ABSTRACT
This chapter presents very different conditions to the independent Church. There are the European farms, the Mission Reserves, and the Scheduled Native areas, called "Black Spots in European Areas". The Bantu independent Church in the city is also the centre for a wider social life. Western civilization—mines, commerce, education—has revolutionized Zulu society. Suddenly it has been drawn into the magnetic field of the conditions of modern life. If Pretoria, according to Dr. Gerdener, "is the birthplace of Ethiopianism and has remained its nursery", the neighbouring Johannesburg is the birthplace of independent Churches of Zionist type. The constant strife and struggle between the local leaders of competing Zionist or Ethiopian groups adds to the instability of the community. The rivalry between the leaders and the constant breaking away of smaller or larger sections of the Church, which characterizes Bantu independent Churches as a whole, is particularly common on the Rand.
