Restoring Religion to the Land: Gender, Race, and Ecology in the Literature of Paulina Chiziane

This chapter explores select novels of Paulina Chiziane, Mozambique’s most celebrated woman writer, and argues for their relevance to such pressing global concerns as ecological crisis, gender inequality, and the legacies of colonial racism. Throughout her work, Chiziane sustains a critique of Western Christianity and demonstrates how, in its place, African spiritual traditions not only merit respect but also provide potentially powerful resources for redressing problems affecting Mozambique and, indeed, the entire world.