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"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.

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.

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.

Chikanga was one of Malawi's most powerful and successful healers who brought concepts and methods from indigenous tradition to his own Christian culture. During the fifties and sixties people having heard he had the power of divination to free them from the bondage of witchcraft and other evil practices, would make pilgrimages to him from the whole of eastern and southern Africa. His methods were, and are, popular and common, though always controversially opposed by the institutional Christian church. This book documents eye-witness accounts of pilgrims, and Chikanga's sessions and techniques, and includes interviews with his acquaintances. It describes his activities in the political context, which forced him to go into exile for seventeen years, and his final period in Malawi.

This volume brings together extracts from the explorers' diaries accompanied by a narrative situating the texts in geographical, historical and socio- political context. They complement the publication of some of McEwan's earlier diaries, and are arguably the most important, dealing with the last portion of William McEwan's life - his arrival in Malawi, his meeting with Swahili slave traders, and his experiments with photography. Finally, the writings document McEwan's death as told by his companion Donald Munro.