Interview with the Chaplain General Monwabisi Andrew Jamanigile
When the Chaplain General for the South African National Defence Force (SANDF), Brigadier General (Reverend) Monwabisi Andrew Jamangile, roamed the convention center of the AME General Board meeting in Birmingham last summer, few people knew who he was. It wasn’t until the meeting’s closing session that Bishop Frank Madison Reid, III announced his presence and everyone learned that he was the highest-ranking chaplain in the history of the AME Church.
General Jamangile is the chief chaplain for SANDF. South Africa’s armed forces have the third-largest chaplaincy in the world, and AME chaplains make up 11 percent of its roster. “If I look back, I wouldn’t be where I am without the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and I’m saying it proudly and loudly, and I’m not apologetic about that,” Jamangile said.
Despite his longtime involvement in the AME Church, this year’s General Board meeting was his first. TheChristian Recorder Editor John Thomas, III, sat down with him for an extensive interview that covered his work as a chaplain and minister, and of course, church politics.
Jamangile is born and bred AME but he has the unique honor of being AME on both sides of his family. “They got married in the AME [Church] as AMEs in the church…so we have that privilege as the Jamangile family that both the father and the mother are AMEs,” Jamangile dutifully explained.
Jamangile lives in Pretoria and is originally from Eastern Cape in Aliwal North, where his mother still lives. He has two daughters and one son, with his wife who is also an AME missionary.
Jamangile became a “fighting” soldier before he accepted his calling as a minister. He rose to the rank of brigadier in the Ciskei Defence Force. After he left military service for political reasons, he accepted his “calling” during the 1993 session of the Eastern Cape Annual Conference in the 15th Episcopal District. “I stood up, and I walked straight to where the bishop was presiding, and everybody in that conference stood up, my mother was crying, and I walked slowly and all the ministers and the presiding elders, they welcomed me,” Jamangile said. He attended the Wilberforce Seminary in Evaton, becoming ordained as a minister and served congregations in Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, and Cradock.
When the African National Congress came into power in 1994, members of the political party invited Jamangile to return to the military as a general in the South African Army. He decided to accept the offer only if he could return as a minister, which meant he had to be a chaplain in the SANDF.
He returned to the Defence Force as a chaplain in 2003 and was posted to Special Forces. He left in 2005 to do his senior staff course and the executive national security programme, equipping him for high-level leadership in the SANDF. He returned as chief of staff to the chaplaincy and became the SANDF’s fourth Chaplain General in 2011.
When Nelson Mandela was close to passing away in 2013, Jamangile was presented with his biggest career challenge of working as a spiritual advisor to Mandela and his family. After Mandela died, Jamangile was intimately involved in the planning of the state funeral. “I was instrumental in making sure that I bury him with the honors that he deserved…as a statesman, as a commander in chief,” Jamangile said.
Jamangile now buries all South African national leaders. To this day, he has buried at least 14, including Winnie Mandela, Mandela’s former wife.
During apartheid, the AME Church fought along with several other churches for the liberation of South Africa’s black people from the country’s racist social system. The Church succeeded but its recent political involvement has been muffled. “Now it is unfortunate because our mission is in season and out of season. It is to preach the gospel of God, the gospel of Jesus Christ, and the gospel of change to the people in many ways,” he said.
Given General Jamangile’s long-term involvement with the AME Church, The Christian Recorder didn’t skirt around one of the most popular questions: “What can the AME Church do better?” “Being led by the old God does not mean the old God cannot change the methods of how to get the church growth moving,” General Jamangile said. “The AME Church is losing members. It is losing members, especially the youth, because the AME Church is keeping this tradition of you know ‘down there you are down there.’ We are where we are. Yes, of course, the Discipline of the African Methodist Episcopal Church is a governing institution, but we need to be flexible as the Church.” He hopes that the Church will genuinely listen to youth and ask them how they want to see the Church evolve.
Given that the AME Church is international, Jamangile also wants every region to be treated with equal respect. “Connectionality must be strengthened that…no continent must feel that the other continent is better than the other continent,” he said. “What is essential, a chaplain of South Africa must be treated the same as the chaplain of America, Caribbean, wherever,” he added.
