“A Series of Seemings”: Inclusion and Exclusion in the Religious Environment Explored in Stanlake Samkange's The Mourned One and Charles Mungoshi's “Sacrifice”

Abstract

Stanlake Samkange and Charles Mungoshi explore the critical evaluation of African traditional religious practices that exposure to Christianity and western education often draw in their wake. The protagonists of The Mourned One and “Sacrifice” feel excluded from the mission school environment based on sexual misconduct, in the former text, whilst the heroine of the latter attains heroic status because of her virginal nature which, combined with her spiritual rebirth, secures her a redemptive role as a syncretic figure.

Keywords:

• Christian virtues
• traditional African beliefs
• sacrifice
• purity
• lust