'Hoje Em Dia Eles Cospem em Jesus!' a polarizaçao de uma zona rural africana

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Periodical article

Title:	'Hoje Em Dia Eles Cospem em Jesus!' a polarizaçao de uma zona rural africana
Author:	Schoffeleers, J. Matthew
Year:	1984
Periodical:	Revista internacional de estudos Africanos
Issue:	1
Pages:	95-138
Language:	Portuguese
Geographic term:	Malawi
Subjects:	African Independent Churches African religions cults women
Abstract:	Portuguese translation of a revised version of an English paper presented at the World Congress of Sociology, Mexico City, August 1982. After World War II the cotton industry in the Nsanje district of Malawi collapsed and many men were forced to seek employment abroad. More recently, this has come to be officially discouraged and many former labour migrants have now become self-employed as small shopkeepers and entrepreneurs. Most seriously affected by these economic changes were the women, who often had to take care of their families and gardens without any assistance, and many of whom saw precious little of the money earned by their husbands. Local records mark a steep rise in female spirit possession during this period. This possession cult represented a kind of secessionary movement, away from the official regional cult and Christianity, both of which had become increasingly male-oriented. The return of the labour migrants, many of whom converted to the new fundamentalist churches, took this process of religious diversification yet a step further. Notes.