In this study, Peter Fry describes and analyses spirit-mediumship
amongst a community of Zezuru people living near Salisbury in Southern
Rhodesia (Zimbabwe). He examines the belief system which underpins
spirit-mediumship and the basis of the mediums' authority. He pays
special attention to the way in which religious beliefs are used
politically in specific social situations ranging from village disputes
to issues of national importance. Instead of portraying the spirits and
their mediums as a fixed and stable hierarchy, Peter Fry stresses the
dynamics of a religious system which changes over time in relation to
changing external factors and to the ability of individual competing
mediums to build up followings by responding to and moulding consensus.
The book makes comparisons between the religious systems of the Zezuru
and the Valley Korekore, both subgroups of Shona-speaking peoples, and
concludes by discussing the role of Zezuru mediums in the context of the
confrontation between black and white nationalisms. The spirit-mediums,
opposed structurally to the white mission churches, are seen as vehicles
of black cultural nationalism in the area.