ABSTRACT
Until thirty-five years ago, the Christians of Muthialapad were compelled to perform the traditional role of the Malas in the annual village festival. When the buffalo had been sacrificed, its entrails were draped around the necks of the Christian Malas who, thus attired, had to go on procession, dancing and playing drums and tambourines, through the main streets of the village. The eschatological significance of the black community is found in the people believing that the Spirit of Jesus is coming to visit them in the worship service each time two or three are gathered in his name, and to bestow upon them a new vision of their future humanity. Polish shipyard workers, striking for free trade unions and free expression in an authoritarian society, were sustained in their search for liberty by daily celebrations of the mass in the yards.
