Faculty of Social Sciences School of Social Science Department of Communication Studies Department of Anthropology Masculinities negotiations and image-making processes among a group of young men in Maputo, Mozambique Andrea Almeida Moreira A thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor in Anthropology (ISCTE-IUL) and Social sciences: Communication Studies (UA) ISCTE-IUL, Lisbon Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Lorenzo Bordonaro Researcher, CRIA-Instituto Universitário de Lisboa Co-supervisor: Prof. Dr. Miguel Vale de Almeida Associate Professor, ISCTE-Instituto Universitário de Lisboa UA, Antwerp Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Paolo Favero Associate Professor, Universiteit Antwerpen December, 2016 i ii Faculty of Social Sciences School of Social Science Department of Communication Studies Department of Anthropology Masculinities negotiations and image-making processes among a group of young men in Maputo, Mozambique Andrea Almeida Moreira A thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor in Anthropology (ISCTE-IUL) and Social sciences: Communication Studies (UA) Members of the jury: Prof. Dr. Manuela Ivone Cunha, Assistant Professor, Universidade do Minho Prof. Dr. Catarina Alves Costa, Assistant Professor, Universidade Nova de Lisboa Prof. Dr. Rosa Maria Perez, Associate Professor, ISCTE-IUL Prof. Dr. Miguel Vale de Almeida, Associate Professor, ISCTE-IUL Prof. Dr. Paolo Favero, Associate Professor, Universiteit Antwerpen Prof. Dr. Lorenzo Bordonaro, Researcher, CRIA-IUL December, 2016 iii iv Preface and Acknowledgments: Zzzzzzzzzzzz... they follow me around, it’s not just the exasperating noise they produce, but also the insistence on having a rest on my skin. I go in the water a lot, not only to free myself from the persistent flies but also to feel that warm embracing sensation, freedom from my own weight, like I’m being carried. In fact, the water is warm and at the same time refreshing. If I’m supposed to be relaxing, why am I biting my nails? Maybe it’s time for another dip in the water. The lagoon is blue turquoise surrounded by coco trees. It is amazingly appealing, irresistible. I’m sweating, literally dripping. I think my skin might also be burning, the sun is strong. I should go in the water but instead I light another cigarette. I wonder, why it is that despite the perfect environment in which to relax, my thoughts seem to be running back to Maputo every five minutes. (Quissico, 17 Febuary 2012) I had been in Maputo for three weeks to initiate fieldwork for my thesis and although I loved the feels of the place, I admit that Maputo could be quite hectic, intense, overwhelming at times. Maputo had changed since the last time I was there. There were much more cars on the streets and the constant noise of overly sensitive car alarms was “getting on my nerves”. I accepted the invitation of some friends to travel to Quissico for a few days, 346km north of Maputo, in the Zavala district. A calm town by the coast, surrounded by lagoons and the sea. The excerpt from my fieldwork diary, above, hints at the fascinating mingling of contradictory feelings about a place. A new place you discover, get to know, until you reach a point when you feel you either belong there or do not. I was asked at a seminar, in which I presented my research project, at the University Eduardo Mondlane (Maputo), “How did a white girl like you end up in Xipamanine?” An important question that I will try to answer in what follows, albeit superficially. My first residency in Maputo took place between September and December of the year 2008. I was completing fieldwork for my Master thesis in the program of Cultures and Development Studies in K.U. Leuven (Belgium). Mozambique came in the picture through a series of fortunate coincidences. After following Professor Filip De Boeck’s course on the Anthropology of Children and Youth, I decided that I wanted to work with “street children”, possibly in an African country. I was inclined to Angola or Mozambique out of individual curiosity. I made some contacts with Non-Governmental Organizations working with “street children” and the most encouraging answer came from René Boezaard, founder of the project Centro de v Encontro, which had an educational program with street boys in Maputo, more specifically in Xipamanine. Around the same time, Professor Ann Cassiman, the coordinator of the masters program which I was attending, introduced me to Esmeralda Mariano, a Mozambican doctoral candidate in K.U. Leuven at the time. Esmeralda encouraged me to go to Maputo and, in fact, she later became crucial to my integration in the city. When I arrived in the market of Xipamanine in the beginning of February 2012, I was not sure if I would encounter any of the boys whom I had worked with back in 2008. I asked around for Paito in the vicinity of a bar the boys used to hang out in at the time. People kept asking me “what does he sell?”. I had no clue whether he sold something at the market or not. I would explain that I was searching for a group of young men who used to participate in a project for “street children”. Eventually I met a young man that told me that he knew the guys I was searching for. “Those guys, they hang around here (indicating the area of the bottle depository), but Paito has left to South Africa”, he said. I was disappointed with this news as I had developed a more proximate relationship with him back in 2008 and was looking forward to meeting him again. As I arrived at the bottle depository, I immediately recognized, and was recognized by Salomão and Kito. To my surprise, a few minutes later, Paito showed up too. It had been another Paito that had gone to South Africa. They introduced me to their friend Stalon and I invited them to have a drink at the bar Dipec in which we could sit and have a chat. At the bar, Machance and Raimundo showed up. I asked them for news about the others. They informed me that some had gone back to their family homes. Others, namely Delcio and Paulo, were in jail. A few were living in South Africa with relatives, and the sad news that Pai had died. As they explained, Pai was taking too many drugs and became disturbed. To make things worse, he started hanging out with these older guys. One day they lent him a gun to go rob a man. The man resisted and Pai used the firearm. People saw what happened and began to surround him in huge numbers. They beat him until he was dead. The man who was shot also ended up dying. In this way, my first day back in Xipamanine was characterized by optimistic reencounters and gloomy news of incarcerations and death. This would be, in fact, representative of the whole period of this research, both in work and life events. vi Acknowledgments: This research would not have been possible without the generous participation of Machance, Paito, Kito, Salomão, Raimundo, jekula, Delcio, Paulo, Stalon, Chongas, Beto, Alex, Pedrito, Zefanias, Edu, and Pernoca. I am deeply grateful to them. From the many people who received me with open arms in the market of Xipamanine, I would like to highlight my gratitude to Pedro Cristovão and Mr. Inusso Ibrahimo. I also want to extend my gratitude to the friends of Centro de Encontro, for their hospitality and for “opening up” the field for me in 2008, namely René, Celso, Agostinho and in memory of Arlindo, who’s life ended prematurely in 2013. I am grateful to the colleagues at the Department of Anthropology in the University Eduardo Mondlane (UEM), for listening to my research proposal and findings in formal seminars and in providing important comments and suggestions for improvement. Particularly, I wish to thank Professor Esmeralda Mariano and Professor Alexandre Mate for providing a warm-hearted reception. I thank Professor Yussuf Adam, Maimuna Adam, Mr. Mussangy jeichande, Mr. Arnaldo, Patricio Martins and Dj Ardiles for dispensing their time to speak with me. Our conversations were fruitful sources of information. Jorge Fernandes and Butxa were indispensable collaborators in this research project, and I am forever grateful for their help. I wish to thank all of my friends in Maputo, who contributed with emotional support all throughout. Again I would like to mention Esmeralda Mariano and to extend my heartfelt thanks to her family, for making me feel at home. I also thank Gonçalo Mabunda for not letting me lie too much, keeping me alert to my academic fabulations, and for his genuine encouragement. I would like to thank the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT), Portugal for providing the funding for this research through a PhD grant (SFRH/BD/79513/2011). The completion of this thesis was only made possible by the persistence of my supervisors, always encouraging me to do better. Lorenzo Bordonaro and Paolo Favero, I couldn’t wish for better supervisors. I am forever grateful for your caring support, patience and important insights. I am truly grateful to Professor Miguel Vale de Almeida for providing incisive comments on my chapter on masculinities, and for his kind words of encouragement. I wish to thank my colleagues and Professors at ISCTE-IUL for vital comments during the construction of the research proposal. Particularly, I acknowledge the insightful suggestions of Professor Rosa Perez and the readiness of Professor jorge Freitas Branco to assist in the preparation of the joint degree agreement with the University of Antwerp (Belgium). In Lisbon, I thank my friends and colleagues, Pedro Pombo, Elisa Santos and Joana Vasconcelos for their caring support, hospitality and interesting discussions.