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

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.