve year old girl in 1906 to one of the largest African independent churches in South Africa in 2006? What are the gender issues at stake when tracing the history of Christinah Nku as a woman church founder of the early twentieth century? What are the faces and effects of the healing ministry of Christinah Nku? What are the causes of a church separating into 39 splinter churches, and what is the possibility of unification in an age of healing?
2.3	Sources and method This article can only be a first attempt at a history of mme Manku and her church(es) because of its orality. The method followed to obtain the information contained in this article is, therefore, simply the way in which sources were accessed. Interpreting the sources was difficult, if not impossible, since the status of many of the unpublished sources could not be determined. The visions of mme Manku, were related in a variety of unpublished sources, for instance. The origins of these sources (eg St John 2006, and Nku undated) were impossible to determine, and often contradicted each other. In this article, then, fact and fiction find a respectful voice next to one another. The following sources, then, were available to the author: Firstly, published sources on Christinah Nku were searched, scrutinised for information, and – as far as I know - exhausted. Published material on mme Manku is scarce, with only a few references scattered in books and essays that deal with greater entities such as African independent church formation and Zionism in general. Published material referring to mme Manku are: Martin West’s Bishops and prophets in a black city: African Independent Churches in Soweto, Johannesburg, who deals with Ma Nku’s handling of the 1972-division in the church (West 1975:65-66). Bengt Sundkler’s Zulu Zion and some Swazi Zionists, gives a vivid descripton of mme Manku leading a congregation in celebration and tells her history as a healer in a riviting eye-witness report (Sundkler 1976:79-82). Allan Anderson, who deals with the St John’s Apostolic Faith Mission as one of the most important and most numerous African Pentecostal churches in South Africax, describes in his book Bazalwane: African Pentecostals in South Africa the history, beliefs and practices of this church and refers to mme Manku’s prominent role in the church until 1970 (Anderson 1992:106-109). Simon Moripe adds a gender perspective to the history of mme Manku in his essay on “The calling and service of the African women in the African Independent/Indigenous Churches” (Moripe 1994:72). Linda Thomas politises mme Manku as church founder and healer in her book Under the canopy: Ritual process and spiritual resilience in South Africa (Thomas 1999:5,6,20,51,69,81,91,93,99,101,102), and in an earlier essay, “Christinah Nku: A woman at the center of healing her nation” (Thomas 1997:54-71). Finally, Frederick Quinn in his African saints: Saints, martyrs, and holy people from the continent of Africa (2002:154) includes an article on Christinah Nku, emphasising her role as healer in a context of poverty and political marginalisation. In the second place, this study is dependent on interviews with members of St John’s Apostolic Faith Mission in South Africa. The research route included visits to the following people: The research journey started in Soshanguvexi on Tuesday the 5th of September 2006 with a visit to Rev SS Mongwe,xii secretary of the St John’s Apostolic Faith Mission in South Africa, to obtain addresses from him to contact the relevant churches. The initial aim of the project was to visit St John’s churches only in the vicinity of Pretoria/Tshwane. Rev Mongwe required a letter of intent from usxiii in order to obtain permission to submit the information asked for. The letter was faxed, and 10 contact numbers were obtained from Rev Mongwe. Rev Mongwe consequently introduced us to Rev Paul Mabothe, whom we met at Mongwe’s house the following week on Tuesday 12 September 2006. Mabothe was very helpful in explaining to us the history of the St John’s Apostolic Faith Mission in poetic terms. He furthermore secured for us an interview with Archbishop Ramokoka from the St John’s Apostolic Church of Prophecy in Zuurbekom,xiv and gracefully accompanied us there the next week, that is on Thursday the 21th of September 2006. Rev Enoch Ramokoka is the grandson of Ma Christinah Nku through her fourth child, Mary. He is acknowledged by some as archbishop of the St John’s Apostolic Church of Prophecy, the church that came into being in 1972 after Petros Masango became archbishop of St John’s Apostolic Faith Mission. He claims to be legally appointed archbishop after the death of Archbishop Simon Maphlaole Nku, although the Nku family claims Tebogo, the son of Archbishop Simon Nku, to be the rightful heir to this title. Ramokoka shared valuable information on his grandmother as visionary, and as member of the family. Rev SS Mongwe, furthermore, referred us to the Mabopane branch of the St John’s Apostolic Faith Mission where he himself worships, and which is one of the largest St John congregations in Gauteng, if not in South Africa, counting more than 10 000 members. Here we were received on Wednesday the 4th of October 2006. We came to witness the healing performed here on Wednesdays, but were asked to come back the next Tuesday, that is the 10th of October 2006, for an interview with the bishop, Mother Selina Chauke. Chauke was a trainee of Mother Christinah Nku, and shared with us the journey she has travelled with Nku. Bishop Selina Chauke is 88 years old, and was supported by her daughter Naomi (70) during the interview. After the interview, the latter referred us to Winterveldxv for further research on the St John’s Apostolic Church of Prophecy. A long drive to the northwest brought us to the church in Winterveld, where the cell number of the President of the St John’s Apostolic Church of Prophecy, Lazarus Nku, was given to us by family members. Back home we made an appointment with Ntate Lazarus Nku, and visited him in Winterveld the next week, that is on Tuesday the 17th of October 2006. However, in order not to ruin recent attempts at unification between St John’s Apostolic Church of Prophecy and St John’s Apostolic Faith Mission, Lazarus Nku insisted that permission for an interview be obtained from the headquarters of the St John’s Apostolic Faith Mission church in Evaton, Sebokeng. The next research stop, then, was Evaton. This occurred on the next Monday, the 23rd of October 2006. We were very late for this appointment, travelling to Evaton for two and a half hours on what should be a 55 minute drive because of heavy traffic on the Johannesburg Eastern Bypass. At Evaton we met with a legend, the 87 year old Ma Dorah Mathe, second and only surviving child of Ma Christinah Nku, and with her son, the evangelist Daniel Mathe. Ma Dorah is outspoken and down to earth, and the interview with her was too short. Hopefully, she will allow another one shortly. A week later, we had an informal interview with Daniel Mathe at the National Archives in Pretoria/Tswane. Daniel wanted us to read the original court orders that were issued when the church split in 1972. However, all three these orders were wrongly indexed in the archives, and remain untraceable. We used the opportunity to interview Daniel, who shared his views on why the split in the church happened – and how it can be mended. I also had informal interviews with Daniel Mathe and Rev ET Rampedi in my office at Unisa on 6 and 12 December 2006, with Rev SE Mosiya, the PRO of the St John’s Apostolic Church of Prophecy joining us during the last meeting. They provided important information for and corrections to this article. Two further voices on the history of Ma Christinah Nku will briefly feature in this essay. The first is an interview] of Nomavenda Mathiane (2006) with Kenosi Mofokeng who identified Mother Christinah Nku as her mentor. The second is an informal and brief conversation this author had with Maureen August, granddaughter of Christinah Nku through her fifth child, Lydia August, during the festivities on 25 November 2006 in which Maureen, inter alia, pointed to the importance of consulting the community on the historical importance of Ma Nku. Encounter with the last two women, convinced this author of two shortcomings with regards to the interviews held on mme Manku, that should be corrected in the ongoing research on this remarkable woman: The community, and not only church leaders, should be interviewed on their experiences of healing and comfort ensuing van Ma Christinah Nku and St John’s. People who shared personal experiences with mme Manku should be interviewed, to complement the testimonies of those who at present are concentrating on the legal and polity issues surrounding the future of the church. The third kind of source used for this short history of Ma Christinah Nku is the material that was made available at the festivities of her 100 year ministry on 25 November 2006 at Evaton. These include: A booklet prepared by “St John Apostolic Faith Mission Church of South Africa” (2006) entitled Kgutsufatsoya bophelo ba moporofeta Mme C Manku/Synopsis of the life of prophetess Mrs C Nku. “My mother told me”, a speech delivered by Ma Dorah Mathe (2006) on her mother’s history. A song (re-)composed by Rev Nelakhe S Gabela (2006), entitled “Halleluya, rorisang”, that was sung in dedication of Ma Christinah Nku. Two further songs were sung and mentioned as mme Manku’s special favourites during the festivities. They are nr 32, “The love of Jesus”, and nr 105, “I am your child” from the song book Lifela tsa Sione. We were, furthermore, provided with news paper clips from the archives of the St John’s Apostolic Faith Mission at Evaton. These include: Articles from the newspaper The World (1970) on the election of Petros Masango to archbishop, the reaction of Ma Christinah Nku to this, and the ensuing split in the church. These articles range over three weeks from Monday, the 24th of August 1970, to Thurday 15 October 1970. An article, “Mma Nku’s church – rift is looming”, from the City Press. Articles from the newspapers Sunday Times Metro (2003) and City Press (2004) on the unhappiness in the St John’s Apostolic Faith Mission about the reportedly lavish lifestyle its archbishop Jacob Maragu, who succeeded Petros Masango in 1997, and died in March 2005. Official documentation in terms of official histories of mme Manku compiled by the church, court orders and agreements of unification were provided by St John’s at Evaton. These include: A letter signed by Christinah Nku (1970) dated the 14th of October 1970 in which informed the Secretary of Bantu Administration and Development that she had expelled Archbishop Petros Masango from the St John’s Apostolic Faith Mission of South Africa. An undated lists of “Visions” as told by mme Manku to her family. A letter signed by Rev BB Thobane (1972) as General Secretary of the St John’s Apostolic Faith Mission of SA and dated 19 June 1972 to inform the same Secretary of Bantu Administration and Development that, in accordance with the court order of 10 November 1971, Dr PJ Masango had been re-elected to Archbishop of the said church. The will of Christina(h) Ada Nku, dated 21st of May 1980. Several documents of the court dating between 1970 and 1984 in which the affairs of the church were regulated by court order. A two page history, “I had a vision 1906” prepared when mme Manku’s 100th birthday was celebrated by the “Organisation of African Independent Churches” in 1984. A document entitled, Agreed Common Ground (2005), that is an agreement towards unification between five representatives of St John churches, that is, at Evaton (Daniel Mathe), Rustenburg (Enoch Ramokoka), Potchefstroom (Radebe), Vogelstruisdraai (Lazarus Nku), and Katlehong (Paul Mabothe). This document was signed on Thursday the 13th October 2005. What, then, did this process of source collection achieve? I shall now proceed to the main part of the article, that is, to give an overview of the life and influence of Ma Christinah Nku as prophet and healer, according to the sources mentioned above.
3	1906 TO 1936: VISIONS OF A HEALING CHURCH
3.1	A history of ‘06 In his speech at the 2006 festivities in honour of Christinah Nku at Evaton, grandson Lazarus Nku (2006) referred to the significant role played by the year ’06 in the history of mme Manku. “In 1906 she experienced her first divine vision; in 1936 she moved to Evaton and the first church board of St John’s was elected; in 1956 the first church conference was held; in 1966 she prophesied that there would be war in Israel, and that Dr Verwoerd would be assassinated; and in 1976 she provided shelter to children involved in the Soweto uproar’s rebellion.”xvi Lazarus Nku thereby aptly introduced 2006 as the year for celebrating a hundred years of Christinah Nku, of whose life a brief history will now be given.
3.2	The first vision (1906): Mme Manku accepted her calling as a prophetess In 1906 God started speaking to mme Manku (St John 2006:1),xvii the daughter of Enoch and Magdeline Bodibe (Dorah Mathe 2006). This happened in Derdepoort, Botswana. Having received the indigenous name Mokotuli when she was born on the 21st of April 1894, she was baptised in the Dutch Reformed Church, and given the Christian name of Christinah. Till the age of 10 she attended a Methodist missionary school where she learnt to read and write (Thomas 1997:58). And then, when she was 12½ years old, in 1906, God started speaking to the fragile Tswana girl,xviii who at the time was looking after her sister’s children. Her sister’s husband was not always happy with mme Manku, and whipped her for constantly reading the Bible, saying that she was too young to do this. Mme Manku used to go to the mountains where she could hide from her sister’s husband, and read the Bible. What then, did God say to mme Manku in 1906? In the dreamxix mme Manku saw both the devil and an angel. The devil offered her money, lots of it, and the angel a hymn book, asking her to sing hymn 307 (Nku undated). Mme Manku accepted the hymn book, and thereby also accepted her calling as prophetess. Other things, too, happened to show that mme Manku was special. In 1907, for instance, mme Manku attended the wedding of her cousin with her mother and father. While the people were singing, she was reminded of the angel in her vision in 1906 who gave her a hymn book and asked her to sing, and she fainted. When she gained her consciousness, she was suffering from a splitting headache. Her mother carried her home on her back, but on the way they met a man who insisted on taking them to his house. Here a traditional healer made small cuts in the skin on her temples, and put muthi into it. However, she was not healed. Here, also, the women’s prayer group prayed for her, but the headache persisted. They also read to her from two scriptures, that is, from the Gospel of John and the Letter to the Ephesians. Then the traditional healer told her father that nobody would be able to heal her. She would only be healed by a healer from the east (St John 2006:2), a possible reference to the prophet Elia Nkitseng who baptised her.xx Stories of these visions are told, then, to establish mme Manku as a prophetess who is divinely appointed, and not self-appointed for financial gain.
3.3	A second series of visions (1914/1916): Mme Manku was to get married and have children Mme Manku’s hand was asked in marriage in 1914 by the Nku family (Dorah Mathe 2006). Her family was not anxious to give her in marriage, and had turned away many suitors, because the seizures and visions from which mme Manku suffered, made them believe that she was mentally ill. This time mme Manku had a vision of her marriage, and it had to happen. However, her fiancé went away to serve in the army (St John 2006:2). This was the time of the First World War. While he was gone, mme Manku became seriously ill, and everybody thought she would die. In her sickness, however, she received another series of visions, in which she was told that she would not die, but certainly marry Lazarus Nku, and would bear eight children (St John 2006:2), three sons and five daughters. When her fiancé came back from the war, they married. Mme Manku, then, was 22 years old when she married Lazarus Mosioa Nku in 1916 (Dorah Mathe 2006).xxi Because of her visions and the “illnesses” accompanying them, people said that Lazarus Nku married a demented person. Mme Manku related in “Visions” (undated) that this was because she was able to tell people what was troubling them, and revealed their secrets in public. The couple subsequently moved to the Free State (St John 2006:2). Within the next 20 years, between 1917 and 1936, Mme Manku bore eight children, just as the visions told her. Dorah Mathe, who, as mentioned earlier, is now her only surviving child, remembers the birth months of the children as follows, with her son Daniel providing the names of mme Manku’s grandchildren: In March 1917 mme Manku’s first child was born. She had a vision to call her firstborn, appropriately, Johannes (that is, after John the Baptist). In her vision she saw that he was going to be powerful in God’s word and was going to build churches. This indeed happened. Eventually Johannes became the first archbishop of the church, and built most of the church buildings of St John’s himself (OAIC 1984) Johannes had five children: Tebogo, Simon (who became archbishop of the St John’s Apostolic Church of Prophecy but is now deceased), Pule (died August 2006), Aletta, and Seretse (deceased). Johannes died, before his mother, in August 1979 at the age of 62. Mme Manku’s second child is Anna Dorah, born in May 1919. She was married to Elias Mathe and is now a widow. In the vision mme Manku saw that Dorah “was going to serve the people who came before the house of God” (OAIC 1984). Dorah’s children are Deborah, Lydia, Daniel, Patricia and Dinah.xxii Daniel Mathe at present plays a major role in the unification of the church. Obed was born in December 1921. It was revealed to mme Manku in a vision that “Obed will be a great thinker and would serve God” (OAIC 1984). Obed had one child, Brenda. He died in 2003. Mary, who later married Darius Ramokoka, was born in March 1924. The vision revealed that “Mary was going to serve God and take care of the sick” (OAIC 1984). Mary was the mother of Enoch, Patrick, Lazarus, Ernes, Ephriam, Christinah and Penrose. Enoch Ramokoka at present is the Archbishop of the St John’s Apostolic Church of Prophecy, although members of the Nku family regard Simon’s son, that is Johannes’ grandson, as the legitimate heir to the archbishopric. (Jael) Lydia – later the famous educationist Lydia August – was born in December 1925. She had two children, Eric who is deceased, and Maureen, who was briefly interviewed for this article. Joel was born in December 1928. His children are Mamoroesi, Lazarus, Johannes, Tefo and Mami. Lazarus Nku at present is the President of the St John’s Apostolic Church of Prophecy. Magdeline was born in October 1932. Selina was born in May 1936. Daniel Mathe called them a “royal family”, and indeed they were. At the 2006 festivities he said “Ma Christinah Nku has made us kings and leaders”. And indeed she did. Stories of these visions, then, are told in order to restrict the leadership of the church to the family of mme Manku, and protect the church against intruders. These stories are valuable seen within the later history of the dividing archbishopric of Petros Masango, and the present attempt at unification around the figure of Lazarus Nku (jr).
3.4	A third vision (1918): Mma Manku was told how to live a holy life as a prophetess Mme Nku was 12 years old when, in 1906, she was called through a vision to become a prophetess. Another 12 years later, in 1918, she received a further vision giving her instructions on how to live a holy life. She was busy working in the field, when a burning coal fell from heaven right in front of her. She fainted and experienced a vision in which she was told not to touch liquor or do any work on Sundays (St John 2006:2,3). These visions are obviously told aetiologically to explain the holiness practices of the church.
3.5	A fourth of vision (1924): Mme Manku accepted her calling as the founder of the church Mme Manku’s seizures continued, and it was about this time when her husband, Lazarus, heard of Rev Elias Nkitseng “in the east”. Nkitseng was from the Apostolic Faith Mission. Lazarus took his wife to be “healed” by this prophet. However, Nkitseng recognised that mme Manku was not ill, but under divine calling. This was because mme Manku say a great ball of fire while Nkitseng prayed for her (Nku undated), Mme Manku and her husband were both baptised in 1924, in the Apostolic Faith Mission Church (AFM) by Elias Nkitseng and Elias Ramoipone (St John 2006:3). Later the same year, in 1924, mme Manku went back to Nkitseng to that he and his brother Ismael could pray for her. She relates (Nku undated) that she went numb after the prayer, and had another vision, seeing a church with twelve door. A voice told her to take bricks and build a church for God. she was shown “a place in the west” where to build this church (Evaton is situated to the west of Johannesburg). The story of this vision plays a powerful role in legitimising mme Manku as a church founder, a woman in a man’s world.
3.6	A fifth series of visions and near death experiences (1927/28; 1931): Mme Manku accepted her calling as a healer Sometime between 1927 and 1928 mme Manku had a near death experience. Her soul and spirit was taken away for three days. They thought she had died. It happened because Rev Nkitseng had told her in 1924 to slaughter a cow for the ancestors. However, the herd of her husband Lazarus was depleted, and she was tempted not to do the slaughtering. Consequently she was almost dead for three days. When they were about to bury her, Elias Nkitseng told the people that she was not dead, but that her soul was held captured somewhere (St John 2006:3). This happened again in 1931, but this time with a glorious outcome. An old woman with the name Ma Dlamini invited mme Manku to her house and gave her a cup of coffee. While they were talking, with Ma Dlamini telling her that she had beautiful children and a lovely husband, mme Manku suddenly had a seizure that lasted from the morning till five in the afternoon. Mr Nku came from the farm and took her home. The following day mme Manku told the people that Satan took her off to hell for three hours, but that she was helped by the archangels Michael and Gabriel. When she was brought back from hell, the ancestors were on her right hand side, and spread skins of a cow, a sheep and a goat on the ground, stirred herbs on top of the skins, and a lovely fragrance arose from the herbs. On her left hand side, the cherubim were standing, crying out: “Jehovah of the Nations is Shining!”. Then the archangels Gabriel and Michael sent her out on her mission: “Go, Christinah!”. But as soon as she was on her way, Satan appeared again and threw her on her back. Michael and Gabriel shouted: “Where is the spear we gave you? Stab him!” So she grabbed the spear and stabbed Satan in his stomach and threw him on his back. Then Gabriel and Michael put a hood on her back, and in haar hand they put an iron stick, They took black stuff from her hand and her tongue so that everything she would say in future, would be pure and true. (St John 2006:3,4). The story of these visions are important in establishing mme Manku as a healer. To be a healer, mme Manku had to conquer Satan and sin, for illness is seen as the consequence of sin. Not only has she conquered Satan, she had been dressed and equipped by the archangels Gabriel and Michael with the symbols of a healer. There can be no doubt, then, about the divine appointment of mme Manku as healer. Like Jesus, she descended into hell and spent three days there, as Jesus had after his crucifixion, to conquer Satan. After that, the story goes (St John 2006:5) Mr Nku, who now possessed two teams of oxen, bought a third team – and carried out the sacrifices as instructed by Rev Nkitseng. Mme Manku, then, had not only conquered Satan, she had also pacified the ancestors. The ancestors, too, showed their support for her ministry as healer by fixing herbs on animal skins in her presence.
3.7	A sixth series of visions (1932/33) to secure a livelihood In 1932 there was a drought, and since the Nku family with their six children had no food, Mr Nku had to go to Johannesburg to look for work. He left his cattle with a white farmer, who eventually used Mr Nku’s brother (Sekese) to cheat Mr Nku out of all his cattle. When Mr Nku came back later for his cattle, he was arrested. Mme Manku then lived with her children in Prospect, a “township” of Johannesburg. One day, while looking for work, she became very tired and and lied down under a tree. Here she had a vision of a tall man with a long nail, almost as long as his finger, with which he pierced mme Manku, promising that the money will be provided for her livelihood as well as her ministry. When she woke up, she saw 5c with which she bought bread (1c), milk (1c), sugar (1c) and tea (1c), as she was told in the vision (St John 2006:5). After further praying and visions, mme Manku was blessed with two drums, the one full of five pount notes, and the other filled with five shilling coins, with which she bought clothes and food for her six children (St John 2006:6). These visions and miracles are obviously told to indicate that God was providing for mme Manku, and preparing her for building the church with the twelve doors.
3.8	A seventh series of visions (1932-35) to prepare the ground for building a church in Evaton Mme Manku (Nku undated) now tells how, while she was still a member of the Apostolic Faith Mission Church, received visions in 1932 when she was told to wear a blue and white belt, in 1933 when she was told to have her own services with designated church members at 09:00, 15:00 and 19:00, and in 1935 when she was told to have her own church conferences three times a year, that is, in March, August and November (Nku undated). With these visions the scene was set for mme Manku starting a new church. The uniforms of the church was to be blue and white, three services a day and three conferences a year was to be held. And mme Manku was to break with the AFM with whom she journeyed since 1918 (see Thomas 1997:60)..
4	1936-1972: EXPANDING, HEALING, EDUCATING
4.1	Eighth series of visions (1936-39) on building the church In 1936 mme Manku went to Evaton and started healing people. She did not want to ask them anything, but eventually people started paying her a shilling (10c) so that she could feed her children. Many people started joining her in establishing a church. Amongst them were Ma Moseki and Ma Maloko, as well as father Rasekgao and father Ratefane, and many others (St John 2006:6). After working from several sites, from which they were driven by traditional healers, mme Manku got a vision to build the church where there were heavy electrical cables. She found such a plot in Evaton and started building the church there in 1939 (St John 2006:7). She also received two further important visions in 1939: The one vision told her to stop animal sacrifice. The other vision showed her a Sjangaan, Indian, a white, a Zulu and somebody from Damaraland.xxiii Thus she was informed that St John’s would spread all over the world (St John 2006:8). Mme Manku apparently bought the plot in Evaton in her own name, justifying this by means of Hymn 40, Fatshe kela morena (“The land is of God”). The visions told here are to justify this act that was to cause intense tension in the church during the later 1940s. Eventually mme Manku, with the help of her first born, Johannes, built another church in Evaton across the road from the 1940s church. This church is known as “the Temple” and was finished in 1952. For many years this was the largest of any African Independent Church building in the Pretoria-Witwatersrand-Vaal Triangle area (Anderson 1992:107).
4.2	Ninth series of visions (1941) on the tension in the church The St John’s Apostolic Faith Mission of South Africa was formally registered in 1942. Before that both mme Manku and other church members of the church had visions that there will be war in the church. In 1939 mme Manku had a vision that, after the church has spread “all over the world” (that is, South and Southwest Africa), she would be fighting a war that she is not sure she would win. Two elders in the church had similar visions: In 1941 father Asele said that there was a dust storm coming. It would rip off part of the church “on the western side”. Then father Moloi said that the roof would fall on people “on the station and De Deur’. A snake would appear and chase the people. They would try to climb on top of buildings, but the snake would chase them down. The spirit of the snake would be everywhere (St John 2006:8). Mme Manku allegedly prophesied a series of calamities that would hit societies broader than St John’s. In the 1960s she prophesied that there would be war in Israel and that Tsavendas would assassinate Dr Hendrik Verwoerd, the then Prime Minister of South Africa and architect of apartheid. She also prophesised that a great illness would overwhelm the world, which was a reference to the AIDS pandemic (St John 2006:10). The year 1949 was indeed not a good year for mme Manku. Her husband, Bishop Lazarus Nku died in a railway accident (Elias Nkitseng died the previous year) (Anderson 1996:145). Furthermore, from 1949 many storms rocked the church (according to Dorah Mathe, 2006, “the church started in 1942, and it started to have problems in 1949): In 1949 there was tension in the church on the ownership of the plot in Evaton. And again in 1968 there was unhappiness about mme Manku keeping the money of the church in a safe in her house (St John 2006:10). In 1968 Archbishop Johannes Nku took Dr PJ Masango to court, accusing him of taking church funds. Masango won the case (Mabothe 2006). In July 1969 church members voted on the issue of polygamy with Johannes Nku being for and Petros Masango against it. Masango won the elections. A split in the church occurred in the 1970s when Dr Rev Petros Masango was elected archbishop and mme Manku’s son, Johannes, left the church. In 1972 the St John’s Apostolic Church of the Prophecy was established by the Nku family. In 2001 a rift was brewing between Enoch Ramokoka and the Nku family, the latter regarding Ramokoka as self-appointed to the office of archbishop in the St John’s Apostolic Church of Prophecy, and preferred Tebogo, son of Simon Nku, as the rightful heir (City Press 2001). In July 2004 members of the executive of the St John’s Apostolic Faith Mission filed an urgent application in the Johannesburg High Court against Archbishop Jacob Maragu, who was appointed archbishop in 1997 (after the death of Masango that already occurred in January 1984). Members wanted to curb Maragu’s powers, especially since he was in a position to dispense church money to himself to finance a lavish lifestyle. Lately, since 2005, fighting in the St John’s Apostolic Faith Mission has erupted between clerics and spilled over amongst congregants to such an extend that the South African Council of Churches (SACC) has appointed a group of church leaders led by emeritus Archbishop Desmond Tutu (of the Anglican Church) to help end the row (Sowetan 2005).
4.3	Appreciation of mme Manku as healer, prophetess, church founder and educator This article is not about the division(s) in St John’s. This article is about mme Manku in appreciation of her contribution to the faith community of St John’s, and the South African society at large. This author, then, associates with the following appreciations of mme Manku that refer to her contribution to faith development within the sphere of politics, gender, poverty and education: Linda Thomas (1997:63) sees the contribution of mme Manku in her covert resistance to a racist political system that rendered millions poor, many of whom became members of St John’s: As the church grew, Nku’s ministry expanded through the establishment of schools for children and programs for youth and adults. People’s lives were transformed, and this directly benefited the community. Nku’s ministry was subversive in that it functioned as a hidden transcript that was a response to systems that dominated the poor. Linda Thomas (1999:5) furthermore honours mme Manku for founding a church that broke away from local missionary Christianity to establish a church based on the healing of a nation through the use of indigenous knowledge and symbols. She especially honour mme Manku for doing this as a woman: While Nku was a pioneer, one of a few women who initiated independent African churches, she also followed a stream of Africans who grew tired of being dominated by white Protestant Christianity and separated from mission churches to create new religious cosmologies that blended Christian symbols and practices into well-established precolonial religious systems. Allan Anderson, whose research in Soshanguve showed that 32% of the population there belonged either to the ZCC or St John’s (Anderson 1993:26), too honours mme Manku not only as a healer who used indigenous symbols, but who also healed in her breaking away from the missionary churches (Anderson 1992:106). Bengt Sundkler (1979:81) points to mme Manku’s legacy as a healer and describes in vivid terms the healing ceremonies he had attended that were led by her. He describes her praying over bottles of water, that thus acquired healing qualities. He furthermore describes a baptismal service he attended where more than three hundred people were baptised. However, he points out that above all it was “as a healer that she became known”, loved and honoured: Attending one of her yearly August meetings together with some ten thousand faithful, I realized that those people would claim, possibly without exception, that they were there because of having been healed by this woman, or because they were awaiting their opportunity for her healing touch. It is Frederick Quinn (2002) who reminds us of mme Manku’s nickname amongst her people, which was “mother with a thousand teats”. Thus she was honoured not only as a healer of bodily illnesses, but also provided in the spiritual and financial needs of the faithful. Her children and grandchildren also remember her healing qualities as paramount. According to daughter Dora Mathe (2006) “people were healed by just looking at her”. Maureen August (2006), daughter of mme Manku’f fifth child, Lydia August, remembers her grandmother as “powerfully spiritual”. She adds an important insight to her grandmother’s healing ministry, and that is that her grandmother’s healing was based on indigenous knowledge, and important component of township spiritualities (see Landman 2006). The community will furthermore testify to the fact, Maureen claims, that they became prosperous after joining the church and taking up contact with its healer. Her grandson through her daughter Mary, Enoch Ramokoka (2006), claims that even Joseph and Edward Lekganyane of the Zion Christian Church (ZCC) came to visit mme Manku and gain from her healing powers. Selina Chauke, bishop and reverend of St John’s Mabopane (Block C), is 88 years old and has known mme Manku since 1956. She too remembers (Chauke 2006) that mme Manku’s healing ministry was supported by indigenous knowledge, sound advice, love, guidance and a feeling for the healing consequences of living morally correct. Mme Manku did her healing through prayer, and by dispensing indigenous wisdom that she received through visions. The only “ancillary” to her healing was the bottles of water she blessed and thus acquired healing powers. Mme Manku expanded her healing ministry with love towards other people and the advocacy of a healthy moral lifestyle. For this she is honoured no less by her own church, that writes its history (St John 2006) in terms of mme Manku’s prophetic skills and healing ministry.
5	1972: AN UNHEALTHY DIVISION IN THE CHURCH Martin West (1975:65) traces the 1972 division in the church back to “the problems that can arise when a woman founds and leads an independent church”. However, Moripe (1994:71) claims that “the presence of women as prophets is usually not a threat to the established male hierarchy”. And indeed it is to be doubted whether the split in St John’s in the 1970s can be traced back to the figure of mme Manku as its prophet. By the time she formally registered her church, in 1942, she was already 48 years old, and thirty years later in 1972, when the split occurred, she was a woman of 78: hardly a threat as a newly emerging female figure. What, then, caused the split of St John’s in the 1970s? This article will only briefly refer to this split since, as was previously said, the focus here is on the healing ministry of mme Manku. The split therefore is only of importance as a forerun to the present movement towards unification, in which the history of mme Manku as a healer is again featuring prominently. Formally the split occurred when Dr Rev Petros Masango, in terms of the constitution, enforced the election of an archbishop, contrary to the practice of mme Manku appointing one. Mme Manku has, indeed, already appointed her oldest son Johannes who was serving in this position. His father Lazarus was the first bishop of the church, and Johannes was appointed in that position after the death of his father in 1949 (Ramokoka 2006). The election took place in August 1970, and Masango won the elections. Mme Nku tried to take control over the situation by announcing that Masango would only serve four months until she herself had appointed an archbishop. Johannes then resigned from the church and Masango announced that the November festivals would be celebrated in his home town in Swaziland that was to be the new headquarters of the church. Mme Manku subsequently expelled him from the church, upon which Masango turned to the court which ruled him the legitimately elected archbishop (see West 1975:65-68; The World 1970; relevant legal documents). The Nku family regarded Masango as an outsider to the leadership of the church which, according to grandson Daniel Mathe (2006), was to remain a family church. Grandson Enoch Ramokoka (2006) attributes the split to power hunger and describes subsequent events leading to the founding of a new church as follows. The church segregated in 1972, and Johannes formed another church and called it Christinah Nku Faith Mission. Ma Christinah was not pleased with this and did not approve it. They then named the church St John’s Apostolic Church of Prophecy. The splitting of the church did not fit well with Ma Nku, but there was nothing she could do because of people who were power hungry. Johannes died in 1977. Then after Johannes’ death his son Simon Nku became the next bishop. Enoch Ramokoka himself claims to be heir to the archbishopric of the St John’s Apostolic Church of Prophecy after the death of Simon Nku in 1983, but this is disputed. The Evaton group favours Lazarus Nku, grandson of mme Manku through her son Joel. The Masango group views the history of the split differently. Rev Paul Mabothe (2006) from the St John’s Apostolic Faith Mission in South Africa, that is, the “original church”, claims that mme Manku herself had prophesied that Masango would lead the church. She did this as far back as 1937 when she originally started founding the church. “During that year (1937) she got a revelation that said to her that there was going to be a man from the east, a Zulu speaking man who is going to be more powerful than her who is going to run the church, and she was only paving the way for him”, Mabothe (2006) said. He also claims that, already in 1922, another prophet, Walter Mateta, prophesied about the man who was coming from the east to lead the church. “And indeed, in 1938 the prophecy was fulfilled as the man came and he was Prophet Archbishop Dr PJ Masango (DD)”. Mabothe attributes the problems in the church to mme Manku’s oldest son Johannes who wanted to practice polygamy in the church and was an autocrat. Masango opposed him on these issues, and the people voted against Johannes, according to Mabothe. Christinah Mokoduli Nku died in 1988, and was buried on her farm in Rustenburg, in Motlolle. This is now almost 20 years after her death. How has the splits and rows in the St John’s churches affected her legacy?
6	2006/7: A VISION OF HEALING? Urged by the South African Council of Churches (SACC) and according to their own testimony (Lazarus Nku, Daniel Mathe 2006) inspired by the legacy of their founder, mme Manku, leaders from the St John’s churches met on the 20th of June 2006 for a “Reconciliation Indaba” at the SACC National Office. This led to a document of intent, entitled “Agreed Common Ground”, that was issued on Thursday the 13th of October 2005. In this document the “big five” agreed On a common mandate to promote unity, peace, common understanding and a good image of the Church On future meetings between themselves where they would openly and honestly discuss their differences – but also the things that they share in common. Of paramount importance here, of course, is the history they share in mme Manku. The “big five” who are busy in unification talks and have signed the “Agreed Common Ground” document are St John’s Apostolic Faith Mission of SA in Evaton, presented by Evangelist Daniel Mathe St John’s Apostolic Church of Prophecy, presented by Rev (Archbishop?) Enoch Ramokoka St John’s Apostolic Faith Mission of SA in Potchefstroom, presented by Rev BE Radebe St John’s Apostolic Church of Prophecy in Vogelstruisdraai, presented by President Lazarus Nku (and co-signed by the PRO of this church, SE Mosiya) St John’s Apostolic Faith Mission of SA in Katlehong, presented by Rev Paul Mabothe. In the meantime an initiative was taken by Evangelist Daniel Mathe, Rev SE Mosiya and Rev Elias Rampede to form the “African Independent Churches Organisation” in order to deal with issues such as the re-unification of churches from within the independent churches league (Mosiya 2006). Symbolising their intend of unification was the festivities of 25 November 2006, when the “big five”, and more, assembled to honour a hundred years of history “caused” by their mother, Christinah Nku. It is her healing ministry that, at present, is the inspiration – and historical validation – for the St John’s churches to find and heal one another.
7	CONCLUSION Lazarus Nku (2006), in a speech he gave at the 25 November 2006 festivities, in his calm and composed way, linked the history of Ma Christinah Nku as prophet, to the future of St John Apostolic Faith Mission with the following words:xxiv We are fixing the things of the church. In heaven the church has already been fixed. The rest remains for our hearts to do. Today, here, coming together, we have defeated the devil. Ma Nku has prophesised the unification of the church. We must now show that she was a real prophet by uniting the church.

Bibliography Unpublished Sources Interviews
August, Maureen: Chauke, Selina, Rev:   Mabothe, Paul, Rev:   Mathe, David, Evan:     Mathe, Dorah, Mother: Mongwe, Rev: Nku, Lazarus, President: Ramokoka, Enoch, Archbishop:	25 November 2006 04 October 2006 10 October 2006 12 September 2006 21 September 2006 23 October 2006 30 October 2006 05 December 2006 23 October 2006 5 September 2006 17 October 2006 21 September 2006	Evaton Mabopane Mabopane Carina Zuurbekom Evaton National Archives Unisa Evaton Soshanguve Winterveld Zuurbekom

Booklets

Nku, Christina(h). Undated. “Visions”. A list of visions from 1906 to 1966 as recorded by mme Manku to her family members.

Organisation of African Independent Churches (OAIC). 1984. “I had a vision 1906”. Short history prepared for the 100th birth celebrations of mme Manku.

St John Apostolic Faith Mission Church of South Africa. 2006. Kgutsufatso ya bophelo ba moporofeta Mme C Manku/Synopsis of the life of prophetess Mrs C Nku.

Speeches

Mathe, Dorah. 2006. “My mother told me”. Speech delivered at the 25 November 2006 festivities of Ma Christinah Nku at Evaton.

Nku, Lazarus. 2006. “Speech by Ntate Mosioua Nku”. Speech delivered at the 25 November 2006 festivities of Ma Christinah Nku at Evaton.

Song

Gabela, Nelakhe S. (comp). 2006. “Halleluya, rorisang”. Song performed at the 25 November 2006 festivities of Ma Christinah Nku at Evaton.

Letters

Nku, Christinah. 1970. Letter to the Secretary of Bantu Administration & Development, Pretoria, Transvaal, that Petros Masango has been expelled from the St John Apostolic Faith Mission of SA. Dated 14th October 1970.

Thobane, BB Rev. 1972. Letter to the Secretary of Bantu Administration & Development, Pretoria, Transvaal, that Petros Masango has been re-elected as Archbishop of the St John Apostolic Faith Mission of SA. Date 19 June 1972.

Legal documents

Agreed Common Ground. 2005. Agreement towards unification between five representatives of St John churches, that is, at Evaton (Daniel Mathe), Rustenburg (Enoch Ramokoka), Potchefstroom (Radebe), Vogelstruisdraai (Lazarus Nku), and Katlehong (Paul Mabothe).

Published Sources and dissertations

Anderson, A. 1992. Bazalwane: African Pentecostals in South Africa. Pretoria: University of South Africa.

Anderson, A. 1993. “African Pentecostalism and the ancestors: Confrontation or compromise?”, in Missionalia 21(1)26-39.

Anderson, A. 1996. “African Pentecostalism”, in Studia Historiae Ecclesiasticae 22(2)114-148.

City Press. 2001. “Mma Nku’s church – rift is looming”. 29th July 2001. By Dan Dhlamini and Elias Maluleke.

City Press. 2004. “Row over rich archbishop”. 4th July 2004. By Ali Mphaki.

Landman, C. 2006. Religion as a healing discourse: Pastoral counselling in a township setting. Unfinished D Th dissertation. Pretoria: University of South Africa.

Mathiane, Nomavenda. 2006. “National Holy rollers”, in Mail and Guardian Online 7 December 2006.

Moripe, S. 1994. “The calling and service of the African women in the African Independent/Indigenous Churches”, in Nederduits Gereformeerde Teologiese Tydskrif 35(1):68-76.

Quinn, F. 2002. African saints: Saints, martyrs, and holy people from the continent of Africa. New York: Crossroads Publishing Company, p 154.

Sunday Times Metro. 2003. “Unholy row”. 27th July 2003. By Sabelo Ndlangisa.

Sundkler, B. 1876. Zulu Zion and some Swazi Zionists. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

The World. 1970. Articles on the election of the archbishop of the St John Apostolic Faith Mission, ranging from 24 th August 1970 to 15 October 1970.

Thomas, LE. 1997. “Christinah Nku: A woman at the center of healing her nation”, in EM Townes, Embracing the Spirit: Womanist perspectives on hope, salvation and transformation. Maryknoll, New York: Orbis.

Thomas, LE. 1999. Under the canopy: Ritual process and spiritual resilience in South Africa. Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina.

West, M. 1975. Bishops and prophets in a black city: African Independent Churches in Soweto, Johannesburg. Cape Town: David Philip.