Religion and Sexuality in Zimbabwe highlights the complex interplay between religion and sexuality in Zimbabwe. It shows how religion both facilitates and complicates the expression of sexuality in Zimbabwe. Approaching religion from a broader perspective, this volume reviews the impact of African Indigenous Religions and Christianity in its varied forms on the construction and expression of sexuality in Zimbabwe. These contributors examine the role of indigenous beliefs, as well as interpretations of sacred texts, in the understanding of sexuality in Zimbabwe. They also address themes relating to sexual diversity and sexual and gender-based violence. Overall, this book sheds light on the ongoing relevance and strategic role of religion to contemporary discourses on human sexuality.

The study analyses the Shona cultural measures to arrest the HIV and AIDS epidemic in Zimbabwe. To some extent, conventional therapy to the cure of HIV and AIDS is still flawed though some significant progress has been made in coming up with life-prolonging Anti-retroviral drugs. We contend that discourses about mitigating the AIDS epidemic must take the cultural-epidemiological approach to compliment efforts that modern medical technology has done towards finding a cure to the epidemic.

The work explores the nature and impact of cross- culturalism in schools in Zimbabwe. The tumour of this phenomenon is a cause of concern affecting the education delivery system, as society has become a globalised village. The study contends that the decisive encounter of cross-culturalism is a paradox because it can be pedagogically enriching and also disastrous. Schools constitute one of those social institutions that currently are smarting from cross- cultural decay in light of the fact that the Zimbabwean society is prey to various ethnic cultures. This trend is unstoppable. In the backdrop of this, the need for a multicultural education becomes current. Multicultural education will offer new ethos to 'arrest' the rot that schools are facing. The implications call for the changing practical and conceptual roles of education practitioners in multiple ways, which range from the demand for new professional attitudes, fusion of teaching methodologies and to fresh curriculum planning.

The study examines two paradigms that have influenced the nature of the traditional culture and the gospel message relationships in Africa. On one hand, the dialectical paradigm was at the service of Europeans, notably missionaries for much of the colonial period. Missionaries perceived Africa in negative terms to the extent that the majority of them did not compromise their standpoint. That standpoint was to destroy every fabric of traditional African society. This was the foundation of a prejudicial 'centre-periphery' theory, to which Europeans subscribed. The study posits that it was this centre-periphery theory that shaped, for example, missionary Christianity to remain like a foreign religion, despite having an almost permanent foothold in Africa. On the other hand, the dialogical paradigm perceives an integrative role, in which traditional culture can function at the service of theology and thereby re- invigorates African Christianity. By using the Zimbabwean context, the study contends that the latter dialogical model is more appropriate towards transforming African Christianity to become more vibrant.