The Worker's Cauldron

News of Njuzu: Mermaids and Modernity in Postcolonial Zimbabwe

April 15, 2021 David Roddy & Mercedas Castillo Season 2 Episode 6
The Worker's Cauldron
News of Njuzu: Mermaids and Modernity in Postcolonial Zimbabwe
Show Notes

In 2012, workers building on a dam in Zimbabwe all walked off the job in protest of unsafe working conditions. What made this story international news was that the workplace danger was mermaids. This week, we discuss the spiritual significance of the njuzu, or the mermaid in Shona indigenous religion, how the country’s troubled history of colonialism informs this belief, and what it all has to do with a massive religious revival in the early 1990s.

Bonus: The Imperial Gaze in western paranormal podcasts

Thanks to Ian Lee for the Creepy Internationale theme song and here is that video about Mermaids in Zimbabwe:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1o8lVP8fmI

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