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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:The Prophet Van Rensburg's Vision of Nelson Mandela: White Popular Religious Culture and Responses to Democratisation
Author:Hyslop, JonathanISNI
Year:1995
Periodical:Social Dynamics
Volume:21
Issue:2
Period:Summer
Pages:23-55
Language:English
Geographic term:South Africa
Subjects:prophets
Afrikaners
democracy
Politics and Government
Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
Ethnic and Race Relations
Religion and Witchcraft
External link:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02533959508458589
Abstract:This paper argues that the extraordinary manifestations of religious experience which marked white South African response to the upheaval of democratization need to be the subject of serious study. The paper first presents a framework of sociological analysis in which these phenomena can be understood and then provides a set of case studies of dramatic contemporary religious manifestations in South Africa. It also suggests that the common assumption of both secular and religious intellectuals that the fundamentalist and apocalyptic strands in South African religion are necessarily reactionary is wrong. The paper does look at one example of prophetic discourse aimed at opposing change. But it also considers other cases of discourse in which religious extremism has adapted to, or even actively encouraged, change. The case studies concern Adriaan Snyman's 'Stem van 'n profeet' (1993), in which a turn-of-the-century Afrikaner 'holy man', Nicolaas Van Rensburg, also known as 'siener' (visionary), foresees the release of Nelson Mandela; a South African police colonel who was visited by an angel; and a member of the South African Defence Force who put an end to a drought in Namibia by praying. Bibliogr.
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