Nontetha Nkwenkwe

Nontetha Nkwenkwe ( – May 20, 1935) was a Xhosa prophetess who lived in colonial South Africa and began a religious movement that caused her to be committed to asylums by the South African government from 1923 until her death in 1935. She is regarded as one of the most remarkable female religious leaders associated with independent churches in the 1920s.

Life prior to 1918 Nontetha Nkwenkwe was born in 1875 in King William's Town in what is now the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. She was of Xhosa descent, and settled in Khulile village, near Debe Nek, now part of Raymond Mhlaba Local Municipality. She served her community as an herbalist . She had ten children, five of whom lived to adulthood. Her husband, a migrant worker named Bungu Nkwenkwe, died while searching for work. She never joined a Christian church, but baptized her children and was influenced by the Ethiopian Church of Dwane as well as the American Methodist Episcopal Church.

Rise to prominence Following the outbreak of the influenza epidemic in 1918 which devastated her area, Nkwenkwe believed that she was spared for a divine purpose. She was first a seer, then a diviner, then a prophet. She began having visions and telling locals that God had told her the epidemic was punishment for people's sins, and that her mission was to reform society. At first, her activities were welcomed by the authorities, unlike some of her contemporary male counterparts like Enoch Mgijima.

By the 1920s, Nkwenkwe was middle-aged and was well-respected in the African community as a religious leader, herbalist, and head of household.

Her followers expressed their hope that one day Nontetha's remains would be returned. In 1997, Robert E. Edgar and Hilary Sapire began to assist in locating Nontetha's grave, and in 1998 her remains were reburied at her home in Khulile village.

Legacy Nkwenkwe not only established the Church of the Prophetess Nontetha, which has 30,000 members today, but also enhanced the role women held within the church in the 1920s.