‘It's not my story to tell’: ownership and the politics of history in Mocímboa da Praia, Mozambique

Abstract

The recent history of the northernmost districts of Mozambique has been one of movement and conflict leading people far from their areas of origin and into places where they have to rebuild networks and establish relationships. The Makonde moved from their original area in the Mueda Plateau to neighbouring districts and have to negotiate questions of legitimacy and belonging with the autochthonous population, the Mwani, seen as the ‘owners of the land’ and also the rightful bearers of the histories of the area. Recounting history – owning it – is loaded with references to identity, and weaves in memories and competing experiences of the past. Drawing on literature on history and legitimacy and local understandings of ownership, I discuss the importance of memory and storytelling in the maintenance and reshaping of past events and the different narratives that people create. I investigate how the past is appropriated by different groups and defines belonging by claiming or refusing ownership of local histories.

Civil war and the non‐linearity of time: approaching a Mozambican politics of irreconciliation

“…Similar to Nordstrom and Nelson, in recent decades, scholars have also demonstrated the importance of popular forms of historicity and documented how globally varied formations of memory or unruly forms of pastness impinge on the present 6 . Even though many works commonly challenge state‐centric or other hegemonic forms of discourse – for instance, in critiques of post‐conflict narratives being integral to politicized national‐level reconciliation processes – they often neither fundamentally undo a tripartite division of past, present, and future, nor upset the temporal linearity inherent in such a division (but see Santos 2021).…”

jihadismo transnacional e a insurgência em Cabo Delgado, Moçambique

“…Isso é perceptível no caso de Cabo Delgado, cuja história continua imersa em violência e conflitos políticos, interétnicos, religiosos, luta pela terra e recursos, desde o período pré-colonial até agora. Começando pela omissão dos mwanis na grande narrativa nacionalista sobre a guerra de libertação, que glorifica os macondes, 95 passando pela violência contra os muçulmanos encabeçada pelos burocratas macondes cristãos nos primeiros anos da independência, 96 a brutalidade da criação de aldeias comunais e os campos de reeducação, acompanhados pelo reassentamento maciço de macondes em terras muçulmanas costeiras, 97 e indo até aos conflitos entre mwanis pró-Renamo e macondes pró-Frelimo em várias eleições recentes, 98 persiste a percepção de vitimização da etnia mwani no período pós-colonial, seja pelo Estado central em Maputo, seja pelos macondes cristãos a ele aliados, e tudo isso pode certamente incentivar a entrada no jihadismo transnacional.…”