Shembe Hymns by Isaiah Shembe and Johannes Galilee Shembe

Composed by Isaiah and Galilee Shembe between 1910 and 1940, IziHlabelelo zamaNazaretha---Shembe Hymns---is one of the earliest known books in the isiZulu language. Drawing on the poetic traditions of Izibongo, or Praises, as well as the Biblical Psalms and local renditions of African American Spirituals, these texts speak to conditions of oppression and suffering, but also to the will to joy and hopefulness in such moments.

The texts comprise the original isiZulu hymns as well as English translations, and are brought to life with an accompanying compact disc of song, story and interview excerpts. These include detail about the seminal moment of change and controversy in the 1990s, when the organ was introduced by church member and ethnomusicologist, Bongani Mthethwa, to accompany the Shembe hymnal repertory. The initiative gave birth to dozens of youth choirs who sang the hymns in a new style, and began to compose their own repertory about Shembe in a more `gospel-inflected' musical version of their faith.