Religious Traditions in Zambia

Young Zambians paint their faces green, the colour of plants, as part of Mpika, the traditional feast of farming. Although many Zambians practise Christianity, some of them combine it with traditional belief systems such as animism. Animistic groups believe that all things in nature have souls, and that spirits are linked with areas of land, forces of nature, and objects such as trees or rocks. Worshippers believe that through ritualistic dancing and drumming, they can contact the spirits of dead ancestors or natural entities such as the wind, the Sun, and the stars.

Daniele Pellegrini/Photo Researchers, Inc.