Meet Me at the Palaver

Book excerpt: Meet me at the Palaver shows the damaging impact of colonial Christianity on indigenous African communities. The book opens with stories of destructive change brought to indigenous contexts, where in the culture, values, religion, and humanity of African peoples were often marginalized. Mucherera argues for a holistic narrative pastoral counseling approach to assess and service the three basic areas of human needs in indigenous African communities: body, mind, and spirit. The book presents a hopeful strategy of recovering stories, cultural traditions, and values that have been subjugated in the past as effective means for dealing with contemporary life in indigenous contexts such as Zimbabwe.