Bhengu’s “Isinthunzi”
Profile by Dr CUTHBERT CHIDOORI
My First General Conference of the Assemblies of God
The Congress on Mission and Evangelism held in Durban
W F P Burton and some Congo Missionaries
Nicholas
Bekinkosi Hepworth Bhengu
– His Youthful Dreams
– His Preaching
- Bhengu and Education
- Bhengu and Money
- Miraculous Experiences
- Spiritual Happenings
- The Sanctifying Spirit of God
– His Departure
Bhengu’s “Isinthunzi”
- Government and Politics
– Some Faults, Virtues and the Burden
of His Heart
President Lucas Mangope of Bophuthatswana
William
Frederick Mullan
The Fairview Assembly
Fred Mullan and the Gifts of the Spirit
A Miracle and a Vision
The Revival in Norwood
James E Mullan
Paul O Lange
William Branham in Durban
Oral Roberts in South Africa
Billy
Graham in Salisbury and Durban
The American Missionaries from Springfield, Missouri
C. Austin Chawner and the Portuguese Work
August Kast and the Mount Tabor Mission Station
Colin
La Foy and the Coloured Leadership
The Work in Zimbabwe
Mauritius and Reunion Island
Special
Answers to Prayer – 1
Special
Answers to Prayer – 2
A Beautiful Square with Good Vibes
Prayer and the Hippie Revival
The Young Turks
Tensions within the Group
The Split
of 1981 – Part One
The Split
of 1981 – Part Two
The Beginnings of the Faith Movement in South Africa
The Statement of September 1989
The Charismatic Renewal
The Start of the Pentecostal Revival World Wide and The Swedish Pentecostal Assemblies
Epilogue
APPENDIX 1 : How to be Filled with the Holy Spirit
APPENDIX 2 : The National Church by Nicholas Bhengu
APPENDIX 3 : Article from the Argus 5/02/1981
APPENDIX 4 : Pointers to the future of the Assemblies of God in the New South Africa (10/06/94)
In one of his several books on indigenous African churches in South Africa, Professor Bengt Sundkler late of Uppsala University in Sweden describes the quality of “Isinthunzi” which any African leader of consequence is expected to have. “Isinthunzi” is a Zulu word which can describe the shade of a spreading tree that gives shelter from the heat of the sun. Or it can describe that aura of awesome strength emanating from a solitary bull in a paddock. When applied to a person it would imply certain expectations that might be required of a leader. A person with “isinthunzi” should have at least some connection, either personally or through his family, with royalty. He should be someone who does not talk much in debate. In any discussion he allows others to voice their opinions, then when everyone has had their say, he speaks and his summing up is final. The word would denote something more than the English word “dignity”.
I have often reflected
on Nicholas Bhengu’s personality in the light of what Sundkler
has said. Indeed, Bhengu did have a remote connection with royalty through
an uncle who was secretary to some member of the Zulu royal house. Certainly
he used to maintain a silence in debate, but when he did speak his words
were decisive. About him there was an aura that I have sensed in only
one other public figure, Nelson Mandela. More than any other person I
have ever had contact with, Madiba reminds me of Nicholas Bhengu. Not
only in his silences his dignity, his humour and his charm so readily
displayed, but in the scathing vitriol one has witnessed in his anger
when he thought a righteous principle was betrayed.
At one level, Bhengu was easy and sociable, a charming companion, always
interested in one’s conversation, and for his part ready to launch
into appropriate anecdotes to beguile whatever company he was in. He was
unequalled as a raconteur, and I never heard him repeat a story. He boasted
to me once that he could preach a different sermon for every one of 365
days in the year without repetition and he had a different story to embellish
every sermon he preached. In conversation his language was precise and
his flow of thought explicit.
Yet at another level, Bhengu was an enigma. Sometimes I found that while
I could understand perfectly the words and sentences he was using, I could
not fathom the thought processes behind what he was saying.
There was an occasion when I travelled by car with him and two of his ministers
for three days. For the whole three days we discussed the structures of
the Assemblies of God. For me, it was three days of bafflement. I could
not grasp what he was driving at. Only at the end of our journey did I
feel that I understood his argument and grasped his logic. Alas, now that
I am writing about it, I find it has again escaped me like a half-remembered
dream which seemed so logical in the hours of sleep, but so elusive on
waking.
But it was always a pleasure to be with Nicholas Bhengu. His stories and
opinions fascinated me. I never tired of observing him.
Sometimes I even found him unintentionally amusing, as, for instance, when
he prayed for the sick in his tent crusades. He was extremely sensitive
to the cold night air. When the meeting was ended and the benediction said,
the people would not disperse as one might expect them to. Instead, the
music and singing continued, the people formed into a long crocodile for
prayer, and Bhengu prayed for them. He simply touched each one as they
passed by him, uttering the words in Zulu, “In the name of the Lord
Jesus”. Now and then he briefly gave someone individual attention,
shouting aloud in prayer as he laid his hands on them. It was inspiring
to watch him, and yet he did look a little comical, for invariably he clad
himself in an overcoat against the cold, and pulled a knitted woollen cap
onto his head and over his ears. All one could see was the lower part of
his face, resolute and determined in praying, and his glasses glinting
in the dim light of the tent.
In Gwelo (now Gweru in Zimbabwe) I had an experience touching Bhengu and
the cold. For some reason, I travelled from Salisbury (Harare) early one
winter’s morning to speak to him. He was conducting services at Gweru.
Although the time was almost nine o’clock in the morning, the cold
was biting. When I reached the house where he was lodging I found about
a score of African Christians waiting to see him. Normally I would have
been ushered into his presence immediately, but on this occasion it was
not so. There was no preferential queue-jumping. I had to wait my turn.
Politely the householder settled me in the kitchen where a coal stove was
burning and smoking profusely. In spite of the cold I decided to leave
the kitchen door ajar since the smoking stove made the kitchen suffocating.
It was not long before I heard Bhengu’s voice complaining in a croaky,
querulous tone, “Ow vala umnyanga; umoya u ngena.” (Ow, close
the door; the wind is coming in.) Our host made haste to shut the door
again, leaving me to suffocate until my turn came to see the great man.
When I got to him there he was in bed with the blankets up to his chin,
his woollen cap pulled over his ears and his glinting glasses perched like
goggles on his nose. Thus we discussed the weighty concerns of the Kingdom
of God, whatever they were on that occasion!
Besides the householder, there were several women who glided in and out
of the room reverentially seeing to every possible need of the august personage
snuggled under the blankets. I think only Nicholas Bhengu could have maintained
his king-like dignity in those circumstances. He certainly was endowed
with “isinthunzi”.