Abstract
This chapter will show how Cohen Shaul and his followers reterritorialized the African Hebrew Israelite movement through the use of urban space in Johannesburg to spread the gospel and recruit new members, and how this has created a religious topography for the Israelites in Johannesburg. Furthermore, I will discuss how both sacred and secular contestation and competition with other religious groups, other inhabitants of the city and the Johannesburg municipality concerning some of these spaces led to the group spreading to other sites outside the city. This notion of the city as sinful and morally degenerate contributed to the need for ‘small bits of heaven’ (Vásquez 2008, 170) or spaces where they could feel safe. This led to some Israelites leaving Johannesburg to establish the Selepe Restoration Village in the North West Province a few hours’ drive north of Johannesburg.
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Notes
- 1.
All names used here are used with permission and are names that were received after becoming an Israelite.
- 2.
This chapter is based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted during 2013.
- 3.
“The ‘public open spaces by-laws’ state that “(1) No person may within a public open space—(a) use municipal property in a way that unfairly restricts or prevents other users of the public open space from enjoying that municipal property; or (b) except within a public open space or part thereof, which has been let to a person by the Council for that purpose, sell, hawk, offer or display any goods or articles for sale or hire; (2) No person may undertake a special event, except in terms of a permit issued in terms of section 22.” See http://www.joburg.org.za/bylaws/openspace.stm [last accessed 12 December, 2016].
- 4.
Segregation laws in the Southern states of the United States between 1890 and 1965.
- 5.
The term Ethiopian churches was used in earlier Anthropological studies to describe African Independent Churches which did not originate from mission or mainline churches. The term African Independent was later replaced with African Initiated.
- 6.
The Village leadership thought Cohen Shaul would bring his family. As he brought other Israelites in addition, there has been some conflict regarding the area they were given.
- 7.
When he says father he refers to their messiah, Ben Ammi , who usually goes by the name ‘Abba’ which means father in Hebrew.
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Sjødin, B.I. (2016). A Man Spoke in Joubert Park: The Establishment of a Transnational Religious Movement in South Africa. In: Wilhelm-Solomon, M., Núñez, L., Kankonde Bukasa, P., Malcomess, B. (eds) Routes and Rites to the City. Global Diversities. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58890-6_9
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