A sustained investigation of the Malawi people's sacramental attitude to animals, particularly the role that animals play in life-cycle rituals, their relationship to the divinity and to spirits of the dead. How people relate to and use animals speaks volumes about their culture and beliefs. Index, bib, 287pp, UK. BERG.

A survey of the society, the Maravi Empire, history and traditional politics of the Chewa of Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia. Richly illustrated with colour photographs. Includes a guide to further reading and a glossary. Index, map, 64pp, USA. ROSEN PUBLISHING COMPANY, 0823920100

Virtually all African societies have developed transitional rites to assist the processes of growing up, by which girls and boys are taught what they need to become acceptable adults in their cultures. This book comprises the record and interpretation of one such set of initiation rites for women which was developed in matrilineal southern Malawi as a grassroots initiation, set alongside the teachings, songs and drama produced in traditional form in a Baptist Church. 97pp, MALAWI. KACHERE SERIES.

Argues that there is more to food studies than the analysis of famine, based on a case study of country of Malawi, notorious for its annual food deficits, which can get very severe in the event of a drought or flood. Identifies several factors to explain why seasonal hunger does not often lead to famine in this part of the world. Also explores in detail topics such as seasonal hunger, and how seasonal abundance of food changes the people's daily routines of food cultivation and eating, and the region's history of food. Index, bib, notes, tables, maps, b/w photos, 346pp, USA. HEINEMANN USA.

Important as transition rites are, they are everywhere under the pressure of change. Even before colonial times the Chagga reduced the boys' initiation from three months to one; and the Zaramo in Tanzania who in the 1930s secluded their girls from the onset of menstruation to marriage, reduced the seclusion to one week. Both the Chagga and the Zaramo made the changes as a group and without major outside influences. In other societies specific outside influences are strong as among the Chewa in Central Malawi where the Presbyterian Nkhoma Mission around 1940 forbade the traditional chinamwali for its members and replaced it by a Christian chilangizo with some success. There appears to have been much less success on the Baptist side which attempted a similar approach in the 1960s. 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 Chewa girls that is equally Christian and culturally relevant? Index, bib, 164pp, MALAWI. KACHERE SERIES.

Research in traditional religion in Malawi has shifted from broad ecological religions to commu-nal rituals. The eight essays in the collection explore communal rituals in their various contexts. Contents: rites of passage: initiations rites for boys in Lomwe society; death rituals among the Tumbuka of Mzimba north-east; the Nyau cult in central Malawi; Nyau among the Chewa of Dedza and Lilongwe districts in the central region of Malawi; continuity and change among the Nyau in modern societies; the abiding influence of traditional medicine; the Tumbuka under-standing of 'a witch'; Chewa traditional sacrifices performed in central Malawi; and, history and words for spirits and gods. 160pp, MALAWI. KACHERE SERIES.

The north of Malawi is home to about 100,000 people of Zulu origin. It is likely however that in the twenty first century the Zulu (Ngoni) language will become extinct in this region. The author sets out to bring attention to how the Zulu language and culture came to this part of Africa, which was the home of his ancestors and grandparents. It documents interviews with the younger generation of Ngoni (Zulu) descendants in Malawi, Zambia, Tanzania and Zimbabwe, and reflects on the culture and traditions of the Zulu people in earlier times. 84pp, MALAWI. KACHERE SERIES.