Engenas Lekganyane

Engenas Barnabas Lekganyane (c.1885-1948) was the founder of one of Africa's largest churches, the Zion Christian Church (ZCC). He first formed the ZCC in 1924, and by the time of his death the church had at least 50,000 members. Under the leadership of his descendants the ZCC has gone on to have more than a million members primarily located in southern Africa. It is now by far the biggest of the various Zionist Christian sects that account for roughly half of all Christians in southern Africa.

Engenas Lekganyane was born at Mphome Mission in the Haenertsburg region of the Transvaal in the mid-1880s. His parents, Barnabas Lekganyane and Sefora Raphela, were members of the Mamabolo ethnic group. The Raphela family were the first Christian converts among the Mamabolo and had been instrumental in getting a Lutheran mission established by the Berlin Missionary Society in 1879.

Drought, disruptions, and the violence associated with the South African War in 1899, led the Mamabolo chiefs to abandon their homelands for some years. The Lekganyanes appear to have left with them, but then returned home when the Chief purchased Syferkuil Farm in 1905 next to the original reserve.

Soon after the move back, an Anglican missionary built a mission and school called St. Andrews adjacent to Syferkuil.

This was the school where Lekganyane received three years of education, which had been disrupted in the previous decade. During this time Lekganyane spent considerable amounts of time working on construction projects, including the building of a church, a school, and a dam. He did not choose to receive baptism or confirmation as an Anglican, although many members of his family, his future wife, and many residents of Syferkuil did.

After leaving school, Lekganyane began working around the Transvaal--"he had to go to work and make a living, like many of his era, on the farms and in public works schemes." In his early adulthood Lekganyane joined a new Presbyterian church in the Mamabolo reserve--according to his earliest known statements he had been "a member of the Free Church of Scotland in training as (or actually being)an evangelist under the missionary in that Church."

Engenas Lekganyane thus had a diverse Protestant background, with Lutheran, Anglican, and Presbyterian experiences. He is also said to have been close with his grandfather and uncle on his mother's side, both of whom were pagans and renowned traditional doctors.

Around 1911, though, Lekganyane split from Protestantism with the arrival of the Apostolic Faith Mission in his home area. At this time the AFM reported that some of its members traveled on foot from Louis Trichardt to Pietersburg, during which “the most remarkable manifestations of healing” occurred. The blind, deaf, and crippled were healed, and in Pietersburg “the natives came in vast numbers to be prayed for.” According to ZCC lore, Lekganyane at this very time began to suffer from a serious eye ailment at this time and nearly went blind. He then had a vision and was instructed to travel to the Witwatersrand, where he was told that he would be cured by "triple immersion". Lekganyane claims to have followed this vision, and went to Boksburg and met two Zionist preachers, the Mahlangu brothers, in 1912. They then baptized him using the Zionist method of "triple immersion", and curing his eyesight ailment in the process. From 1912 until 1920 Lekganyane was a member of the Mahlangu’s organization, the Zion Apostolic Church (which itself was a part of the Apostolic Faith Mission). Around 1916 he returned home to Thabakgone where he was the deputy of the ZAC congregation. In 1918 he became the official leader of this congregation, although he fell out with Mahlangus quickly over issues that are not clear.

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