Barry Morton, Booksmango, 242 pages, 3 of 5 stars

The Zion Christian Church (ZCC) is the African and ecclesiastical version of the Freemasons—shrouded in mystery and secret rituals. What’s so special about the tea they’re brewing? Why is the water they splash on faces so magical? What makes their uniforms blessed? The answers are difficult to find.

Despite its twelve million members and place as southern Africa’s largest African Initiated Church, the ZCC is nearly empty of any historical or theological literature.

This book is so helpful because it pulls back the curtain on this Christian cult that dots the south of Africa. A main reason I strongly recommend Barry Morton’s book on the ZCC is that there is no other work like it. There’s simply not a lot of literature from which to choose.

In the book’s nine chapters, Morton covers the early life of ZCC founder Engenas Lekganyane, his spiritual influences, the ZCC’s theological convictions and finally Engena’s latter years. The book critiques the history of the ZCC, not her theology, as there are few Scripture texts in the book. The thirty-one pages of endnotes show Morton’s thorough research, though there were a number of interesting assertions he did not validate with footnotes, perhaps because it is so difficult to find information on the ZCC.

Morton makes a number of interesting insights. Consider the following quotations:

1. “Lekganyane is simply the most important Christian figure in southern Africa in the modern era. In terms of influence, he ranks with such esteemed evangelical figures as Robert Moffat.” (xii)
2. “The practices that set [the ZCC] apart were that they practiced baptism ‘by total immersion three times, the taking of sacraments at night in a special place after washing the feet, the power to heal by prayer without the use of medicine.’” (67)
3. “Lekganyane…claimed a superseding position in terms of mediation with the dead.” (138)
4. “The early ZCC encountered problems early in its history was that it allowed church members to have sex if they were unmarried. ZCC members were never expected to remain chaste, and adultery was not a major preoccupation of church doctrine…. Sex between consenting church members (whether married or unmarried was not frowned upon.” (140)
5. “Lekganyane’s alcoholism ultimately was responsible for a serious split in the ZCC” between the stars and the doves, though “this split is usually explained as a battel for succession between two of Engena’s sons, Edward and Joseph, for control of the church.” (178)
6. “By the early 1960s Edward Lekganyane was undoubtedly the richest African in South Africa—by far.” (199)
7. “Three-quarters of the members entered the church following a faith healing.” (200)

For more on the ZCC and the life of Engenas Lekganyane, see “Marching to Zion? An Overview of Southern Africa’s Largest AIC Church.”