FROM CHINAMWALI TO CHILANGIZO:

The Scriptures say a great deal about the dead and what happens to their spirits (for both
believers and non-believers). This should not be confused with what the Scriptures say
about Satan (the deceiver), demons and angels who are distinctively classified as spiri­
tual beings that are different from humans and their spirit/soul. Unfortunately some of
the western theological and missiological interpreters like Scott Moreau referred to in
chapter two (2.5) and others have lacked discernment in this area and often confuse
'ancestors' and 'spirits.?3 Bediako helpfully clarifies the issue:
I consider it more helpful to speak generally of ancestors, rather than ancestral spirits.
For the ancestor is not a kind of mystical floating spirit.. .. The ancestor is primarily a
name, a person, attached to a place or a relic, possibly a stool or a skin, which shows
the continuing relevance of that name, that person, for hislher society, as a point of reference
for the appreciation of his/her life and career. Ancestors are credited with more
power simply by virtue ofhaving passed into the after-life.
(Bediako 2002:6)
Conversion to the Christian faith for the Chewa means that they have turned over eve­
rything ofwho they are to the lordship ofJesus Christ who, by his resurrection from the
dead, has demonstrated that he possesses power over death. He therefore displaces the
mediatorial function ofthe human ancestors between mankind and Chiuta, and becomes
himself the Great Ancestor. With the help of the Holy Spirit, who also 'intercedes for
the saints', the Chewa Christians should pray to Chiuta through Jesus Christ, the inter­
cessor (Romans 8:26, 34). Jesus Christ now becomes the Intercessor through whom all
prayers to Chiuta must be directed. Since Jesus has 'gone to the realm ofthe "spirits and
the gods"... he has gone there as Lord over them in the same way that he is Lord over
us' (Bediako 2000:27). Responding to the Akan worldview, which is similar to that of
the Chewa, Bediako clearly states:
Jesus Christ, "the Second Adam" from heaven (1 Cor 15:47) becomes for us the only
mediator between God and ourselves (cf. I Tiro 2:5). He is the "mediator of a better
covenant" (Heb 8:6), relating our human destiny directly to God.
(Bediako 2000:26)
On the understanding of this new view of Jesus, all Chewa Christians can act on this
basis and expect certain things to follow. The Chewa believe that it is through the
ancestors that the girls are blessed with fertility, and that observance of the ancestral
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