Interview with José

Interview with José http://www.aluka.org/action/showMetadata?doi=10.5555/AL.SFF.DOCUMENT.LUNSTRP1B10002 Use of the Aluka digital library is subject to Aluka’s Terms and Conditions, available at http://www.aluka.org/page/about/termsConditions.jsp. By using Aluka, you agree that you have read and will abide by the Terms and Conditions. Among other things, the Terms and Conditions provide that the content in the Aluka digital library is only for personal, non-commercial use by authorized users of Aluka in connection with research, scholarship, and education. The content in the Aluka digital library is subject to copyright, with the exception of certain governmental works and very old materials that may be in the public domain under applicable law. Permission must be sought from Aluka and/or the applicable copyright holder in connection with any duplication or distribution of these materials where required by applicable law. Aluka is a not-for-profit initiative dedicated to creating and preserving a digital archive of materials about and from the developing world. For more information about Aluka, please see http://www.aluka.org Interview with José Author/Creator Lunstrum, Elizabeth (Interviewer); José (Interviewee); Helder (Interviewee); Macandza, Manuel (Interviewer and Translator); Chemane, Laila (Interviewer and Translator) Date 2004-09-29; 2004-11-06 Resource type Interviews Language English Subject Coverage (spatial) Mozambique Coverage (temporal) 1940-2005 Description José is a middle-aged, influential man from Canhane. In Part I of the interview, Helder, who is a younger man and neighbor of José, contributes to the discussion. Part I begins with the origin story of Canhane and then examines life under Portuguese rule and under Frelimo during the early years of independence. Part II of the interview begins with a discussion of life under the Portuguese (focusing in particular on cotton production) and then turns to Mozambican independence. It closes with a brief discussion of landmines used during the war of destabilization. Original interview conducted in Shangana. Format extent 19 page(s) (length/size) http://www.aluka.org/action/showMetadata?doi=10.5555/AL.SFF.DOCUMENT.LUNSTRP1B10002 http://www.aluka.org Title: Interview with José [J] (pseudonym) with Helder [H] (pseudonym) Date of Interview: Part I: September 29, 2004, Part II: November 6, 2004 Interviewer: Elizabeth Lunstrum, Manuel Macandza [MM], Laila Chemane [LC] Part I (29 Sept. 2004): MM: Where did your family originally come from? J: My family came from Caniçado.1 MM: How did you arrive in this area? J: Our presence in this area began with our ancestor. He got married to a woman of the Valoi family, who was from this area. And the Valoi family was in mourning, so every son-in-law had to be there at the home of Valoi. A long time ago, the families used to go to the family that was mourning with a sack of “caroço de canhú” as a sign of condolence and solidarity. So one of the son-in-laws who was a Zitha did this. Then Zitha wanted to leave the Valoi family and go back to Caniçado to his home. But the Valoi family said they didn’t eat his “caroço de canhú,” so they said “your sack will stay here.” And he answered that this was not a problem because he would come back. Three days later, he arrived at his home. The Valoi family opened Zitha’s sack and the found in the sack of “caroço de canhú” human excrement. The younger wife of Zitha did that to harm her rival, the older wife of Zitha. Then the Valoi family concluded that Zitha should be called back. Some soldiers went to the Caniçado village to fetch Zitha and his older wife. They were taken without knowing what was happening. When they arrived at this area, the chief showed them what was in the sack, and they asked Zitha if that sack belonged to him. He answered, “Yes, the sack belongs to me.” They ordered him to open the sack and he saw human excrement besides the “caroço de canhú.” They asked him who had done this. But he had no knowledge about this, and neither did his older wife. Who knew about this was the younger wife. But the Valoi family didn’t believe Zitha. They wanted to kill him because they thought he had attempted to make them eat the excrement, while they are chiefs. They said that Zitha governed in Caniçado but not in Massingir, which belonged to Valoi. Later, they decided to forgive him and let me go free. Because it was night, Zitha slept with spite. Because he had tension problems, he suddenly died. His wife woke up to him after he had died. She reported this to her family – the Valoi family – and they went to see him and believed that he was dead. They asked each other if anyone of them had killed him. The wife answered “no.” So the chief ordered a group to go to Caniçado and bring the sons of Zitha. The group left for Caniçado, but because the journey at that time was made by foot and Caniçado was so far, they spent three nights on the way there. The dead body of Zitha began to swell, mainly in his stomach, and the people understood that his body was decaying. They thought they could bury him without his sons present. His burial was prepared next to the “canhueiro” at the baixa. Then he started to urinate forcefully, and his stomach went down. They the realized his body was not decaying. At the end of the burial, the group and sons of the dead man arrived. [5:00] 1 Caniçado is a small village of the Guija District near Chokwe. 1 The chief said to the sons, “We went to call you because of the death of your father.” The sons asked to see their father but were told that he had already been buried. The sons demanded that he be disinterred [unburied] and accused the Valoi family of killing their father because when he had been taken from Caniçado he was healthy. The Valoi family said that even they did not know what had happened and said, “If you want proof [that we did not kill your father], ask your mother.” Their mother told them, “nobody killed your father. When I woke up in the morning, I found him dead.” The sons then started to suspect their mother, saying that she was close to her family. The sons continued to demand that their father be unburied. The Valoi family calmed down their nephew, and finally the nephew said, “As his sons, we would like to put a branch of a tree on our father’s tomb.” They then went back to their home to tell others what had happened. The Zitha family asked them again if the man was killed, and the asked the Valoi family who said, “no.” The Valoi family lived four years without rain. They were worried about the lack of rain and went to look for [a whelk2]. So the whelk showed them that the lack of rain was related to someone who was married to a woman of the Valoi family, and that man was important in his family in the southern region. The members of the Valoi family talked with each other and began to think about Zitha. The whelk said that to resolve this problem, the Valoi family needed to look for a black ox and make a traditional drink in order to perform the kuphaiha ceremony for that man [Zitha] and said that, after this, they would see rain. Then Valoi wanted to know who could lead the ceremony. The whelk man said that they had to call his sons to lead the ceremony. After then, they made a drink while a group went to take the sons of the Zitha family to lead the ceremony. When they arrived, the drinks were waiting for them. They took the drinks and the ox. The sons laid down their drinks to kill the ox on the tomb of their father. Before they went back to their home, the rain began to fall. They didn’t have time to roast the meat of the ox. They cut it in pieces and took it home. The rain was so hard that the road and houses were flooded by the water. Some of the men lost their way home. Finally, at the home of the Valoi family, they said to the Zitha sons, “Look, your father had mistreated us, forbidding the rain. Yes, now we believe that. But now we want to go back to Caniçado.” A few minutes after they left, some older men said, “You let those men go back to Caniçado. Will they agree to come back when this problem repeats itself?” Older people asked them to stay here. The Zitha sons came back and the Valoi family said, “We have given you this space so that you can decide what will happen on the land. [10:00] They thanked them and said, “First we have to go inform our chief what happened.” After they spoke to their chief, they weren’t surprised that he didn’t have a problem with this. On the contrary, he said this was nice because the Zitha family had conquered new space. So the Zitha sons and their mothers moved to live at the new place called Macavene. MM: Were there other families who came for the same reasons at the same time? J: No, only those that I was talking about.

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