The 1960s saw the first flowering of African Studies-in History led by the University of Dar-es-Salaam and in Malawi by George Shepperson and Tom Price's biography of John Chilembwe. This study relied partly on the archives of the White Fathers trained to record their observations. It also benefited from the pioneering anthropological research of the Montfort Father Matthew Schoffeleers on religion in the Lower Shire. It is in this context that this study of the early years of the Catholic Missions in Malawi and their encounter with traditional religious life and Chewa culture should be set. Ian Linden is currently a visiting Professor at St Marys