Fieldwork in Mozambique: a Research Report

(1996-2001)1

Lorenzo Macagno

1 This is a modified version submitted to SEPHIS Programme (The South-South Exchange Programme for Research on the History of Development, Amsterdam).

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CONTENTS

ABSTRACT ................................................................................... 2

Introduction .................................................................................. 3

Some words about the fieldtrip and the work already done ... 8

Research Methods ..................................................................... 12

1st Six-monthly Period (1st october 1999 - 1st april 2000) ....... 13 Issues analized ......................................................................................................................................................... 14

a)- Protestant missionaries and bilingual education ............................................................................................ 14 b)- Portuguese cultural anthropology and its dilemmas regarding cultural diversity........................................... 15 c)- Cultural Homogenization and the education of the "New Man" .................................................................... 15

Interviews ................................................................................................................................................................ 16

2nd Six Monthly Period (july – December 2000) ...................... 19 Field work carried out in southern Mozambique ..................................................................................................... 20 Field work carried out in northern Mozambique ..................................................................................................... 25

3rd Six-montly Period (February/2001 - July/2001)................. 33

Final comments ......................................................................... 39

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ABSTRACT

In my earlier work, I tried to understand and analyze (through a study of archives started in 1993 and fieldwork started in 1996) the issue of “assimilation” in the discourse and practice of the Portuguese presence in Mozambique. I analyzed these dynamics first in relation to the “assimilation” of the so-called “indigenas”, and then, in relation to the policies of approximation and co-optation of Muslim populations. I also investigated the consequences of these policies. In legal-colonial terms, those (ex) “indigenas” (or Africans) who succeeded in abandoning their “manners and customs” and in adhering to Portuguese cultural values were considered to be “assimilados”. In my later work, I analyzed this “assimilationism”, as well as its paradoxes, in relation to the Muslim presence, especially in the north of the country (where I conducted fieldwork between 2000 and 2003, mainly in the province of Nampula and the Mozambique Island. Effectively, in this region, the colonial administration faced problems not so much with the “indigenas”, with their “manners and customs”, but with strongly Islamized populations, with their system of ideas and practices (Islam) with universalist pretensions. When the anti-colonial war broke out in the north of the country, the Portuguese administration, fearing that the African Muslims would follow the FRELIMO (Mozambique Liberation Front) implemented a “psychological action campaign” of cooptation of their respective leaders. As a general corollary of this research, I could demonstrate that in both cases, the dilemmas brought by assimilationism led to problems born of the intersection between theories of culture and the politics of culture.

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Introduction

The aim of this work is to examine both the changes in representations of

cultural diversity in post-colonial Mozambique and the policies that these

representations engender (above all, in the areas of education). After a century of

homogenizing, "monoculturalist" or assimilationist (especially during Portuguese

colonialism) education policies, discussions on multilingualism, ethnic diversity,

"traditional" power structures, regional identities, etc, are today a part both of the

everyday life of Mozambique's citizens and of the country's public debates. We intend

to examine the dilemmas created by the possibility of multiple forms of modernities for

Mozambique.

At the turn of the century, Portugal consolidated its "effective occupation" of

Mozambique's current territory. From then on, both Portuguese thinkers and colonial

administrators began to concern themselves with a legal and administration system that

would ensure an organic link to the metropolis. At the same time, an assimilationist

discourse was formulated proposing that the Portuguese language would play a

central part as an instrument for allowing gradual incorporation of African populations

into Portuguese cultural values.

To becomes “assimilado”, the so-called natives would have to emancipate

themselves from their "customs and practices". In this sense, the language of the

colonizer was a decisive instrument for such an move. This assimilationist process

deepened with the establishment of the Estado Novo in Portugal. During this period, the

cultural nationalism, spurred on through the influence of Salazarism (1928-1968),

placed colonial problems in the foreground. The colonial project of the Estado Novo

was not substantially different from that of the Portuguese colonial thinkers at the

beginning of the century. The common denominator of both was the view that

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assimilation was to be a gradual process: as Salazar said, "it takes a century to make

a citizen". This same "monoculturalist" system, whose binary logic was clear in its

classification of natives/assimilated ones, also expressed an almost perpetual tension

between assimilation and segregation1.

After independence in 1975, FRELIMO (Frente de Libertação de Moçambique)

adopted Portuguese as the country's official language. This decision corresponds to the

principle of the colonists' appropriation of the colonizer's language to transform it (the

language) into an "instrument of liberation." Likewise, the "New Man" - a socialist -

needed to free himself from the "dark ages", the "tribalism", etc. Thus, the different

groups inhabiting Mozambique such as the "Macuas", "Rongas", "Shanganas", etc,

would converge into a single nation.

It was considered necessary at this time to build national unity, "from Rovuma to

Maputo", as Samora Machel (Mozambique's first president after independence) was

fond of saying in his speeches. This homogenizing cultural process, whose aim was to

form a Mozambican national identity, is clearly expressed in another famous statement

of Machel: "it's necessary to kill the tribe for the nation to be born." The attempt to

eradicate the colonial past (maintaining, however, the Portuguese language) began to

take shape in 1977 when Frelimo proclaimed itself a Marxist-Leninist party. The party

assumed an "avantgarde" function and made itself available for the "great leap"

towards progress, total literacy, etc.

In the mid 1980's, with the decline of the Cold War, the government began a

political and economic reform program. Further ahead, the peace process begun in the

90's between RENAMO and FRELIMO opened up new debates and discussions on

political and cultural issues. These changes, for example, were responsible for the

1 This process is explained in my Master's thesis: Os paradoxos do assimilacionismo: "usos e costumes" do colonialismo português em Moçambique (The Paradoxes of Assimilationism: practices and customs

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debates in 1993, in the First National Congress on Culture sponsored by the Cultural

Ministry, on topics dealing with religion, traditional medicine, national languages, ethnic

groups, national identity, etc. Consequently, these debates recommended that, against

the socialist cultural homogeneity, "national identity" not be seen as a single and

uniform model for all of Mozambique.

Within this context, Mozambican languages are beginning to receive attention

and the monopoly of Portuguese in schools could be undermined. The first bilingual

education programs are being developed concomitantly with debates on Mozambique's

ethnic and linguistic diversity. The aim of our research project is to examine the

dilemmas that these changes in the representation of cultural diversity will create in a

postcolonial Mozambique, after a century of homogenizing and "monoculturalist" (first

during Portuguese assimilationism and later during the Marxist-Leninist period of the

Frelimo) education policies.

Despite the diachronic form (here for the sake of clarity) in which I have

presented this introduction, my methodological focus is neither telelogical nor

mechanical. This means that we must recognize the process of discontinuity and

breaks that have characterized Mozambican history and therefore go beyond the

"official" colonial history, constructed a posteriori, which highlights the "great

undertakings" and the "great heroes". This requires a strong comparative view on long

term processes (especially between colonial and post-colonial periods).

One of the central methods for my approach is field work and direct contact with

those affected by the aforementioned policies. This will allow me to reconstruct the

"small histories" and avoid a functionalist and finalist approach. But, at any rate, I will

not ignore written sources, colonial laws and speeches of administrators. Reports of

of Portuguese Colonialism in Mozambique) PPGSA/IFCS/UFRJ, 1996, 154pp.

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colonial governors, the writings of intellectuals and educators will be a central source of

information for my task. However, this material will be considered for its intentionality

and will therefore be open to deconstruction.

Three types of sources will be consulted:

1) - Oral: a) - Oral narratives of those persons who lived the "native" and "assimilation"

periods in Mozambican history.

b) - Statements and speeches of politicians and intellectuals, etc. (generally

speaking, these people also lived in the periods mentioned in a).

c) - Statements of Mozambican researchers working on bilingual education

projects, etc.

2) - Written: a) - Colonial laws and reports, writings of missionaries, educators,

ethnographers as well as current documents on cultural politics and education (Arquivo

Histórico de Mozambique, Arquivo Historico Ultramarino, Lisboa-Portugal)

*********

Worthy of consideration, in the first place, is the wealth of material recently

produced by Mozambican anthropologists, sociologists, linguists and historians on

education and cultural diversity in Mozambique. This production is, above all, the result

of the last ten years and the consequence of a "post- civil war" context in Mozambique

and a "post-cold war" context worldwide (Firmino and Machungo, 1994; Gulli, 1991;

Lopes, 1997; Magode, 1996; Mazula, 1995sa, 1995 b, Monteiro and José, 1995;

MELIMO, 1989; Serra, 1997).

The recent bibliography on colonialism and culture (Comaroff, 1989, Coutts-

Smith, 1991, Harries, 1994, Mandani, 1996, Said, 1989; Stoler, 1989a, 1989b, Thomas,

1994; Young, 1995, etc.) is also worth considering as are the discussions on

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postcolonialism and the emergence of "news or alternative forms of modernities"

(Appiah, 1992; Gardner, 1996; Scott, 1992; William and Chrisman, 1994, etc). This

bibliography reconsiders in a non-substantialist nor essentialist way, classical problems

of the social sciences, such as, for example, the relationship tradition/modernity, but in

light of the process of cultural hybridization and the ever-complex relationship between

the particular and the universal and between the local and the global. However it is

necesary reconsider these issues in the light of empirical research.

My study try to shed light on two central topics 1) - identity and 2) - equity.

1) - In the first place, regarding the configuration of regional and transnational identities,

it is worth pointing out that Mozambique, as a country whose official language is

Portuguese, belongs to the so-called PALOP (Países de Língua Oficial Portuguesa -

Countries with Portuguese as the Official Language) and the Portuguese-speaking part

of Africa. At the same time, Mozambique has recently entered the Commonwealth and

is also one of the African nations affiliated with the Islamic Conference. Within

Mozambique, these different affiliations, are generating profound debates among the

Mozambicans themselves regarding the legitimacy or lack thereof of belonging to each

of the aforementioned communities. These dilemmas illustrate a complex sociocultural

reality while the debates on "national unity" or on the dangers of the regionalist

tendencies of some groups are a part of the everyday life of Mozambique. It is

necessary, therefore, to focus on the construction of these local and global identities

within the context of the colonial and postcolonial process.

2) - These dilemmas can be inserted into those debates dealing with the best strategy

for entering "modernity". Will Mozambique be a modern nation when it recognizes its

"Portuguese-language" heritage or when it recognizes itself as a multilingual country?

Will Mozambique be a "democratic" country when it emancipates itself from its "dark

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ages", "tribalism" and "feudalism" (just as FRELIMO had proposed) or when it also

considers the role of "traditional tribal leadership" in the process?. What idea of

citizenship will this process consider? A universal citizen - an abstract - or a citizen

possessing definite cultural, linguistic, religious, etc, uniqueness. What type of material

disputes will these choices bring about? These are questions are this report intends to

deal with.

Some words about the fieldtrip and the work already done

The work already done can be split into different stages. These stages cover a

research project I started in 1998 and continued working on during part of 1999. The

project actually began in 1995 when I was working on my Master's thesis (The

Paradoxes of Assimilationism: 'practices and customs' of Portuguese Colonialism in

Mozambique) completed in 1996.

1)-In my Master's thesis, I described and analyzed Portugal's colonial

assimilationist discourse in Mozambique. Furthermore, my thesis tried to explain the

contradictory logic which characterized assimilationism in Mozambique. My other aims

in the thesis were to identify a type of pattern of racial relations that Portuguese

colonialism had established in Mozambique and - from a comparative perspective -

determine how similar these racial relations were to the ones Portugal established here

in Brazil.

2)- After finishing my thesis, a second important moment in my research (now as

a doctoral student) was my contact with Mozambican colleagues and students who

were here in Brazil at the time.Through this contact, I was able to learn a little more

about Mozambique, especially about more recent issues such as the civil war, the end

of the socialist era, regional and linguistic differences, etc. In informal talks with my

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Mozambican colleagues, I was able to identify the different histories and experiences of

each one of them. Since they were from different regions, each of these Mozambicans

had different past histories and "world views": some had been forced to flee from their

village because of the civil war. While some simply referred to themselves as

Mozambicans, others preferred to use an ethnic-linguistic denomination such as

"macua", "ronga", etc. I was also able to exchange ideas, bibliographies and opinions

on Mozambique with this group. I wish to stress here that before "to know"

Mozambique, I knew some Mozambicans, namely those that had spent their childhood

years during the socialist stage and their adolescence during the civil war. During my

field trip, I have met the "older generation", that is, the "natives" who lived in the colonial

period. Through my reading, I was able to ascertain just what "natives" or "assimilated

ones" are. At any rate, I feel it's important to go beyond the writings of the colonial

administrators and personally meet these people who today are in their sixties,

seventies and eighties.

3- Regarding specifically my research papers, all of which will be included in

some form in the final version of my dissertation, I have concluded the following

studies:

- " A língua portuguesa e os usos da diversidade cultural em Moçambique"

(The Portuguese Language and the Uses of Cultural Diversity in

Mozambique)

- "Educação e etnografia: a contribuição de Henri A. Junod" (Education and

Ethnography: Henri A. Junod's Contribution)

- "Antropologia colonial portuguesa e as representações da diversidade

cultural em Moçambique" (Portuguese Colonial Anthropology and The

Representations of Cultural Diversity in Mozambique)

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- "Um antropólogo norteamericano no 'mundo que o português criou': relações

raciais em Brasil e Moçambique segundo Marvin Harris". (A North American

Anthropologist in the ' world the Portuguese created': Racial Relations in

Brazil and Mozambique)

From a historical-comparative viewpoint, the studies examine different matters

related to cultural diversity in colonial and post-colonial Mozambique and primarily the

role played by anthropologists and ethnographers in constructing a type of

representation of that diversity.

4)- In the last few months I've dedicated myself here in Rio de Janeiro to

preparing a bibliography. The material I gathered consists of a series of articles and

books on education in Mozambique in the colonial and socialist periods. The

bibliographic research was conducted at the following two libraries:

-The Real Gabinete Português de Leitura. As an official Portuguese institution, this

library periodically receives bibliographic material from Portugal.

-The library of the Centro de Estudos Afro-Asiáticos of the Universidade Cândido

Mendes. This is practically the only library in Rio de Janeiro which specializes in

subjects related to Africa, racial relations, etc.

With the materials I've gathered in these two libraries, I'm currently working on

two chapters on education and cultural diversity in the colonial and post-colonial periods

respectively.

The first main objective of the fieldwork is to collect oral narratives of those

people who lived in the "native" and "assimilation" periods. My interest here is to first

record the "stories" of the assimilated ones and their experiences during the colonial

period. Then, I intend to use these narratives to try to identify the way in which these

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Mozambicans were educated during Portuguese colonialism. This main objective also

encompasses other secondary objectives described below:

-Identify the way the assimilated ones dealt with colonial education, whether by

preserving (in the realm of their private lives) their native traditions, languages and

religion or by embracing the Portuguese cultural values.

-Also Identify to what extent Portuguese colonialism (assimilationist) managed to

eradicate practices or customs, or the "tradition" as one says nowadays in

Mozambique.

2- A second step (here in a methodological rather than chronological sense) of the

fieldwork is to identify those discourses on educational policies and cultural diversity

between certain agents such as foreign and native researchers, politicians and writers

and intellectuals. I believe that this other "empirical realm" can allow us to appraise just

how possible an education development policy based on internal potentiality - through

policies valuing local knowledge and diversity - is for Mozambique. From a

methodological viewpoint, this also implies a sharp comparative view of the colonial,

socialist and current period (this latter being defined as post-colonial or post-Cold War)

exactly as postulated in the Research Proposal.

In order to achieve the previously described objectives, I've chosen two cities in

Mozambique: one in the South (Maputo) and the other in the North (Nampula).

Maputo, the capital city where the government head and ministries are located,

has a greater population. There, most inhabitants speak both Portuguese and another

native tongue such as Ronga and Shangana. A good portion of Mozambique's political

and intellectual "elite" lives in Maputo. This city also has a large population of

"assimilated one". Furthermore, Maputo also receives an important influx of migration

from Mozambique's hinterlands.

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In order to steer away from a fragmentary view of the country, contact with some

people from Nampula is important. It's worth remembering here that the fight against

Portuguese colonialism began precisely in the north of Mozambique. I consider it

important to gather "stories" about the colonial presence in the north and about the way

assimilationism functioned in the region.

Research Methods

1) - Traditional field work methods will be used including:

-Active observation.

-Techniques for gathering information from oral sources through interviews (both

prepared and spontaneous), surveys, etc.

-Each individual case will determine whether a tape recorder or note taking will be used

for the interview, since a tape recorder could sometimes affect the spontaneous nature

of those interviews.

- Techniques for collecting visual materials (especially photographic materials).

2)-I consider a type of "ethnographic" writing that takes into account the different

narratives in a "multivocal" or "polyphonic" fashion necessary for this study. This will

allow the potential reader to make his/her own " journey" through the different voices

that will appear. At the same time, this approach will not hinder the potential

reader/researcher from, as the case may determine, to apply interpretive criteria.

3)-I feel that my "entrance into the field" can be facilitated because of my

acquaintance, as previously mentioned herein, with a number of Mozambican

colleagues. My intention is to establish, with the help of my colleagues and friends, a

network of informants.

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Finally, it's worth remembering at this point that these objectives of the field trip

should be contextualized within the global framework of the objectives and research

problem set down in my Research Proposal.

1st Six-monthly Period (1st october 1999 - 1st april 2000)

Between November and December 1999, I began planning my fieldwork,

scheduled to begin in January 2000, and received the guidance of a Mozambican (born

in Nampula in the north of Mozambique) colleague studying here in Brazil who

suggested it would perhaps be better to begin that work after the flood season, namely,

after March. At first, I thought my friend was exaggerating and I insisted on maintaining

my original schedule. At the last moment, however, I heeded his advice as I saw his

words were wise indeed since between February and March of this year, Mozambique

experienced one its greatest natural disasters in recent years: the floods caused by the

strong rains and the cyclone Eline left thousands of people homeless there. Particularly

hard hit were the country's central and southern regions. Half of the Southern city Xai

Xai and bordering areas were left underwater. As the water level gradually declined, the

pavement of the highway linking Xai Xai to Maputo cracked apart. Thousands of

families were left drifting in the region without any perspective of starting their lives

anew. Had I gone there at that time, the situation would have undoubtedly made my

fieldwork very difficult. On the advice of my colleague, I decided to put off my field trip

until April.

Having been compelled to change my original schedule, I used February to

conduct research in Lisbon at the Arquivo Histórico Ultramarino (Overseas Historical

Archive), the Biblioteca do Instituto de Ciencias Sociais e Politica (Library of the Social

Sciences and Politics Institute) and the Biblioteca do Museu de Etnologia (Library of the

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Ethnology Museum). At these places, I was able to gather important material on

Portuguese colonial history in Mozambique.

One of the underlying guidelines of my bibliographic research is the possibility of

contrasting the documents examined with the oral narratives and testimonies to be

gathered during my fieldwork. This will allow me to highlight the accounts of those who

were the targets of assimilationist, monoculturalist and homogenist colonial policies.

Issues analized

During these last months, consequently, I've progressed with my assembling and

processing of the written documents of missionaries, educators and ethnographers. For

a long time, these were the only agents "authorized" to speak in the name of the

peoples currently living in Mozambique. These agents were, in some way, the

"specialists" of cultural diversity and, as such, they created a specific way of looking at

the African world. This research has allowed me to conclude my analysis of three

decisive aspects (listed below) of this research project:

a)- Protestant missionaries and bilingual education

The role played by H. A. Junod - Protestant missionary and ethnographer in the

south of Mozambique between 1889 and 1920 - was decisive. Although Junod visited

his native Switzerland during that time, his home was in Mozambique. Despite being an

educator concerned with "civilizing", Junod was also worried about preserving the local

"customs and habits." Although his dilemmas were also essentially those of the

Portuguese colonial world in Mozambique, he differed substantially from the

assimilationist discourse since he promoted bilingual education in Mozambique.

Taking the above as a departure point, one of the goals of my fieldwork in

Mozambique is to detect whether Junod's legacy continues or whether it has suffered

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breaks and interruptions. For this purpose, I intend to interview, on the one hand, those

Mozambicans educated at the Swiss Protestant Mission (which Junod belonged to)

and, on the other, those educated at Portuguese Catholic Schools (which forbade the

use of local native languages).

b)- Portuguese cultural anthropology and its dilemmas regarding cultural

diversity

During the last few months, I've also been able to proceed with my examination

of the work of Jorge Dias - another anthropologist, active in the north of Mozambique in

the 50's. Although the disappearance of the cultural diversity in the north of

Mozambique caused him much anguish, Dias was sympathetic to the assimilationist

principles of Portuguese colonialism. The examination of documents allowed me to

finish a chapter on the course of his work and ideas regarding Portuguese colonization

in Mozambique. My examination of Dias' work has prompted my desire to interview and

talk with the "assimilated" ones and to ask the following question: just how far did they

give up their "customs and habits", native religious beliefs, kinship systems, etc.? At the

beginning of the 60's, the armed struggle headed by Frelimo (Mozambican Liberation

Front) against Portuguese colonialism began precisely in the region where Dias

performed his fieldwork: the north of Mozambique. At the time, Portugal was also trying

to justify its presence in Mozambique before various international organizations on the

argument that there were no Portuguese "colonies" in Africa but rather overseas

provinces perfectly integrated into the metropolis.

c)- Cultural Homogenization and the education of the "New Man"

I've finished a chapter on the homogenizing and universalizing ideas proposed

by the educational policies during Mozambique's Socialist period. In any case, I plan to

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rewrite this chapter on the basis of any new light from the field work. This work will allow

me to record oral narratives and gather testimonies from both the formulators and

targets of the policies.

Mozambique gained its independence from Portugal in 1975 and in 1977

Frelimo became a Marxist-Leninist party. Regarding education, Frelimo proposed the

construction of a "national Mozambican culture" and, according to the discourses I

collected of that time, postulated that it was first necessary to construct a "New Man" to

do so. For the builders of socialism, it was necessary that this New Man be

emancipated from "tradition", "tribalism" and "obscurantism."

As a result, Mozambique had for many years various spokespersons and agents

"authorized to speak in the name of." For this reason, the driving force behind my

research project has been to replace the monologue with a more dialogic and

polyphonic view on education and cultural diversity in Mozambique and to give other

voices their proper place. In a nutshell, this is guiding principle of my field work.

Interviews

During the month I stayed in Lisbon delving into records, I also had the

opportunity to interview a few people. Their accounts help me understand the

complexity of the Mozambican cultural world and the complexity of debates on

education and cultural diversity in both the colonial and post-colonial worlds. Below I

offer a brief profile of the persons interviewed:

a)- Interview with Inácio Matsinhe, a painter and sculptor born in 1945 in a small town in

the south of Mozambique. Although Matsinhe has been living for the last few years in

Lisbon where he has his studio, he has not lost touch with his African cultural world. In

his youth, Matsinhe joined the "Frente de Libertação de Moçambique" (Mozambique

17

Liberation Front, FRELIMO) and later abandoned the movement due to a series of

incidents and disagreements regarding ideology. My interview of this artist was highly

rewarding since he is deeply committed to Mozambican life in general and, at the same

time, participates in "two worlds": Europe (Lisbon) and Africa (Mozambique). Recently,

Matshine made his mark on the Portuguese cultural scene with his exhibit "Esculturas

para a Paz" (Sculptures for Peace). The sculptors were made from some rather

unusual materials such as parts of broken weapons used in the Mozambican civil war

(between the FRELIMO and RENAMO -National Mozambican Resistence-) that

decimated the country for over twenty years.

b)- Interview with Adriano Moreira, the Overseas Minister between 1961 and 1963 and

one of the main ideologues of Portuguese colonialism in the 60's and strategists of

Portuguese diplomacy (in an age in which, despite pressure from the United Nations,

Portugal insisted on keeping her colonies). Moreira, moreover, also has wide

experience in international law. My interview with Moreira was crucial to my work since

he has written extensively on what is referred to as the "Portuguese colonial world." His

books are an obligatory reference point for those interested in understanding certain

processes of Portuguese colonialism and assimilationism in Mozambique. Yet, beside

his written output, the context of conducting an interview like mine offers the possibility

of observing the gaps between the interviewee's oral and written discourse. Hence, the

interview provides the possibility of detecting those omissions, silences, divergences

and contradictions absent in written texts. These new elements offer me further material

to analyze.

c)- Interview with João de Pina Cabral, the well known Portuguese anthropologist who

has conducted field work in the north of Portugal, Macao and more recently, in

Mozambique. I wish to stress here that although Pina Cabral was born in Portugal - the

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son of an Anglican pastor who worked many years in Mozambique and South Africa -

he was raised in Mozambique. Therefore, the experiences of this anthropologist are like

those of a native who, like the previously mentioned artist, simultaneously participates

in different cultural worlds.

d)- Finally, an interview with João Pereira Neto, a former professor of the extinct

Instituto de Estudios Ultramarinos (Institute of Overseas Studies). This was the institute

which incidentally prepared many colonial administrators and anthropologists. The

interview introduced me to the discussions on colonial ideas of the time (especially of

the 60's) and helped me understand what many Portuguese anthropologists of the

period thought of the Mozambican colonial world. The 60's were an important time for

Portuguese colonialism since the process of decolonization was making itself felt

throughout Africa, which meant that Portugal had to "reinvent" its overseas

assimilationist vocation to justify its presence there.

During recent months I also caught up on my reading of recent discussions on

education, multiculturalism and post-colonialism. These discussions are very useful to

me since they can help me decide which theoretical elements can be applied to

Mozambique's case and which should be discarded.

As a result of the work carried out during the last six months, I feel ready to take

on the field work and achieve profitable results. Although I've acquired the necessary

tools to avoid "entering the field" naively or spontaneously, it's important to put my

assumptions aside until I can review them under the new light of the oral accounts. And

then, it's important that the many other voices in Mozambique be given their proper

place.

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2nd Six Monthly Period (july – December 2000)

This covers especially the period of fieldwork. Even when in july and august I

finished somes readings of recent discussions on education, multiculturalism and post-

colonialism. During the last four months (September, October, November and

December of the year 2000), we made progress, above all, in the compilation of oral

narratives in Mozambique. However, it is necessary to specify here the geographic

areas in Mozambique which were included and, following this, the groups of people with

whom we conversed.

Our work can be divided into two main geographic areas: southern and northern

Mozambique. This division, however, is not justified merely in geographic terms, but

above all in socio-cultural terms. In fact, the southern part of the country, especially

from the XIX Century on, underwent a strong Christian influence derived from the

numerous Protestant missions which were installed there and which stimulated, in

general, a type of bilingual teaching. On the other hand, the northern part was always

under a strong Moslem influence, even before the arrival of the Portuguese at the end

of the XV Century. Portugal’s aggressive assimilationist policy, especially since 1930,

has not been able to neutralize both these influences. Since the latter year, Portugal

began to prepare a more systematic colonial line and a more formal educational policy

that included close collaboration with the Catholic Church.

This division (perhaps somewhat arbitrary) between south and north forms part,

however, of the everyday narratives of the Mozambicans themselves. I perceived this

constantly since my arrival in Mozambique and also based on my interviews with a

heterogeneous group of people. It should be remembered, in this connection, that in

1999 the second democratic multi-party elections were held and once again won by the

government party, FRELIMO. Nevertheless, in the entire northern region of the country

20

the election results greatly favored the opposition party, RENAMO. The latter party

leveled a number of election fraud accusations against FRELIMO. With this I merely

intend to indicate the political climate in effect when I arrived in Mozambique. This

climate reached what was perhaps its highest boiling point when a congressman from

the RENAMO party proposed dividing the country into southern and northern regions:

the southern one would be governed by FRELIMO and the northern one by RENAMO.

This obviously created a great political scandal.

For greater clarity in putting together this report, I propose then to distinguish

between what was done in the southern part of the country, on one hand, and in the

northern part, on the other. It should always be taken into consideration that this

division does not result from a more or less arbitrary criterion, but rather from the

Mozambicans’ own concerns. That is, this division is justified in terms of the “native

discourse” itself.

Field work carried out in southern Mozambique

The fieldwork in the southern part of the country was focused on specific urban

zones, especially the city of Maputo. This is the capital city where the government head

and ministries are located, with a greater population. There most inhabitants speak

both Portuguese and another native tongue such as Ronga and Shangana. A good

portion of Mozambique’s political and cultural “elite” lives in Maputo. This city also has

a large population of “assimilated people”. Maputo also receives an important influx of

migration from Mozambique’s hinterlands.

21

A popular urban market, Nampula (photo: Lorenzo Macagno)

In this southern region I have proposed to attain two objectives:

1) To collect oral narratives of those people who lived in the “native”and “assimilation”

periods. My interest here was to first record the “stories”of the assimilated ones and

their experiences during the colonial period. Then, I intend to use these narratives to

try to identify the way in which these Mozambicans were educated during the

Portuguese colonialism. This main objective also encompasses other secondary

objectives described below:

- Identify the way the assimilated ones dealt with colonial education, whether by

preserving (in the realm of their private lives) their native education, languages and

religion, or by embracing the Portuguese cultural values.

- Also identify to what extent Portuguese colonialism (assimilationist) managed to

eradicate practices or customs, or the “tradition” as one says nowadays in

Mozambique.

We considered these objectives to have been successfully achieved, to the

extent that we were able to have access to the discourses of some of these people that

passed from the stage of “natives” to that of “assimilated”.

22

A little seller of fish, Ilha de Moçambique (photo: Lorenzo Macagno)

The second objective was:

2) to identify those discourses on educational policies and cultural diversity between

certain agents such as foreign and native researchers, politicans, writers and

intellectuals.

Taking into consideration the two objectives mentioned in the southern part of

the country, we were able to carry out a set of recorded interviews with the following

persons:

a) Armindo D.: He was born in the province of Gaza. Having a Native identity

document, in the fifties he was taken to Lourenço Marques (today Maputo) by a lawyer

of the National Directorate of Native Services. There he began to work and attended

school, up to the fourth grade of primary school. Later he acquired the legal status of

assimilated. He also worked in the South African mines. Until recently he worked in

the Mozambique National Press Agency. He is presently retired.

b) João Mendes: He is the son of Portuguese colonists. He belonged to the group of

writer Noemia de Souza and Ricardo Rangel. He was one of the first white

23

Mozambicans to adhere to the struggle against Portuguese colonialism. He was

arrested by PIDE (Portuguese Intelligence Service Police) at the end of the fifties, and

later lived in exile in France. He supported the Democratic Unity Movement in Portugal

and its candidate Norton Matos. He played an important role in the formation of the

MPLA in Angola and later, while in exile, in the formation of FRELIMO.

c) Amaral Matos: He is a member of the Central Committee of the FRELIMO Party

and First Secretary of the party in the Maputo municipal committee. He was involved in

clandestine activities against the colonial regime around the end of the fifties and

beginning of the sixties. He was arrested in 1961.

d) Gabriel Simbine: He began elementary school in Mozambique and concluded his

primary education in a Methodist mission in Rhodesia. Later, with a scholarship from

the Church, he completed his secondary education at a private school in Lourenço

Marques. He obtained university education in the United States where he was received

by Eduardo Mondlane (first president of FRELIMO who at that time was in exile in that

country). At the moment he is doing research on the question of national languages in

Mozambique. He is the Assistant Director General of ARPAC (Cultural Heritage

Archives).

e) Daniel Konguane: He was born in southern Mozambique. He is the pastor of the

Mozambican Presbyterian Church “Swiss Mission” in Rikatla (founded by the

ethnografer and missionary Henri A. Junod). His education permitted him to abandon

the legal status of “native” and become “assimilated”. He worked in the South African

mines in 1951. The Rikatla theological school closed in 1943 and reopened in 1963, at

which time Konguane began to work in the mission.

f) Domingos Arouca: He was born in Inhambane. He was one of the first black

Mozambicans to complete a university course during the colonial period (he graduated

24

from the Lisbon Law School). He was president of the Mozambique Blacks’ Associative

Center. In 1965 he was arrested by PIDE, and freed in 1973. Today he is president of

the FUMO party.

g) Fanuel Mungomane Macie: He was born in Gaza (in southern Mozambique). He

learned the printer’s trade at the Anglican Mission in a district of his province. In 1952

(with native status) he was forceably recruited into military service. The following year

he was sent to Macau, where he remained until 1956. After his return to Mozambique,

he continued to work in the Anglican Mission printing shop. Later he moved to

Lourenço Marques. He currently works as a typographer at the Mozambique National

Press Agency in Maputo.

h) Marcelo Soverano and Deolinda da Barca: They are members of the research

team of PEBIMO (Bilingual Education Program in Mozambique), INDE, Education

Ministry. The subject of the interview was the problematical aspects of bilingual

education.

i) Raul Honwans Jr.: He is a writer and professor, the son of Raul Bernardo

Honwana. He is a member of a family which has produced several outstanding

personalities in Mozambican public life. At the age of 5 he lost his eyesight as a result

of meningitis. He learned the first elements of Braile at the age of 13 and ended up

graduating in Philosophy from the Lisbon Classical University. His father’s trajectory

(published in Memories2) is a model for understanding the change from native to

assimilated.

j) Yussuf Mohamed: He is a Moslem merchant, and Secretary of the Maputo

Central Mosque. Yussuf owns a fruit and vegetable stall in the Maputo Central

Market, in the “baixa” downtown district.

2 See Raul Bernardo Honwana, Memórias, Edições ASA, Rio Tinto, Portugal.

25

Young lady with "capulana" and traditional muziro3 - Nampula (photo: Lorenzo Macagno)

At the same time, during our entire stay in Mozambique, we made contact with

various local research institutions. Perhaps one of the most important is the Historical

Archives of Mozambique, headed by Dr. Antonio Sopa and Dr. Amelia Neves. The

African Studies Center of the Eduardo Mondlane University also possesses a

documentation center. We also carried out bibliographical research at the Cultural

Heritage Archives (ARPAC).

Field work carried out in northern Mozambique

The second period of fieldwork, during the months of November and December,

was performed in the northern part of the country. For most of this period I stayed in

3 A vegetable cold cream to clean the skin face.

26

the city of Nampula, but I also made short trips to the locality of Nacala and to

Mozambique Island, where I stayed one week.

The great majority of this region’s population belongs to the Macua group, and

for this reason this is the language most frequently spoken. Generally, the people that

live in urban centers also speak Portuguese. We must also add to this bilingual

vocation the fact that many people have a considerable mastery of Arabic. This is due

to the growing process of the spreading of the Moslem religion among the Macua

populations, a process stimulated also by the existence of numerous Koranic schools

(“Madrasas”), both in the rural and urban areas.

In order to understand the socio-cultural configuration of the northern part of the

country, it should be recalled that this region was for several centuries exposed to the

influence of the migratory and trade currents from the Indian Ocean. Especially during

the XVII and XVIII centuries, the entire northern coast of Mozambique was profoundly

influenced by the trade routes which passed through the Arabian Peninsula, reaching

India. For this reason, in northern Mozambique we also find descendents of Hindus,

Arabs, Pakistanis, etc, in addition to the immense Macua population.

Moreover, during the XIX century until the beginning of the XX century, the

northern Mozambique coastal communities were under the strong influence of the

Sultanate of Zanzibar (currently part of Tanzania) and the Comoro Isles. I was able to

detect, by means of some oral narratives, that Portugal (when it made its

assimilationism more radical starting in 1930-40) tried to diminish the influence of these

sultanates among the Moslem communities of the northern region. Many old Moslems

from northern Mozambique even today remember this hegemony maintained by the

sheiks coming from Zanzibar and the Comoro Isles.

27

In fact, my main informant in northern Mozambique was a young Macua who

was also a Moslem and whose forebears came from the district of Angoche. This

young man (named Momade Yussufu) also presented himself as a Mukhulukano (that

is, a medicine man or doctor, in the Macua language). Momade told me proudly of his

“kitabs” (books), inherited from his Angoche ancestors. On a certain occasion Momade

invited me to his home, a small mud building in the suburbs of Nampula. There I could

see his small library, a set of some ten or twelve volumes which he kept with great care

in an old valise. Momade showed a special reverence for two of these books, written in

Arabic by, supposedly, a grand uncle from Barawa (afterwards, by means of some

articles I consulted in the Historical Archives, I discovered that Barawa, in what is now

Somalia, was an important center for the learning of the Sufis, mystical offshoots of

Islam). Momade very generously let me photocopy these two books. This will enable

me to understand many aspects of Momade’s narratives, since he declared that he

performed cures, at the same time, with roots and with “kitabs” (books).

28

Momade, showing one of his "kitabs" inherited from his ancestors, Nampula (photo: Lorenzo Macagno)

I did not make a formal recorded interview with Momade. When I hinted at the

possibility of doing so, Momade smiled, not very convinced that this would make sense.

For this reason I preferred not to force the issue. Furthermore, this type of interview

really didn’t make much sense, since I conversed daily with Momade, who in addition

guided me very enthusiastically through the small dirt alleys in the suburbs of Nampula.

Also, Momade (who spoke Macua and Swahili) collaborated as interpreter for some of

the interviews I carried out in Nampula.

29

Momade, inside the Bap Salam mosque, Nampula (photo: Lorenzo Macagno)

The objectives of the fieldwork planned for the northern part of the country were

practically similar to those outlined for the southern part. That is, in both cases my

concern was to come up with a set of narratives which would lead me to understand

how the Portuguese assimilationist discourse really operated on the everyday level of

the people. In northern Mozambique, Portugal apparently encountered a very different

reality. That is, these so-called “natives” that it intended to assimilate already had an

important mastery of Arabic and therefore contact with written culture.

30

In Nampula I was able to interview employees of UDEBA (Basic Education Unit).

This is a Non-Governmental Organization which has several education projects,

especially at the rural population level. It was important to discover that one of the

projects that UDEBA possesses (called “Wissomiha” project) intends precisely to

integrate the formal public education with the education carried out by the “madrasas”

(Koranic schools).

Also in Nampula I interviewed some “mualimos” (that is, “madrasa” teachers)

and sheiks from various mosques.

A break in the interview (photo: Momade)

Therefore, the people with whom I carried out recorded interviews in northern

Mozambique were:

a) Hasani Rachumo: He is in charge of one of the many mosques that exist in the

suburbs of Nampula. In this case it is a very simply and precariously built mosque,

known by the name of “Angochanos’ Mosque” (that is, most of its members are

originally from the Island of Angoche).

31

b) Bilali Said: He is a young mualimo (teacher in charge of the Koranic school) of the

Sitruyube madrasa (see cover photo). This madrasa funcions in the mosque called

Nuruiu Halam, in the Moahivire district of Nampula.

c) Shilamu Yussufu: He is the sheik of the Praça Mosque, in the Mohala district of

Nampula. He is an old African Moslem who speaks almost no Portuguese. My

interpreter and assistant Momade was essential for carrying out this interview which

took place almost exclusively in the Macua language.

d) Marcos Mapinguisse: He is a young employee of UDEBA (Basic Education Unit).

In this interview I was able to get to know several projects which are being developed in

the educational field in the Nampula region, especially in rural areas.

e) Selemangy M. Anifo: He is the Provincial Delegate of the Mozambique Islamic

Council in Nampula. The interview dealt with the role of the Koranic schools in the

region and the history of the Moslem presence in northern Mozambique.

f) Abdulraman Reman Amur: He is an old Moslem (whose age is approximately 80).

His father, coming from Madagascar, arrived on Mozambique Island (off the northern

coast of the country) in 1896 and founded a Moslem Brotherhood called Xadulia

Liaxurdia.

g) Ibraimo Hasamu Arbi: He is in charge of the main madrasa on Mozambique

Island, called Abu Bakar. The interview dealt with the role of Koranic education in the

region and the history of the Moslem Brotherhoods on Mozambique Island.

h) Ismael Habibo Viegas: He is another important member of the Moslem community

on Mozambique Island. He also teaches Islam to numerous boys and girls on the

Island.

32

Through all these interviews, both in the southern as well as in the northern part

of the country, I was able to obtain a very broad view of Mozambique’s socio-cultural

complexity. I perceived that the people had a great need to talk about their problems

and anxieties. Likewise, I could share to a considerable extent the everyday life of

these people, who often made me feel part of “their world”. In this sense my task as a

researcher did not evolve in an ascetic emotional environment. On the contrary, my

field experience in this case served to confirm the fact that all research is always a

more shared and collective rather than an individual task.

Sharing the lunch with a matrilineal urban family, Nampula

I have now begun the work of listening to and transcribing the interviews. At the

same time I am systematizing in writing some impressions of the “field”. The

compilation of written sources in Archives and libraries made especially in the previous

semester will be compared with this new body of oral narratives. Some papers written

33

a few months ago will be rewritten in the light of the data obtained from the fieldwork.

Therefore, when the time comes to present my third semi-annual report, all of the

research will be concluded and contained in the final version of the work.

3rd Six-montly Period (February/2001 - July/2001)

This period covers the last stage of my research. It refers to the work carried out

during the months of February, March, April, May, June and July 2001. This has been

a period devoted specifically to writing the final version of the work. However, this

writing process has not been strictly lineal. That is to say, since the beginning there

has been a kind of permanent “coming and going” between the “data” and the writing

itself.

I consider that the goals traced in the Research Proposal, and in the work

schedule itself, have been adequately attained. Some of these goals and results were

already described in earlier reports.

As mentioned in Progress-Report 2, one of the first activities carried out after

completion of the field work (last year) was the transcription and systematic evaluation

of the oral sources and interviews (a task performed during the month of January).

From then on I began a writing (and re-writing) process that sought to integrate

the bibliographic and documentary material with the material gathered in the field. At

certain times I assumed an interpretation of the data in the light of the recent debates

on colonialism/post-colonialism, multiculturalism, education and identity. At other times

I opted for a more “dialogical” criterion, transcribing some narratives that seemed more

representative to me. With this I tried not to compromise one of the initial goals

proposed:

34

"One of the central methods for our approach is field work and direct contact with those affected by the aforementioned policies. This will allow us to reconstruct the "small histories" and avoid a functionalist and finalist approach…Our approach, at any rate, will not ignore written sources, colonial laws and speeches of administrators. Reports of colonial governors, the writings of intellectuals and educators will be a central source of information for our task. However, this material will be considered for its intentionality and will therefore be open to deconstruction" (see Research Proposal).

The final result of the research took the form of eight chapters, which I describe

below:

1- Assimilationism and the legal invention of the native

2- Colonial dilemmas: education versus practices and customs

3- Education and ethnography in Henri A. Junod

4- Assimilationism, ethnographic nostalgia and Portuguese national character

5- Colonialism and Moslem narratives

6- Anti-lusocentrism: education of the New Man

7- Dialogues: colonialism, socialism and diversity

8- Post-colonial dilemmas: lusophony or multiculturalism?

According to this arrangement, in CHAPTER ONE I try to show that the

assimilationist discourse of Portugal for Mozambique puts into play a set of legal

categories originating in the "mother country" itself. In this connection, before

“educating” and assimilating the native, it was necessary to create him, invent him and

give him a legal statute by means of laws, decrees, regulations, etc. In this process,

Portuguese colonialism showed very little sensitivity to the cultural diversity of the

present territory of Mozambique and therefore was producing knowledge of little

ethnographic value regarding the populations existing there.

35

In CHAPTER TWO I show that, at the same time that the “native” was legally

created, his counterpart, the “assimilated person”, also had to be created. Here we try

to describe the components of the colonial education in Mozambique. Once more, the

administrators-educators put into effect a set of categories in order to imagine the

African world. The colonial propaganda, concerned with publicizing the successes of

its assimilationist educational enterprise, utilized a set of statistics, pamphlets, visual

aids, etc. I try to confront this type of representations by the experience of the very

people affected by these policies, that is, the natives-assimilated persons themselves.

But in Mozambique, not only administrators, jurists, military personnel and

colonists came together, but also missionaries as well. This is especially noteworthy

beginning with the close of the 19th century, when a group of missions, mostly

Protestant, began to establish themselves throughout Africa. Many missionaries

succeeded in producing relevant ethnographic knowledge regarding the colonial area,

as well as a systematic study of the region´s linguistic diversity. In the south of

Mozambique, one of the most noteworthy ethnographers-missionaries was, in this

case, Henri Alexandre Junod, of the Roman Swiss Mission (currently the Presbyterian

Church of Mozambique). As an educator, Junod was in favor of a transitional bilingual

instruction, by which the African children should be taught to read and write in their own

mother tongue. As an ethnographer, Junod showed great concern over the gradual

disappearance of the “practices and customs” among the local groups. His trajectory in

Mozambique places in radical opposition two apparently irreconcilable poles: that of the

detail-oriented ethnographer and that of the universalist educator. In CHAPTER

THREE the components of this complex contrast are analyzed.

CHAPTER FOUR deals with another aspect of Portuguese assimilationism.

Here I try to outline some characteristics of the colonial discourse based on the figure of

36

the Portuguese ethnologist Jorge Dias. I consider his trajectory fundamental for an

understanding of the ambiguities and dilemmas of Portuguese colonialism in

Mozambique. Jorge Dias performed one of the most extensive and complete

ethnographies of the Macondes groups, in the northern part of the country. In addition,

he was the protagonist of the first systematic attempt at an “applied anthropology” in

Mozambique. To a large extent he was a man who sympathized with the colonial

principles which Portugal upheld during the nineteen fifties and sixties. Jorge Dias´

dilemmas are also dilemmas of the Portuguese colonial system itself: on one hand, a

certain “tolerance” of the local “uses and customs”, and on the other hand, the need for

assimilating the African populations with the Portuguese cultural values.

While in the southern part of the country the “educator” role was played, above

all, by the Protestant missions, in the northern part, on the other hand, this role was

filled by the Moslem presence. Before the arrival of the Portuguese in this region (in

the sixteenth century), the populations existing there came under a strong influence

from the Moslem culture (especially among the Macuas ethnic groups). In my fieldwork

I was able to perceive the strength of this influence among the local populations.

Indeed, some of the people with whom we conversed there are completely literate in

the Arabic language. They speak and write this language fluently, while, in contrast,

they cannot read or write Portuguese and they have difficulty speaking it. Therefore,

the assimilationist thrust of Portuguese colonialism seems to have had little effect here.

In CHAPTER 5 we analyze the challenges to Portuguese assimilationism in the face of

the strong Islamic presence in the northern region. I also give an account of some

“narratives” of the local Moslem leaders themselves who, on their part, have their own

view of the colonial past.

37

With the independence of Mozambique in 1975, the heritage of the Portuguese

“culture” left by colonialism is attacked by the new nationalist elite. However, FRELIMO

(Mozambique Liberation Front) adopted the Portuguese language as the language of

National Unity. One of the most noteworthy aspects of the anti-lusocentrist or anti-

Portuguese struggle was the so-called education of the socialist New Man. In

CHAPTER 6 I analyze the texts and the contexts of this formulation whose principal

leaders were Colonel Sergio Vieira (one of the traditional intellectuals of FRELIMO) and

Samora Machel (first president of independent Mozambique). During this period the

educational system tried to form “Mozambican citizens”, individuals who shared a

common “culture”. According to Sergio Vieira, the individuals should free themselves

from their “tribal”, “obscurantist” and “colonialist” past. Or, as Samora Machel declared,

it was necessary to “kill the tribe in order to give birth to the nation”.

In CHAPTER 7 I open a parenthesis and we allow the “assimilated persons” to

speak for themselves. That is to say, those persons who gradually left the “African

cultural world” and acquired European cultural values. We conversed with some of

these people in Mozambique. I chose two noteworthy representatives of these

“assimilated persons”; Both are today well-known public figures in Mozambique. One

of them (Raul Honwana Jr.) belongs to a family of Ronga (one of the ethnic-linguistic

groups in the south of the country) origin. The members of this family were “educated”

precisely by the Swiss Mission (that to which the ethnographer Henri A. Junod

belonged). One of the other dialogues which we decided to incorporate completely in

the text was carried out with Domingos Arouca (who comes from the center of the

country, and belongs to the Bi-tonga group). He was educated by Catholic

missionaries and became, after spending some time in Portugal, the first black lawyer

in Mozambique. They speak of the colonial past and of the socialist stage, but they

38

also speak about the present and the future of Mozambique. In synthesis, they talk

about their own views of Mozambican “cultural diversity”. Both are examples that, far

from bearing a monolithic identity, people can also have the advantage of dealing at the

same time with multiple, complex and polyfaceted identities.

Finally, starting in the nineties, Mozambique underwent several fundamental

changes: end of the civil war, beginning of a multiparty democracy, profound economic

changes, a re-articulation of its foreign policy liberated, among other things, by the

destruction of the Soviet bloc. Therefore, it is natural that certain homogenizing cultural

policies from the socialist period are beginning to be revised and questioned. It is this

process of change that we analyze in the last chapter of our work.

In fact, within the education field, some pilot-projects to stimulate bilingual

education in primary schools are beginning to be formulated. These projects show a

new concern for the Mozambican multicultural aspect. Once more, on dealing with this

aspect in our work, we try to suggest that this multiculturalism does not appear as an

imported idea, but rather is born of “native” concerns, on the part of some specific

Mozambican intellectuals.

I would like to take advantage of this final report to thank the many people that

agreed to converse with me in Mozambique. From all of them I was able to learn a

great deal about the complexity and richness of the Mozambican socio-cultural world.

In every way, after the months that I spent there, Mozambique is for me more than just

a simple “study subject”. I especially remember the families that received me in the

northern part of the country, with whom I shared their joyful moments, their anguish and

also their hopes for a better Mozambique.

39

Final comments

Before arriving in Mozambique, where I performed fieldwork in the southern and

northern regions of the country, I had the privilege of exchanging ideas with some

Mozambican colleagues who were studying here in Brazil. This exchange was decisive

for my work. Firstly because they came from different geographical areas of

Mozambique, which broadened the diversity of opinions and viewpoints with respect to

matters that until today are part of the daily concerns in their country: the consequences

of the Portuguese colonial heritage, the dilemmas of the socialist past, the dramas of

the civil war and lastly, the recent process of multi-party democratization. In principle,

this alerted me to the need for a comparative approach, both in temporal terms and

also with regard to the major geographical areas of Mozambique where I worked.

There is a basic difference between the southern and northern regions of the

country. The political elite, generally linked to the shangana and ronga groups, resides

in the south. Many of these groups were strongly influenced by the Protestant

churches, which since the end of the XIX century were established in that region. In the

northern part of the country, there is a strong Moslem influence. This contrast is just

one of the elements necessary for understanding the multiple identities of Mozambique.

Putting it in another way, while on the legal and institutional level there exists “one”

Mozambique in the form of a nation-state, by means of the various narratives of my

informants it was possible to discover a plural, diverse Mozambique.

In the southern region of the country, I was able to converse with people who

during the colonial period were given a differentiated legal status as “natives”. These

so-called natives became “assimilated persons”, according to the laws of the times,

when they acquired Portuguese cultural values (in which the Portuguese language

played a major role). When independence occurred in 1975, the Mozambican

40

Liberation Front adopted socialism. The educational programs were now aimed at

freedom from the colonial and tribal past: it was necessary to educate the “New Man”,

according to the intellectuals of this new period.

In the northern region of the country, I conversed with several sheiks regarding

the ambiguous relation between the colonial society and the Moslem communities.

And, above all, I was able to see from close by the strong Moslem influence on the

macua groups in Nampula province.

Along with old muslim peoples, in a neighbourhood of Nampula (photo: Momade)

In my fieldwork I perceived a basic point: neither the assimilationist policies of

the colonial period nor the policies for educating the so-called New Man succeeded in

constructing a monolithic, homogenous identity for Mozambique. In the northern

region of the country I was able to see how children, at the same time that they learn

to read and write Portuguese (and often before), learn to read and write Arabic, in the

41

numerous mosques spread throughout the interior of Nampula (one of the provinces I

was able to become familiar with in greater detail).

In a certain way, the “mono-cultural” policies of the colonial and socialist stages

have been gradually questioned, favoring a polysemic, “multi-cultural” view of

Mozambique. This was confirmed a little while after finishing my thesis, when the

Ministry of Education finally decided to include bilingual teaching in the elementary

schools of Mozambique (something which, during my research, only existed in the

experimental form of pilot projects). In a certain way this indicates that Mozambique’s

entry into the modern world also requires a point of view that is sensitive to its own

cultural diversity.

The Sephis Program provided me with a basic opportunity, not only for

broadening the empirical and methodological horizons of my work, but also for

confirming that knowledge (of “Others”) always advances through contrast and

comparison. In the last resort, this also offers us the possibility of seeing ourselves in

other mirrors and of being conscious not only of our differences, but above all, of our

similarities.