An Introduction to Malawi’s Shrines (and their cults).

Malawi just like other societies has a good number of religious shrines—peculiar to its deep-rooted traditional beliefs—throughout the country. In this post, I’ll share some basic elements of what religious shrines are, their nature and purpose among native Malawians.

Simply put a shrine is a site of worship valued by its association with some sacred thing or person who may be an ancestor, hero, martyr or a saint.  It normally contains idols, relics or other objects linked a figure which is being honoured. It is common for a shrine to also have an altar—a structure where rituals, gifts and other offering are carried out.

Shrines are found almost in all religions of the world and at times in non-religious settings such as war memorials and mausoleums of great public figures. Such places of worship in Malawi exist across a range of tribes, from the Tumbuka to Chewa to Manga’nja people, just to sample a few. In all these tribes, you will some cultish worship in shrines that are territorial in nature; practised by people in a geographically bound area regardless of their tribal affiliation. A good example here, is the Khulubvi Shrine of Mbona cult practised in the lower Shire valley. However, there also shrines in which worshippers belong to a specific clan venerating their ancestors. These are called ancestral cults.

Ulendo series book for Standard 8  Mbona shrine artist impression

Related: The difference between territorial and ancestral cults.

The most important purpose that shrines serve to ensuring that the wellbeing of people is taken care of in the community. In these places, spirit mediums facilitate the transfer of messages from chiuta (God) to His people, and the prayer petitions from the community to Mphambe (God).

The commonest ritual that occurs in local religious shrines is offering of sacrifices  to Chiuta for a number of reasons not limited to thanks giving and asking for blessings for the entire community.  For example, in such player occasions appeals for soil fertility and good harvests, success in hunting, and a pleas to limit floods would be made to God.  Usually each shrine is controlled by a particular chief priest from a single clan.. For instance, among the Tumbuka people of Rumphi district, the religious shrines have historically been under the Kachali clan, in  which the chief  priest is called Mwadandabwi at Chinkhango’ombe cult.

I should also point out that most of the sacred sites have undergone some changes, while other are entirely abandoned. The conversion of shrine guardians, and their political leaders to foreign belief syterms especially Christianity and Islam has drastically contributed to the lessening popularity of local belief systems, and in turn their worship places. Nonetheless, there still remains  a number of sites and adherents to local religious beliefs, that we can preserve, document and proudly showcase in the modern global world as our unique cultural foundation.