The chapter analyses how Swedish Lutheran missionary attitudes – both in cultural and political matters – in comparison with those of their Norwegian colleagues can be understood in the light of different nationalist discourses developed at home at the turn of the 19th and early 20th centuries. It explores how the Swedish version of nationalism, emphasising territorial inclusiveness and cultural tolerance at a time of radical changes, materialised in an agenda for an ethnic Zulu folk church. This, necessarily related to topics such as Zulu nation hood, culture, and history but also to the issue of polygyny, condemned by practically all missionaries but indispensable for the survival of the Zulu homestead. While the Swedish missionaries displayed a remarkable broadmindedness in regard to Zulu culture, customs, and history, distinguishing them from contemporary Norwegians and most other missionaries, it was in the contest between white settlers and rebels in the 1906 uprising that the folk church agenda ultimately was put to test. In 1906, most Swedes voiced and acted in accordance with the Lutheran concept of obedience to the authorities and the essentially conservative aspect of Swedish nationalism, aiming at status quo against the forces of social change. The views most contrasting to those held by a majority of Swedish missionaries were those conveyed by the Norwegians. Backed by the nationalist fervour lingering after the dissolution of the Swedish-Norwegian union in 1905, the Norwegians expressed a strikingly different and compassionate attitude towards Zulu nationalism and the aspired independence. The article argues that it is only towards the background of the diverse versions of nationalism developed in the two countries that the Norwegian and Swedish missionaries' essentially opposing attitudes towards the uprising can be understood.