16th Temple Guard: The Rt. Honourable Rev. Enoch Mgijima

Guardian of A Temple Gate:

The Right Honourable Prophet, Enoch Mgijima

Enoch Mgijima was born in the year 1868 and ascended on 5th March 1928, in peace. He is remembered as an African Christian Xhosa prophet and evangelist.  Enoch Mgijima, was born in Bulhoek, 25 km southwest of Queenstown to parents Jonas Mayekiso Mgijima and MaKheswa. He completed Standard 3 (Grade 5) at a local school but could not go to Lovedale because of severe headaches. He later became a Wesleyan lay preacher, hunter and farmer. In April 1907, Mgijima had his first vision in which an angel said to him:

"I have sent you to these people because I am worried that although they worship me, they are not honest in their worship of me. I want you to worship me according to your old traditions."

After ignoring the vision, Mgijima began preaching again and acquired a large following as an evangelist. In 1910, after seeing Halley's Comet, Mgijima believed his vision had been confirmed, a sign that God was angry with humans and that they should return to their Old Testament beliefs.

In 1912, Mgijima broke away from the Wesleyan Methodist Church and began baptising his followers whom he called the "Israelites" in the Black Kei River.  Mgijima, who had accumulated a large following, stood up at the tabernacle during a church service in 1919 and said; "Juda, Efrayime, Josef, nezalwane (Judah, Ephraim, Joseph and brethren)".

According to his followers, Israelites all over the country heard these words and understood that they were to come to Ntabelanga, their prophet's holy village, and await the Lord's coming. By 1921, 3000 Israelites had arrived in Ntabelanga. After continuous disagreements over land and the prolonged stay of Israelites in Bulhoek, the white South African government and Mgijima's followers clashed on 24 May 1921. This resulted in 163 Israelites declared dead, 129 wounded and 95 taken prisoner. The massacre is known as the Bulhoek massacre.  Mgijima, survived this massacre and with his elder brother Charles, and Gilbert Matshoba, were tried and sentenced to five years hard labour at DeBeer's Convict Station in Kimberley.

He was released from prison in 1924 and returned to Bulhoek, where he died 3 years later, on 5 March 1928 at the age of 60

The Credentials and Significance:

He like so many African’s before him and since, after hearing the Gospel and the salvation message of the entire Holy Scriptures, saw within it, the means by which African people could liberate themselves from foreign domination, once they begin to see it and interpret it, through their own unique Ethiopian Spectacles and therefore Spirituality.  Once a criminal act, today crucial and critical, for African people to both reclaim and save themselves.