Meet Me at the Palaver

"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."

Anne Kiome Gatobu, Assistant Professor of Pastoral Care, Asbury Theological Seminary



"The impact of Western colonialism's attempt to extinguish indigenous peoples' stories, communities, value systems, and culture--recruiting them into negative identities through colonial strategies--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 effective 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."

Edward P. Wimberly, Academic Dean & the Jarena Lee Professor of Pastoral Care at I. T. C. in Atlanta.