Language policies and Nacionalist movements: fields of historical interaction between Tanzania and Mozambique (1961 - 1969)

Abstract

Three heterogeneous organisations composed by Mozambican workers and refugees in East Africahave united in 1962 under the leadership of Eduardo Mondlane to form the Mozambique Liberation Front (FRELIMO) in Tanganyika, launching two years later an armed insurrection in Mozambican territory against Portuguese colonial administration. The problem this project assesses poses questions to a historiographical common-place referring to the early days of Mozambican liberationstruggle: the unanimity over the choice of Portuguese language as FRELIMO's official language. Since lusophony was not shared among FRELIMO's founders (GANHÃO, 1979), this study seeks to historically analyse how the decision to promote Portuguese language as an element of sociopolitical integration among the members of the nationalist movement has taken place. Three main analytical axis are opened dedicated to the study of fields of historical interaction in which language policies are formulated (FABIAN, 1986). The first axis relates to the disparate trajectories of the leaderships of the different groups merged together in 1962. The second refers to Julius Nyerere'sinfluences and pressures over the movement, as both an enthusiast of FRELIMO while defender ofSwahili language and as a pan-African instrument of liberation (TOPAN, 2008). The third addresses the participation of Mozambican secondary school militants and lusophone intellectuals from southern Mozambique within the liberation movement (CASIMIRO, 2012). It is proposed to analyse how these three groups have concurred and participated in the process that has lead to the choice of Portuguese language during FRELIMO's early years. The theoretical framework is articulated to discuss the role of language policies in African contexts, added to the search for diverse historical sources that may contain information referable to any of the three axis. (AU)