Mozambican Culture: A Crowded Canvas

BY ALBIE SACHS When it began the struggle building and unify the country. for Mozambican independence, the But it was much more than that. Albie Sachs is a South African exile Mozambique Liberation Front, or Culture became a means whereby and an ANC member, living in Maputo Frelimo, recognized the important the nation discovered and expressed and working for the Mozambique Jus­ role which culture would play. One itself. People from the north tice Department. He is now recuperat­ of Frelimo’s strategies to break down did dances from the south and ing from serious injuries sustained ear­ tribalism within the liberation front vice versa; people from zones with lier this year in a bombing attack which was to learn and value the cul­ a strong Islamic influence learned was undoubtedly the work of the South tural forms of the diverse groupings songs from areas where the impact African government. throughout the country. Each local­ of the Christian Church had been What follows are excerpts from a back­ ity had its own cultural forms and great. Gradually the idea took hold ground paper on culture included as that to be a Mozambican meant to part of a new education kit on Mozam­ break out of the narrow vision of the bique. The kit is being produced locality or tribe and to “take on the dimensions of the nation.” by Cooperation Canada Mozambique (COCAMO), a consortium of eighteen Culture continues to be deeply Canadian NGOs working together to and directly integrated into the daily implement recovery and development life of the community, and there is programmes in Nampula Province and widespread popular participation in education programmes in Canada. In cultural activities. Although dev­ suldition to background papers on sev­ astated by war, destabilization and eral aspects of the situation in Mozam­ hunger, Mozambique has managed bique, the kit will contain brochures, a to record outstanding achievements poster, a map, a user’s guide and a re­ in dance, sculpture and painting and source list. The kit will be available has produced music, theatre and lit­ in the Fall of 1988. For more infor­ erature of quality. The key prob­ mation contact COCAMO c/o CCIC, 1 lem now is how to develop a profes­ Nicholas St., Ottawa K IN 7B7, phone sional cultural sector without com­ (613)236-6037. mercializing, destroying or making banal this popular base. In the section of the Museum of Dance the Revolution where colonial times are portrayed, there is a photograph The only indigenous form of dance of black children dressed in Por­ that was promoted during colonial tuguese folk-costume doing a Por­ times was the nightclub marrabenta, tuguese folk dance. It is a strik­ a Europeanized version of a popu­ ing example of the colonial policy lar African dance. Its lively rhythms of assimilation. Black Mozambicans, Traditional Mozambican Warrior made it good for the tourist trade to be considered civilized and cul­ Dance, Magude District and helped propagate the idea that tured, had to adopt without reserve blacks in Mozambique were content the ways, ideas and culture of the Frelimo leaders saw the immense va­ with their lot and especially happy colonizers. Traditional indigenous riety and vitality of a popular cul­ to be Portuguese. ture which, in the words of Samora culture was regarded as barbarous - As resistance to the Portuguese at best, to be recorded as fascinat­ Machel, had been buried but never destroyed. began to grow in the north of ing savage customs; at worst, to be Mozambique, old dance forms began denounced by missionaries and ad­ Frelimo saw culture as an “in­ to re-emerge. When Frelimo troops ministrators as heathenish and back­ strument of struggle,” a tool they established a presence in a village, ward. could use to promote nation­ they learned the local forms of

Southern Africa REPORT July 1988 ^y/4 ^ y 21 ( TOfiClÜTOJ drumming and dancing, and passed on those from other regions. All po­ litical meetings were preceded and followed by drumming and dancing, which not only provided an enter­ taining counterpoint to the speeches, but allowed for extensive local par­ ticipation in the proceedings and af­ firmed the African character of the Mozambican revolution. When Independence was pro­ claimed in 1975, dance was already well established as an integral and creative part of the emerging na­ tional life. One of the first acts of the new government was to or­ ganize a National Dance Festival in which about half a million peo­ ple from all over the country took part. In the first phase, competi­ tions were held at local, district and provincial levels and eventually sev­ eral hundred of the best dancers, grouped according to province, per­ formed during an entire week at two stadiums in the capital city of Ma­ Sérgio Santimano/AIM puto. Nights were spent performing for the public in the stadiums; days included trips to factories, hospitals and schools, where the dancers were The instructors give equal empha­ tative. Today the marrabenta is so received with enormous enthusiasm. sis to ballet, modern dance and tra­ popular in Mozambique that it is dif­ ditional Mozambican dance. And ficult to recall the atmosphere that The city buzzed with debate over the students, who represent Mozam­ made its future an issue. the dance steps, groupings and mu­ bique’s many ethnic and racial back­ Music sic from the different areas. One grounds, learn all the different types hotly argued question was whether of dance. Drumming and the timbila (a the dances should be adapted for wooden xylophone, also known as What was to happen to the the marimba) are the pride of the stage, with special costumes and night-club marrabenta? This be­ lighting, or performed only in their Mozambican music. Every region came the liveliest question on the “natural” state. The former po­ of the country has its drums and agenda at the 1976 founding confer­ sition won out. As a result, a drumming styles. In the south, the ence of the Organization of Mozam­ National Choral and Dance Com­ Xigubo warrior dance is accompa­ bican Youth. Some people con­ pany was formed, at first on a semi- nied by the powerful, heavy beat professional basis, later as fully pro­ tended that it had to be suppressed of giant drums; the sinuous dances fessional. The Company has toured because it was a decadent dance of Ilha de Moçambique in Nampula extensively and generally has been used by the Portuguese as a cover for province are helped along by a qui­ warmly received. Its repertoire in­ prostitution and oppression. Others etly hypnotic beat on smaller drums; cludes two full-length ballets created declared that it was a popular dance the once-secret Mapiko dance of the by its artistic director and based on invented and much enjoyed by the north is animated by brilliant stac­ traditional African myths, and new people, and that the people had to cato tattoos quite different in char­ acter. dances are being added. reclaim it as their own. There was no rule, they added, that having fun The timbila are instruments pro­ More recently a National Dance was anti-revolutionary. The most ef­ duced by the small Chopi-speaking School was started in an abandoned fective proponent of the latter view group in Inhambane province. The night club. It caters to school chil­ was Joaquim Chissano (now Presi­ best known timbila players are dren, and in a few years has achieved dent of Mozambique), who attended presently in Maputo, mostly a very high standard of performance. the conference as Frelimo’s represen­ garbage-collectors working for the

2 2 July 1988 Southern Africa REPORT City Council (a job reserved for the figures are more stylized, abstract cret police for belonging to Fre- Chopi in colonial times). Whole and flowing, and the shetani, based limo. He is presently a member of orchestras of timbila provide pro­ on the devil, the spirit of mischief Mozambique’s national parliament, foundly intricate patterns of poly­ that can assume any form. the Popular Assembly. His distinc­ phonic percussion that amaze musi­ tive style of painting and drawing cologists and delight audiences. Makonde art was not always like has had a great impact on nearly this. Contrary to the idea that all other Mozambican artists. His One feature of the popular mu­ African art is primitive, anonymous works feature a crowded canvas and sic tradition is that the musicians and unchanging, the Makonde sculp­ strong colouring. Human and ani­ make and care for their own instru­ tors have totally transformed their mal figures are mixed together in de­ ments. The immense variety of pop­ “traditional” art from one genera­ fiance of the laws of scale and per­ ularly made instruments became ev­ tion to the next. Fifty years ago they spective, their eyes looking back at ident when a National Festival of were doing single-figured pieces and the spectator. Malangatana’s works Traditional Music was held shortly masks in white wood. All that re­ have been exhibited on almost every after the Dance Festival. Literally mains of that style today is the spirit continent. of satire; the actual appearance of hundreds of different types of flutes, Another proof of the vitality of the art has completely changed. drums, horns and rattles, instru­ Mozambican art can be found in the ments to be bowed, plucked, beaten In the south, a completely dif­ murals of Maputo. Large frescos ex­ and shaken, emerged out of the mu­ ferent style of popular carving has ecuted in public places - notably at sic festival. Several old men sang in emerged: animals, masks, reliefs, the Hero’s Circle near the airport, at accompaniment to their own hand­ boxes - tourist art at its best (vi­ the Ministry of Agriculture and in made instruments. They made com­ vacious and portable) and its worst the gardens of the Natural History plicated abstract harmonies, sad in (mass-produced, without feeling or Museum (where there is also a giant tone and sadly poignant for the lis­ finish). At the same time, there sculpture by Chissano carved from a tener because many of these unique is a strong movement of contem­ whole tree) - testify to the impor­ styles will disappear as these old porary sculpture in Maputo. The tance that Mozambicans attach to men die out. leading figure is Alberto Chissano, art. Yet, much as this ancient tradi­ who established a distinctive style of Theatre tional music is admired, the real en­ carving that has since been copied Immediately after Independence in ergy in musical development comes by dozens of others - vigorously 1975, a strong amateur theatre from what is called light music; worked wood, with the mark of the movement grew up in Mozambique. that is, music performed on a stage chisel still upon it, human faces and It emerged out of the struggle for or for radio or television, usually bodies projecting great sadness with independence and was based in the with a strong electronic component. great dignity. Chissano’s works have workplace. The themes and the The musicians have, on the whole, achieved considerable international styles of representation used became attempted to base their composi­ recognition. His house and studio increasingly repetitive, however, and tions on traditional musical patterns on the outskirts of Maputo have the groups began to die out. After a rather than to copy their music from become a gallery of contemporary hiatus of several years, a new satir- Mozambican art. On more than one elsewhere. Gradually a distinctive ical/lyrical theatrical style is now Mozambican style of popular music occasion, he has won prizes in inter­ emerging, with considerable move­ is emerging. It lacks the extrovert national sculpture contests by going ment and use of costume, lights and bounce of neighbouring Zimbabwean to the host city, buying a tree trunk dance, to give it a popular charac­ music or the warmth and confidently on the spot, and in a few days of ter. Usually the scripts are prepared repetitive melodies of West African furious work, producing a piece of by the groups themselves. As an in­ music, but it has interesting and rich sculpture that became the winning dication of the “popular” nature of possibilities of its own, precisely be­ entry. these performances, sometimes pam­ cause it is rooted in Mozambican phlets on health or education topics popular music. A great friend and contempo­ - like a how-to booklet on construct­ rary of Chissano’s (in colonial times Art ing latrines - are distributed to the they worked together as cleaners audience. Carved in dark, ebony wood, in a club) is the painter Malan- the internationally famous Makonde gatana, whose Maputo home has Radio, cinema and television sculpture from northern Mozam­ also become a place of pilgrimage Radio is by far the most impor­ bique hais emerged in three princi­ for art lovers. Malangatana, a cul­ tant medium of cultural transmis­ pal forms. There is the compact uja- tural figure with great projection sion in Mozambique, reaching the maa, the human family in close clus­ in Mozambique and abroad, was whole country and using all the ter, the open ujamaa, in which the imprisoned by the Portuguese se­ indigenous languages, as well as

Southern Africa REPORT july 1988 23 J .001(01'

Portuguese, the language of na­ quality films and serials and highly lished. The weekly magazine Tempo tional unity. Apart from news popular socio-satirical soap operas has a lively cultural section. The and educational programmes, Ra­ from Brazil are also broadcast. Writers’ Association puts on regular dio Mozambique broadcasts a con­ Literature debates. From time to time young siderable amount of music. In fact, writers get together to publish lit­ the appropriate mix between inter­ Given the strong cultural sensibility erary magazines, and Mozambique national pop music (often justified of the Mozambican leadership and is one of the few African countries as having African roots), music from the rich tradition of poetry writing with a considerable output of origi­ Africa and Mozambican music is a in the period leading to Indepen­ nal cartoon-strip stories. constant source of controversy, and dence, the current state of literature each variety of music has its own in Mozambique is disappointing. Yet, without doubt, post- strong supporters. The only major literary achievement Independence literature has lagged All Mozambican towns behind dance, sculpture and have at least one cinema, painting in terms of vigour, and given the extreme limits innovation and variety. Vir­ of foreign exchange available tually nothing has been done for importing films, those to publish the extensive that circulate are of a rela­ records made of oral tra­ tively high standard. They dition (tales, riddles and are usually fairly old and proverbs). Hardly any pub­ come from all parts of the lishing has been done in the world (including Canada). indigenous languages. The Film festivals are held reg­ fine short stories of Luis ularly in Maputo, consist­ Bernardo Honwana, first ing of half a dozen to a published in colonial times, dozen recently made films are used over and over from a particular country - again, while very little new India, Brazil, Italy, and prose appears. Some pow­ nearly all the socialist coun­ erful post-Independence po­ tries have been the main etry by Craveirinha remains contributors. Two highly unpublished, although it successful festivals of films - has been declaimed several from the African continent times at the monthly public have also been held. = poetry sessions held in Ma- £ puto’s Central Park. Mozambique’s National Cinema Institute produces a „ Many factors have con- regular newsreel programme 1/1 tributed to this situation: a that is shown in cinema E, lack of paper, the failure to houses, but it has also $ develop a clear language pol- been responsible for produc­ The traditional instrument from Inhambane is made icy, a tendency at a cer­ ing a number of documen­ from a Kudu horn tain stage in the struggle for taries and two feature films. liberation and development The Institute holds a vast library of of the post-Independence period has for some Mozambicans to choose raw film but lacks funds to edit and been the publication of the works - anonymity and the collective and produce finished films. Canada’s hitherto suppressed by the censor to repudiate individual authorship. National Film Board has been in­ - of pre-Independence poets. No­ But given that the public hunger volved in helping to train people at table among them is Jose Craveir- for artistic expression exists and the the National Cinema Institute. inha, Mozambique’s outstanding na­ printing capacity is there, the main Television is broadcast only in tional poet, and Rui Nogar, both reason would seem to be editorial Maputo four nights a week and is at one time imprisoned by the Por­ timidity and a failure to encourage still called Experimental Television, tuguese secret police. Other promi­ the discipline and strength of vi­ as it was when it first went on the air nent poets of the liberation strug­ sion that, for example, good novel­ in the early 1980s. Its programmes gle are Marcelino dos Santos, Jorge writing requires. This would seem have a relatively high local content Rebelo, Armando Guebuza and Ser­ to be an area where, once clarity (many having been made by the gio Vieira - now all senior mem­ could be achieved on how to give Bureau of Social Communication of bers of the Frelimo Party. Works of writers their head, a major break­ the Ministry of Information). Good younger poets have also been pub­ through could be made.

24 july 1988 Southern Africa REPORT