Religion and Culture in a Changing Malawi

Joseph Chaphadzika Chakanza was born in 1943 at Mchacha Village, T.A. Malemia in Nsanje District where he grew up and discovered his vocation as a Catholic priest, being ordained in 1969. After studies for a Master's degree at the University of Aberdeen, he returned to Malawi and was appointed Lecturer in Religious Studies at Chancellor College, University of Malawi, in 1977. During the 1980s he took study leave to complete his DPhil in Social Anthropology at the University of Oxford. Thereafter he remained at Chancellor College until his retirement in 2007, serving for many years as the inspirational Head of the Department of Religious Studies. After retirement he embarked on a further period of teaching at the Catholic University of Malawi. His stature in the Catholic Church was recognised when he was made a Monsignor in June 2019. He died in his home diocese of Chikwawa in April 2020.

As a highly trained anthropologist, Chakanza was well placed to assess what was taking place at the cultural level as Malawi passed through a time of rapid social change during the last years of the twentieth century and the early years of the twenty-first. This book comprises the analysis that he published in a long series of articles in The Lamp magazine, between 1995 and 2008. Though informed by his erudition, the articles are written in an accessible style and can serve as a primer for those finding their way into the study of Malawian culture. At the same time, this collection will not disappoint those who have already advanced in this field.