Lauren V. Jarvis is an assistant professor of history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Jarvis is interested in the history of religion and inequality in South Africa in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Her research has been supported by the Fulbright-Hays and Mellon-ACLS programs, and her work has appeared in the Journal of African History and the Journal of Southern African Studies.

• Contents Acknowledgments Introduction Chapter 1. An Inheritor in the Free State Chapter 2. A Baptist in Town Chapter 3. An Evangelist in Durban Chapter 4. A Guest in the Reserves Chapter 5. A Landowner in Inanda Chapter 6. A Matchmaker at Ekuphakameni Chapter 7. A Dissident in Southern Zululand Chapter 8. A Celebrity in South Africa Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index

"A Prophet of the People is a biography, a church history, and much, much more. The man who became Isaiah Shembe traversed a rapidly transforming South Africa; through faith, he created a new way to bind people together in the face of social dissolution and dramatic economic change. Jarvis treats Shembe’s life like scripture. Supported with faultless research and elegant prose, her brilliant exegesis of a person and a community offer profound insights into what it meant to live, work, pray, survive, and thrive in South Africa from the late nineteenth through the mid-twentieth century. A must read." —Daniel Magaziner is director of undergraduate studies in the Department of History at Yale University and a book review editor for Journal of African History

Lauren V. Jarvis is an assistant professor of history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Jarvis is interested in the history of religion and inequality in South Africa in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Her research has been supported by the Fulbright-Hays and Mellon-ACLS programs, and her work has appeared in the Journal of African History and the Journal of Southern African Studies.

• Contents Acknowledgments Introduction Chapter 1. An Inheritor in the Free State Chapter 2. A Baptist in Town Chapter 3. An Evangelist in Durban Chapter 4. A Guest in the Reserves Chapter 5. A Landowner in Inanda Chapter 6. A Matchmaker at Ekuphakameni Chapter 7. A Dissident in Southern Zululand Chapter 8. A Celebrity in South Africa Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index

"A Prophet of the People is a biography, a church history, and much, much more. The man who became Isaiah Shembe traversed a rapidly transforming South Africa; through faith, he created a new way to bind people together in the face of social dissolution and dramatic economic change. Jarvis treats Shembe’s life like scripture. Supported with faultless research and elegant prose, her brilliant exegesis of a person and a community offer profound insights into what it meant to live, work, pray, survive, and thrive in South Africa from the late nineteenth through the mid-twentieth century. A must read." —Daniel Magaziner is director of undergraduate studies in the Department of History at Yale University and a book review editor for Journal of African History

Lauren V. Jarvis is an assistant professor of history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Jarvis is interested in the history of religion and inequality in South Africa in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Her research has been supported by the Fulbright-Hays and Mellon-ACLS programs, and her work has appeared in the Journal of African History and the Journal of Southern African Studies.

• Contents Acknowledgments Introduction Chapter 1. An Inheritor in the Free State Chapter 2. A Baptist in Town Chapter 3. An Evangelist in Durban Chapter 4. A Guest in the Reserves Chapter 5. A Landowner in Inanda Chapter 6. A Matchmaker at Ekuphakameni Chapter 7. A Dissident in Southern Zululand Chapter 8. A Celebrity in South Africa Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index

"A Prophet of the People is a biography, a church history, and much, much more. The man who became Isaiah Shembe traversed a rapidly transforming South Africa; through faith, he created a new way to bind people together in the face of social dissolution and dramatic economic change. Jarvis treats Shembe’s life like scripture. Supported with faultless research and elegant prose, her brilliant exegesis of a person and a community offer profound insights into what it meant to live, work, pray, survive, and thrive in South Africa from the late nineteenth through the mid-twentieth century. A must read." —Daniel Magaziner is director of undergraduate studies in the Department of History at Yale University and a book review editor for Journal of African History