In a variety of model studies it has been shown that the problem of a singl
e hole in a Mott insulator can be quite well addressed by assuming that all
that matters is the interaction between the propagating hole and the spin
waves of the insulator. NiO has been often taken as the archetypical exampl
e of a Mott insulator and recent angular resolved photoemission studies hav
e revealed that holes in this material share both itinerant and localized a
spects that are very hard to understand either in conventional band-structu
re theory or from purely localized approaches. Starting from a strongly cou
pled electronic multiband Hubbard model, we derive a generalized strong-cou
pling spin-fermion model. The model includes the multiplet structure of the
electronic excitations and describes the interaction of the O(2p) holes mo
ving in oxygen bands with the spins localized on Ni ions. In linear spin-wa
ve order we find an effective Hamiltonian describing the scattering of the
bandlike holes on the spin waves. This problem is solved in rainbow order,
and we find that the outcomes resemble well the experimental findings. In c
ontrast to earlier impurity interpretations stressing spatial locality, we
find that momentum dependencies are dominating the hole dynamics.