# Fame.am profile — machine-readable export
# Canonical URL: https://fame.am/person/isaiah-shembe
# Generated: 2026-08-13T08:25:41.006Z

schema: https://schema.org/Person
url: "https://fame.am/person/isaiah-shembe"
name: "Isaiah Shembe"
slug: "isaiah-shembe"
description: "Isaiah Mloyiswa Mdliwamafa Shembe, was a prophet and the founder of the Ibandla lamaNazaretha, South Africa, which was one of the largest African-initiated churches in Africa during his lifetime. Shembe started his religious career as an itinerant evangelist and faith healer in 1910. Within ten years, he had built up a large following in Natal with dozens of congregations across the province. The chronology remains one of the biggest churches to date, and there is a rapid emergence of organized congregations and seminary events across the nine provinces of South Africa."
tagline: "Zulu religious leader and founder of the Nazareth Baptist Church"
image: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/Isaiah_Shembe_001.jpg?width=1200"
gender: "male"
country:
  name: "South Africa"
  isoCode: "ZA"
birthDate: "1867"
deathDate: "1935-05-02"
livingStatus: "DECEASED"
scores:
  popularity:           45.26
  momentum:             0
  historical:           5.528730666666667
  currentAttention:     0
  sourceConfidence:     35
  profileCompleteness:  50
  trendDirection:       "FALLING"
ranks:
  global:   null
  country:  null
  category: null
sources:
  - url: "https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaiah_Shembe"
    title: "Isaiah Shembe"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaiah_Shembe"
    title: "Isaiah Shembe"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaiah_Shembe"
    title: "Isaiah Shembe"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://zu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaiah_uMprofethi"
    title: "Isaiah uMprofethi"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://st.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaiah_Shembe"
    title: "Isaiah Shembe"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaiah_Shembe"
    title: "Isaiah Shembe"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1673692"
    title: "Wikidata"
    type:  "WIKIDATA"

# bio (long form, separated for readability)
bio: |
  Imported from discovery source: wikidata-dump