How Niassa Special Reserve gives locals a stake in its success

Liconde is a traditional healer. She asks for her practice to be blessed with prosperity; she also intercedes on behalf of others in Mbamba, a village of about 2,000 Yao speakers on the Lugenda River. Only a few have made the two-day walk to this holy place where people have worshipped for as long as memory. The Yao, like the other ethnic groups living in the reserve—including the Macua, Ngoni, Matambwe, and Makonde—have a culture that glimmers with an animist connection with nature even as they’ve blended Islam into their spirituality.