CONFRONTATION WITH THE POLICE: THE ISRAELITES OF ENOCH MGIJIMA AND THE BULHOEK MASSACRE OF 24 MAY 1921

Abstract

ORIGINS OF THE ISRAELITES MOVEMENT

The Israelites movement in South Africa dates back to 1918, but it was originally founded by an American negro William Saunders Crowdy in 1896 at Kansas. Later in his life in a series of revelations he claimed to have discovered the "stone of truth" mentioned in the Bible in 1 Corinthian 1:1-2, which contained ancestral data concerning the origins of the negro race. Black men, he maintained were descended from the lost tribes of Israel and were Jews. Although the movement incorporated certain aspects of the New Testament theology, the

Old Testament doctrine and rituals became central in the formulation of his dogma. For instance the church adopted a Jewish calendar. Furthermore it observed Jewish feast days, the Jewish sabbath, and the Jewish central religious festival namely the Passover. This event is celebrated by Jews as a reminder of how God brought them out of Egypt. An angel of death flew over Egypt, killing all the first born sons in each family. The families of the Jews (Israelites) were spared. They had previously been warned by God to mark the doors of their homes with blood to show who they were. At the time they were slaves in Egypt, and the killing of the first born sons was meant as a punishment for their captors, the Egyptians.