Download or read book Chewa Traditional Religion written by J. W. M. van Breugel and published by Kachere Series. This book was released on 2001 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Researched under difficult and sometimes dangerous circumstances during the Banda era, this book is a unique contribution to anthropological research in Malawi. Orginally published in 1976 this new edition has been throughly reworked and edited at a time when many of the domains described by Van Breugel were in a process of decline, transformation or even disappearance. The book offers precious descriptions of rain rituals at Bunda and Tsang'oma, explications of witchcraft phenomena and of the mdulu-complex, a convincing theory of the religious significance of Nyau and extensive deliberations of concepts of God and ancestors. In addition the book serves as a comprehensive overview on all the domains of Chewa Traditional Religion.
Download or read book Growing Up written by Molly Longwe and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book investigates that phenomenon: what factors caused the Baptist approach to fail, give initiation for girls was as important; what is the traditional initiation which any new approach would have to replace; and how could a chinamwali be framed for
Download or read book African Traditional Religion in Malawi written by James Amanze and published by Kachere Series. This book was released on 2002 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first full-length study of one of the territorial rain cults; and an endeavour to preserve knowledge about a rapidly changing complex system of traditional beliefs, rituals, and practices, under the influence of Christianity, Islam, and western education. Within this cult, a person who is possessed by the spirit of the ancestors is commonly known as Bimbi: the seer, a charismatic and moral leader, to whom the community ascribes a prophetic role. As a religious system, the Bimbi cult has an intricate system of agricultural rituals such as rainmaking ceremonies, a distinctive unwritten theology, elaborate liturgical observances and an organised, inherited priesthood. Studying the Bimbi cult from a multi-disciplinary perspective, the author illustrated how traditional beliefs and practices still have a grip on people in the countryside, who live in an agricultural subsistence economy, and at the mercy of ecological forces. He contends that these forces will continue to shape their understanding of God, themselves and the world around them for many years to come, unless these people change from an agricultural to an industrial society.
Download or read book Rites of Passage in Contemporary Africa written by James Leland Cox and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The articles which comprise this book where delivered initially at a conference held at the University of Zimbabwe, 21-24 June 1994, on the of the interaction between Christian religion and traditional African religions. This text demonstrates that the academic study of religion is not only responsive to developments in religious life, but is interested in actively exploring the symbolic structures expressed in Christian and traditional ritual activities. Academic understanding is shown to be interactive with the many factors which compromise meaning within human societies and religious communities.
Download or read book Initiation Rites for Boys in Lomwe Society in Malawi and Other Essays written by J. C. Chakanza and published by African Books Collective. This book was released on 2005 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Women Presbyterianism and Patriarchy written by Isabel Apawo Phiri and published by African Books Collective. This book was released on 2007 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first book by a Malawian woman theologian. First released in 1997 it won an honorable mention in the Noma Award for Publishing in Africa in 1998 and is now updated here with a new introduction by the author. The study traces the struggles and contribution of Chewa women to the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian. Amongst the topics are female mediumships in traditional religion, post-missionary developments in Chigwirizano, womens attempts to achieve some public manifestation of their personal relatioship to God in open ministry, and the current women's organisation in Nkhoma Synod. Dr. Isabel Apawo Phiri is in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Malawi.
Download or read book Golden Buttons written by Msiska, Stephen Kauta and published by Luviri Press. This book was released on 2018-05-22 with total page 69 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Stephen Kauta Msiska was ordained to the ministry in 1945 and served the Livingstonia Synod in a number of lakeshore parishes before being appointed first a tutor and later Principal of the united CCAP Theological College at Nkhoma where he taught from 1962 to 1974. His firm stand for what he understood to be the principles of the Christian Gospel led to a clash with the one-party regime and he was forced to flee to his home village and to live there in relative obscurity. This book makes accessible some of the fruits not only of his years of active pastoral ministry and theological teaching but also of his time of lonely suffering and sorrow. Distinctive in the writing of this pioneering theologian is a profound, though not uncritical, sympathy with the traditional religion of his people combined with a passionate concern for authentic Christian discipleship. Careful readers of this original and thoughful book will find the "golden buttons" which Stephen Kauta is determined should not be lost.
Download or read book The Historical Study of African Religion written by Terence O. Ranger and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 1976 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Religion and the Dramatisation of Life written by J. M. Schoffeleers and published by African Books Collective. This book was released on 2000 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Though Malawi in general, and the areas described in this book, are predominantly Christian, traditional religion is still an important reality, beside and within Christianity in Malawi. Matthew Schoffeleers, a Montfortian missionary priest and social anthropologist, addresses here aspects of African tradition religion, with a particular focus on spirit possesion. Both in its individual importance and in its territorial importance. Of the six papers collected in the book two deal with rain cults, which for centuries have played a central role in the political and religious life of Malawi, two with territorial spirit mediumship and two with cults of affliction.
Download or read book An African Worldview written by Ian D. Dicks and published by African Books Collective. This book was released on 2012 with total page 514 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this book Ian Dicks informs the reader about the ways in which the Yawo of Malawi view the world. The Yawo are predominantly Muslim, yet many maintain strong links with their traditional religion. They are a largely oral society, teaching and reinforcing their beliefs and practices using oral literature, which includes myths, proverbs, proverbial stories, songs of advice and prayers at various stages of the life cycle, particularly during initiation events. Ian Dicks describes in detail the Yawo's material world, customs, beliefs and rituals, and juxtaposes these with Yawo oral literature. He then examines them under six worldview categories, the result being a rich description of the way in which the Yawo see the world. This book is not an armchair study but has the feel of being written by an eyewitness, by someone who has had first-hand experience of the subject and who seeks to describe this in a manner which is sensitive to the Yawo and their culture.
Download or read book African Religions written by Jacob K. Olupona and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2014 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book connects traditional religions to the thriving religious activity in Africa today.
Download or read book Bridging the Gap written by Philip C. Stine and published by . This book was released on 1990 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Essays on the problems and solutions in translations of terms having to do with spiritual powers and forces such as "God", "Holy Spirit", "evil spirits", and "devil".
Download or read book African Religions A Very Short Introduction written by Jacob K. Olupona and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2014-02-14 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What are African religions? African Religions: A Very Short Introduction answers this question by examining primarily indigenous religious traditions on the African continent, as well as exploring Christianity and Islam. It focuses on the diversity of ethnic groups, languages, cultures, and worldviews, emphasizing the continent's regional diversity. Olupona examines a wide range of African religious traditions on their own terms and in their social, cultural, and political contexts. For example, the book moves beyond ethnographic descriptions and interpretations of core beliefs and practices to look at how African religion has engaged issues of socioeconomic development and power relations. Olupona examines the myths and sacred stories about the origins of the universe that define ethnic groups and national identities throughout Africa. He also discusses spiritual agents in the African cosmos such as God, spirits, and ancestors. In addition to myths and deities, Olupona focuses on the people central to African religions, including medicine men and women, rainmakers, witches, magicians, and divine kings, and how they serve as authority figures and intermediaries between the social world and the cosmic realm. African Religions: A Very Short Introduction discusses a wide variety of religious practices, including music and dance, calendrical rituals and festivals, celebrations for the gods' birthdays, and rituals accompanying stages of life such as birth, puberty, marriage, elderhood, and death. In addition to exploring indigenous religions, Olupona examines the ways Islam and Christianity as outside traditions encountered indigenous African religion. He shows how these incoming faith traditions altered the face and the future of indigenous African religions as well as how indigenous religions shaped two world religions in Africa and the diaspora. Olupona draws on archaeological and historical sources, as well as ethnographic materials based on fieldwork. He shows that African religions are not static traditions, but have responded to changes within their local communities and to fluxes caused by outside influences, and spread with diaspora and migration.
Download or read book Galu Wamkota written by Ernst R. Wendland and published by African Books Collective. This book was released on 2007 with total page 510 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "An old dog (galu wamkota) does not dig for nothing," so the proverb says. The two authors, one from America (with 45 years in Zambia); the other from Zambia, explore the encounter of the Christian faith with African Traditional Religion, treating concept(s) of God, the world of the spirits, of powers and witchcraft, and then how the Bible can be translated into the language of Zambia and Malawi taking into account both changes in concepts of translation and in society
Download or read book Religion and Culture in a Changing Malawi written by Joseph Chakanza and published by African Books Collective. This book was released on 2024-01-23 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Joseph Chaphadzika Chakanza was born in 1943 at Mchacha Village, T.A. Malemia in Nsanje District where he grew up and discovered his vocation as a Catholic priest, being ordained in 1969. After studies for a Master's degree at the University of Aberdeen, he returned to Malawi and was appointed Lecturer in Religious Studies at Chancellor College, University of Malawi, in 1977. During the 1980s he took study leave to complete his DPhil in Social Anthropology at the University of Oxford. Thereafter he remained at Chancellor College until his retirement in 2007, serving for many years as the inspirational Head of the Department of Religious Studies. After retirement he embarked on a further period of teaching at the Catholic University of Malawi. His stature in the Catholic Church was recognised when he was made a Monsignor in June 2019. He died in his home diocese of Chikwawa in April 2020.
Download or read book Encyclopedia of African Religion written by Molefi Kete Asante and published by SAGE. This book was released on 2009 with total page 473 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Collects almost five hundred entries that cover the African response to spirituality, taboos, ethics, sacred space, and objects.
Download or read book Dual Religiosity in Northern Malawi written by Mlenga, Joyce and published by Mzuni Press. This book was released on 2016-12-13 with total page 327 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over a century much of Africa south of the Sahara embraced the Christian religion. Malawi, where 80% of the population identify as Christian is no exception, nor are the Ngonde at its northern border with Tanzania. While it is difficult to find someone who does not claim to be a Christian, African traditional religion is by no means dead and often practiced by many. While the two religions are not “mixed”, but they are both realities in many a Christians life, though realities of a different kind. The author explores the intricate and often varied relationship between the two and considers factors which increase or decrease dual religiosity.
