An Introduction to the Letters of Isaiah Moteka

The Correspondence of a Twentieth-Century South African Zionist Minister

Datos Bibliográficos

ID7547535
AutoresJoel Cabrita (0000-0003-4021-6079, University of Cambridge, autor de correspondencia)
Año2014
Volumen84
Número2
Páginas163-198
Fecha de publicación2014-05-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaAfrica (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0001-9720 • E-ISSN: 1750-0184
EditorialCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0001972014000011
OpenAlexW2127438547
IdiomaEN
Referencias citadas27

South African Zionism, one of the most popular Christian movements in modern South Africa, has frequently been interpreted in narrowly indigenous terms, as a local, black appropriation of Christianity, heavily invested in orality and ritual performance. The correspondence of the twentieth-century Zionist minister Isaiah Moteka tells a different story. Moteka honed the craft of letter-writing in order to build and sustain his relationship with Zion, Illinois, the headquarters of the worldwide Zionist church. Through the exchange of letters across the Atlantic, Moteka affirmed his own and his congregants’ place within a multiracial Zion diaspora. And through their complex invocation of overlapping local and global affiliations, Moteka's writings proclaimed his standing both as a regional clergyman and as a cosmopolitan internationalist. In particular, these ambiguous missives became the platform for Moteka's engagement with apartheid-era state officials. Seeking to persuade state officials that his organization fell under ‘white’ supervision, Moteka's letters proclaimed his accreditation by Zion, Illinois, thereby casting himself as a deputy of the worldwide movement. But these documents’ citation of transatlantic loyalties also suggests Moteka's own conflicted loyalties. His letters asserted loyalty to the nation state while they simultaneously subordinated earthly power to the Kingdom of God

Appropriation · Archaeology · Christianity · Diaspora · Diplomacy · Indigenous · Judaism · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · State (computer science · White (mutation · Zionism · Christian Theology and Mission · History · Law · Pentecostalism and Christianity Studies · Philosophy · Religious studies · South African History and Culture