In Part Three of a weekly series on religion in Africa, NPR's Michael Skoler reports on the Shona spirit religion of Zimbabwe. The Shona believe in one God, but they rarely communicate directly with God. Instead, ancestors play the critical role: through healers, they are mortals' intermediaries with God. The ancestors must be treated well; if ignored or upset, they bring on sickness and other problems. Healers interpret the ancestors' disquiet for the living, and explain how to set things right again.
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