Archival Significance
One of a substantial body of works on Shona culture and religion by Michael Gelfand, a physician whose long career combined medical practice with ethnographic research in Rhodesia and Zimbabwe from the 1950s through the 1980s.
Institutional Context
Published by Mambo Press, Gweru, a major Zimbabwean publisher of religious and academic titles based at a Catholic mission press.
Content Summary
Examines Shona religious belief and practice as recorded by Gelfand over decades of fieldwork.
Research Utility
A frequently cited source for researchers of Shona religion, though, like much of Gelfand’s work, best read alongside more recent scholarship given its era and the author’s outsider vantage point.
Abantu Archives Note
Held in-house.