Birth of Religion Among the
Balanta of Guinea-Bissau

By Inger Callewaert
Edited by Tord Olsson
December 2000
Lund University
ISBN: 91-22-01885-9
296 Pages, Illustrated
$57.50 paper original

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The author studies the rise of a non-Christian prophetic movement within the oral, kinship and ancestor-based society of the Balanta in Guinea-Missau. The movement is headed by young men and women under the leadership of a woman prophet. The movements aims to make radical changes in the Balanta way of life, opposing gerontocracy, sorcery, and spirit cult contamination. Instead, the movement proposes the pure and right way of Nhaala, the unique Balanta God.

African Studies; Religion
Lund Studies in African & Asian Religions, Vol. 12

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