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It has now been twenty years since the Executive Commitee of the World Council of Churches (WCC) meeting in Reykjavik, Iceland, called upon churches worldwide to urgently address the issue of HIV/AIDS. The call arose out of a consultation on the theme 'HIV/AIDS and the Church as a Healing Community'. This book is written with a view to providing culturally relevant theological reflection on the issue of HIV/AIDS and to act as a resource in the combat of HIV/AIDS particularly in bringing about meaningful behaviour change.

"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

The poetry in this collection spans thirty years of writing, a period highlighted by great socio-political change in Malawi. Zondiwe Mbano poems have been published in The Fate of Vultures: New Poetry from Africa (BBC award winning poetry), Haunting Wind: New Poetry from Malawi, and in Operations and Tears. His short stories have appeared in The Unsung Song: An Anthology of Malawian Writing in English, and in WASI Magazine.

The thesis of this study is that a working Christian theology is constructed under the spirits' guidance from pre-Christian materials'. These materials or vessels are epitomised by 'pots' which in Africa seem to be ubiquitous in times of happiness or sorrow, in peace or war, at work or leisure, or wherever two or three meet for a purpose. Clearly the 'African Pots' here represent the African World View, traditions, anthropology, and indeed African epistemology which according to these authors, have to form the substratum of the faith and life of the Christians in Africa.

Joseph Booth penned his appeal in 1897 in protest of the racist stereotpying of the Africans by the colonisers; and witnessing the unjust and inhumane exploitation of the native peoples, for the sole benefit of the Europeans. He drew his ideas from the social and political messages he inferred from the Gospel and his appeal was published only thirteen years after European leaders met in Berlin to divide up the African continent. This now seminal text was republished in its centenary year and has continual relevance to debates about race and development in Africa. It is edited to include explanations of local and contemporary political references, biblical references and the sources of the author's citations.

This book sets out, translates into English and interprets the key documents and texts of the African Ancestors Religion. It contextualises the movement within Malawi's new religious movements and conflicts between tradition and modernisation. It argues that both the negative and positive aspects of the teaching reflect an indigenous, carefully considered strategy to mobilise the masses for a return to traditional practices of worship, and to challenge the foreign ideologies of Christianity, which its follows consider are undermining the religious heritage of Africans.

Missionary history in Africa asserts that political history on the continent cannot be understood without an in depth understanding of the workings of the missions: missionary activities and ideologies were central to political consciousness. The Anglican Church was involved in society, education, health and politics right from its first foray into Malawi. This study considers the nature of the involvement of that Church in society, and how it engaged with the State from its genesis in the colonial period through the post-independence period to the new post-Banda political dispensation in 1994. It illustrates how the Church was involved on both sides of the independence struggle; and interrogates why it fell conspicuously silent thereafter.

Wisdom of the Yawo People is a collection of traditional proverbs and stories from the Yawo people of South Eastern Africa. The literature contains deep wisdom rooted in African soil, which will be applicable to people everywhere. The proverbs are told in both the Yawo language and English and reveal the end result of greed, laziness and pride. They also promote the value of welcoming strangers, belonging and being respectful. Each proverb and story is accompanied by a short interpretation, and illustration.

Many scholars have tended to take African Christianity as a given, and study its social, political, economic or ecological implications, without coming to terms with the nature and character of African Christian faith A knowledge of how faith is understood at the popular level and how it functions in personal, domestic, and communal life is essential to this task. In this context a significant contemporary Christian movement which has received little attention is studied in depth - revival meetings or crusades which are a regular and popular feature of urban life in Malawi.

The early growth of Christianity in northern Malawi has often been told as a predominantly missionary story. In reality it came about through the varied interactions of local peoples, and Scottish and Xhosa missionaries (of whom the most famous was William Koyi). In these selected essays, Jack Thompson concentrates mainly on how the Ngoni people interacted with both Scottish and Xhosa missionaries in the period between 1875 and 1914. During these years, the Ngoni were struggling for religious, cultural and political survival, and all these elements are dealt with in these essays.

This book argues that the Baptist religious denomination underscores the empowerment of women and the expansion of their cultural sphere in Malawi. The study provides the theological background, and gives the history of Baptist women in the south of the country for the period 1961-2001. Women, baptism and marriage is a further subject of study. The author is a theologian, specialising in gender issues.

Malawi has received significant financial aid from external donors over the past fours decades, but for one reason or another, this has not translated into meaningful development. This author argues that unless the Malawian people begin to address the internal sources of the problems, and the 'interior poverty' of the people, then the situation will worsen. He develops his thesis, explaining how he believes that transformation must happen at the level of the consciousness of individuals; and states that a majority must commit to taking a positive stance in working towards this end.