An Ethnographic Study of Educational Ambivalence Within Coastal Habitus in Northern Mozambique
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Schooling at the edge of the world: An ethnographic study of educational ambivalence within coastal habitus in northern Mozambique PRZEMYSLAW ANTONI WÓJCIK Submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of East Anglia School of International Development January 2014 The copy of this thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognise that its copyright rests with the author and that use of any information derived there from must be in accordance with current UK Copyright Law. In addition, any quotation or extract must include full attribution. 1 Abstract Coastal fishing communities in northern Mozambique have distinctive history, politics and livelihoods that make them physically and socially peripheral. This is evident in relation to lack of the access and ownership of natural resources, social opportunities such as education, access to information and decision making means and the influence of cultural-hereditary characteristics of coastal society. The thesis examines learning in Lunga, the key institutions, their roles and importance. Drawing on Mamdani’s concept of bifurcated state, it outlines the historical background of the formal education system that is a necessary frame for understanding many specific problems of education in contemporary Mozambique. In this setting, the thesis reflects on formal, traditional and Islamic education and their different forms of valorisation in the past and present. The study examines the coastal habitus – the problems of life on the periphery, and the social, political and physical distance. From there, it probes deeper into the relations between competing institutions promoting certain distinctive aspects of coastal life, describing production of the local and the global (national). The main focus of the thesis is the characteristic, ambivalent and strained relations between the schooling and coastal habitus, being the manifestation of the tension between local and global spaces. This thesis discusses these questions and related educational practices as culturally mediated responses to the collective uncertainty and marginalization. It describes the community's struggle over the relative value of schooling versus village-based knowledge and skill acquisition necessary for the community members to live within their structural constraints. Furthermore, it points towards questions of political power, suggesting that coastal society's ambivalence about the utility of schooling may be seen as one of the dilemmas of citizenship in contemporary Mozambique. It demonstrates that ambivalent meanings attached to schooling are shaped by their cultural history and their attempts to maintain their livelihoods in the context of political marginality. 2 Table of contents ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................................................................... 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................................................................ 3 LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES .............................................................................................................. 6 LIST OF APPENDICES ................................................................................................................................. 7 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ......................................................................................................................... 8 GLOSSARY ..................................................................................................................................................... 9 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................................................................ 11 CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION: EDUCATION AS A LENSE TO UNDERSTAND HOW COASTAL PEOPLE ENGAGE AND DISENGAGE WITH STATE INSTITUTIONS ............................................................ 13 1.1 THE RESEARCH RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES .............................................................................................. 16 Origins of the idea ................................................................................................................................................... 17 1.2 AMBIVALENCE OF SCHOOLING ........................................................................................................................ 20 1.3 EDUCATION IN MOZAMBIQUE – A BRIEF OVERVIEW ................................................................................... 23 Legacy of the colonial schooling ....................................................................................................................... 24 Expansion of schools after independence and the Civil War aftermath ........................................ 26 1.4 CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK ............................................................................................................................. 27 Marginalisation of fishers .................................................................................................................................... 28 Space and place ........................................................................................................................................................ 29 Habitus ......................................................................................................................................................................... 30 Research questions ................................................................................................................................................. 33 1.5 OUTLINE OF THE THESIS .................................................................................................................................. 35 CHAPTER TWO METHODOLOGY ....................................................................................................................................... 38 2.1 LOCATING THE FIELD: THE RESEARCH SITES ............................................................................................... 40 The process of selection of the research location ..................................................................................... 41 Mossuril and Lunga ................................................................................................................................................ 44 Motomonho and Muanangome ......................................................................................................................... 50 2.4 THE HISTORICAL ANTHROPOLOGY APPROACH ............................................................................................. 53 Epistemological stance ......................................................................................................................................... 54 2.2 RESEARCH METHODS ....................................................................................................................................... 55 Participant observations ...................................................................................................................................... 56 Narrative interviews – life histories................................................................................................................ 60 Key informant interviews .................................................................................................................................... 62 Informal, spontaneous conversations ............................................................................................................ 63 Review of current and historical documents .............................................................................................. 64 2.3 REFLECTIONS ON ACCESS AND THE CHALLENGES OF FIELDWORK IN LUNGA ......................................... 66 The barriers during the fieldwork ................................................................................................................... 71 Positionality ............................................................................................................................................................... 71 2.5 ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS ............................................................................................................................. 75 Confidentiality and consent ................................................................................................................................ 76 3 CHAPTER THREE EDUCATION AND SCHOOLING. CONQUESTS AND CHALLENGES ............................................. 78 3.1 TRADITIONAL EDUCATION: AN INITIATION FOR LIFE ................................................................................. 80 3.2 ISLAMIC EDUCATION – MADRASSAS ............................................................................................................... 84 The decline of madrassas in Lunga ................................................................................................................. 89 3.3 EDUCATE TO ASSIMILATE – COLONIAL ERA .................................................................................................. 96 3.4 SOCIAL CHANGES AND EDUCATION AFTER INDEPENDENCE ..................................................................... 102 CHAPTER FOUR HISTORICAL BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT OF THE RESEARCH .......................................... 106 4.1 POWER TRANSITIONS: