African Apostles

African Apostles. Two distinct independent Christian movements in central Africa, both beginning in Zimbabwe in 1932, the Masowe Apostles and the Maranke Apostles. The former derive from John Masowe (?1910–73). His followers became called VaPostori (Shona, ‘the Apostles’), but their anti-government and anti-church attitudes led to harassment which drove them to seek freedom by settling as the Apostolic Sabbath Church of God in the Korsten slum of Port Elizabeth, South Africa, in 1947. Here their manual skills led to the popular name of the Basketmakers' Church. Deported in 1962, they moved north en route to Ethiopia and Jerusalem, but most settled in Zambia near Lusaka, where they established a range of small industries; others established the church in some nine adjacent countries, and Masowe died in Tanzania.

The Maranke Apostles were founded by Johane Maranke (1912–63), brought up in the American Methodist mission, who had a pentecostal experience and also visions of going to heaven, which were later recorded in ‘The New Revelation of the Apostles’ as an addition to the Bible.