Paper short abstract:

Zion Church is a transnational phenomenon in Southern Africa. Today is one of the most relevant religious movements in southern Mozambique. This paper will show the different realities of the “work of Zion” and interpretations of local cosmologies in Maputo city, Mozambique.

Paper long abstract:

In the paper I will analyze the healing practices of the churches I observed during my fieldwork in 2010 occurring in the Zion Church in Maputo and Matola.

Zion Church is a transnational phenomenon spread in South Africa at the beginning of XXth century within the process of evangelization conducted by North American preachers.

Nowadays, the Zion church, whose principal characteristic is that of healing and exorcising evil spirits through the Holy Ghost's force, is one of the most popular religious movements in southern Mozambique, although it is often depicted as the religion of the marginalized people.

In Maputo, Zion church is a heterogenic reality; each church has, in fact, its peculiar way of healing and bargaining with spirits. In the the urban context, being a Zion implies different ways of experiencing the world, coping with spirits, reworking the past, and interpreting local cosmologies.

In this context, the Holy Ghost is just one of the many healing spirits helping people to restore their life.

I will discuss how church members, leaders, prophets and patients come to terms with affliction, interpreting it and manipulating the world of the ancestors and spirits.

I will show how the healing process among Zion Church is a long negotiation of meanings between prophets and patients, through which they attempt to manage and, at the same time, exploit a "heathen" past. This memory of the past, embodied in evil spirits, is experienced as a dangerous legacy which may threaten people life, provoking poverty and family problems.