Paper short abstract:

Looking at the Sabbath service of the Nazareth Baptist Church, performed at an open-air temple in the center of Durban, this paper explores this practice’s relationality with regard to its urban setting, diverse religious traditions, and the wider social context of (post-)apartheid South Africa.

Paper long abstract:

Every Saturday, a congregation of the Nazareth Baptist Church gathers at one of their temples, called Khayelihle, the good home, located in a park in central Durban. Across a four-lane road lies Warwick Junction, the city's largest informal market and transportation hub, a public space where South Africa's (super-)diversity is encountered on a daily basis. The area is also religiously diverse, with a major Christian bookshop located across the road, a Nigerian Pentecostal Church in a warehouse around the corner, and the tomb of Durban's most famous Sufi saint just beyond Warwick and the railroad tracks.

The Nazareth Baptist Church is one of South Africa's oldest and largest African Initiated Churches, and Khayelihle Temple is its oldest in Durban, though it moved location many times. At present, the temple is not even marked by the customary circle of white stones. The sacred location manifests only when the congregation enchants space, when it sings the Sabbath hymns and praises Jehovah because "he made us reign over the homesteads of our enemies."

Kneeling in a public park, the members of the NBC, wearing Zulu traditional garb underneath the white church gown, take a stand as they sing at the statues of Louis Botha, first president of the Union of South Africa, and Dinuzulu, last of the Zulu kings. This paper explores how NBC practices relate rural referents to an urban setting, mix pre-colonial and Christian lines of tradition, and challenge (post-)apartheid spatial signification and order.