Introduction: beyond the confinement of affliction: a discursive field of experience

Dijk, R.A. van; Reis, R.; Spierenburg, M. (2000)

Part of book or chapter of book

Ngoma, a southern African ritual of healing, dance, rhythm and rhyme, is at the heart of social effort to change the fortunes of individuals and communities so that well-being is restored. This collective volume investigates ngoma in its many and culturally diverse manifestations. Contributions: Rijk van Dijk, Ria Reis and Marja Spierenburg (introduction); Henny Blokland (the use of drums in weddings in Unyamwezi, Tanzania, as the key to their use in healing cults and politics); Annette Drews (gender and ngoma among the Kunda of eastern Zambia); Ria Reis (therapeutic ngoma in Swaziland); Marja Spierenburg (the influence of healers' clientele in the Mhondoro territorial cult in Dande, Zimbabwe); Matthew Schoffeleers (rain cults as therapeutic ngoma in the Mbona cult of rural Malawi); Cor Jonker (the politics of therapeutic ngoma as exemplified in the Zionist churches in urban Zambia); Rijk van Dijk (ngoma and born-again fundamentalism in urban Malawi). In the afterword, John M. Janzen takes up critically the challenges to his own work (1992) presented by the contributions in this volume.

• Africa
• Tanzania
• Swaziland
• Zimbabwe
• Zambia
• Malawi
• African religions
• faith healing

• All authors: Dijk, R.A. van; Reis, R.; Spierenburg, M.
• Date: 2000
• Title of host publication: The quest for fruition through ngoma: political aspects of healing in southern Africa
• Pages: 1 - 11
• ISBN (print): 0852552629