Case file · Sacred site
The Mbona rain shrine
In the Lower Shire valley of southern Malawi the Mang'anja honour Mbona, a rain-maker said to have been martyred, whose spirit speaks through a medium at the Khulubvi shrine.
1862 CE · -16.85, 35.20 · status: account
The account
The earliest definite written record of the cult dates from 1862. Mbona was given a 'spirit wife' who lived at the shrine. Father Matthew Schoffeleers studied it for decades and showed how its stories recorded political history.