This book sets out, translates into English and interprets the key documents and texts of the African Ancestors Religion. It contextualises the movement within Malawi's new religious movements and conflicts between tradition and modernisation. It argues that both the negative and positive aspects of the teaching reflect an indigenous, carefully considered strategy to mobilise the masses for a return to traditional practices of worship, and to challenge the foreign ideologies of Christianity, which its follows consider are undermining the religious heritage of Africans.

There are few published collections of Chinyanja proverbs, many of which are in danger of being lost forever. This collection of proverbs and figurative expressions is an important contribution to the preservation of traditional wisdom from this Malawian language group. Chinyanja is becoming a principal lingua franca in Central Africa and the preservation of an integral part of its culture is preserved through recording the wisdom of the ages. English translations and explanations of proverbs are given.