Shona customs

the long version

The essays presented in this book are among the best received in an essay competition on Shona culture and traditions. The information contained in these essays includes such items as the customary marriage negotiations between families, the role and importance of cattle in Shona society, the ceremony whereby a deceased's spirit is brought home to his village and integrated into the ancestral world by his descendants, the ceremony of installing a new chief, the burial of a chief, the provision made for a widow after her husband's death, how the cause of death is ascertained by a diviner, and others.