'Meet Me at the Palaver' makes the case for a particular approach
to pastoral counseling as a response to the destructive impact of
colonial Christianity on indigenous African communities. The book
opens with stories of destructive change brought to indigenous
contexts (such as Zimbabwe), wherein the culture, values, religion,
and humanity of African peoples were often marginalised. Mucherera
demonstrates that therapy or counseling as taught in the West will
not always su ce in such contexts, since these approaches tend to
promote and focus on individuality, autonomy, and independence.
Counselors in indigenous contexts need to "get o their couch or
chair" and into the neighborhoods - into those places made
vulnerable to disease and poverty by the collapse of "the palaver"
and other traditional institutions of social stability. Since
storytelling was at the heart of the practices of the palaver and
continues to be a way of life in African cultures, Mucherera argues
for a holistic narrative pastoral counseling approach to assess and
service the three basic areas of human needs in indigenous African
communities: body, mind, and spirit. Tapiwa N. Mucherera is
Professor of Pastoral Counseling at Asbury Theological Seminary and
Assistant Provost, Florida campus. He is the author of Pastoral
Care from a Third World Perspective. An ordained United Methodist
pastor, he has served churches in Zimbabwe, Iowa, and Denver. "The
impact of Western colonialism's attempt to extinguish indigenous
peoples' stories, communities, value systems, and culture has
crippled, for example, African people's ability to face many
contemporary problems such as poverty and the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
This book presents a hopeful strategy of recovering stories,
cultural traditions, and values that have been subjugated in the
past as e ective means for dealing with contemporary life in
indigenous contexts such as Zimbabwe. This narrative pastoral
counseling approach is based on traditional African wisdom as well
as the knowledge growing out of the author's pastoral counseling
experience in Africa and the United States. The author challenges
dangerous traditional practices in the age of HIV/AIDS, and the
need for justice for the poor. A must read for those interested in
working with indigenous peoples." - Dr Edward P. Wimberly, Academic
Dean and the Jarena Lee Professor of Pastoral Care at I.T.C. in
Atlanta "Mucherera tactfully captures the lost art of storytelling
as a mode of communication for therapy and moral values. Though
commonly used by indigenous Africans to transmit oral traditions,
the narrative approach is a unique tool that creates safe distance
for the care receiver and offers ample opportunity to the caregiver
to non-judgmentally form an uplifting and therapeutic relationship.
This book is a must read for all pastoral caregivers, pastors,
counselors, and ministry students, since the narrative approach is
an effective communication tool in today's cross-cultural world." -
Dr Anne Kiome Gatobu Assistant Professor of Pastoral Care, Asbury
Theological Seminary
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