The gradual opening of the Chamare Museum at Mua Mission over a period of many weeks during the mid-summer of 1997 most naturally reflected its prolonged periods of conception and gestation, exceeding thirty years and more in total. For such represents the period of time that the guiding light and moving spirit behind this truly epic work of ethnological scholarship, Claude Boucher, has been acquiring his deep knowledge, love and understanding of the complex, ritual-imbued lives of the surrounding Chewa, Ngoni and Yao peoples of central Malawi. As the culmination of this extended process of intelligent observation and detailed record, the Chamare Museum offers much that is surely unique in interpretation, organisation and presentation anywhere in Africa. Certainly Malawi has never seen the like, and no visit to Malawi can now be considered satisfactory or complete without the inclusion of the Mua Mission.