Politics and contemporary history in Mozambique: a set of epistemological notes

Abstract

The article attempts to reflect on the writing conditions of contemporary history in its relationship with political power in Mozambique since independence in 1975. It argues that the State Party has constructed its own narrative of the recent past – here termed the Liberation Script – and operationalized it as a political and ideological instrument for the exercise of power, in order to legitimize it, that is, to transform it from political memory into public memory. While discussing the nature of the Liberation Script and its evolution in response to the ever-present demands of the present, the text argues that the production of autonomous and sovereign academic narratives can, in this context, only compete with the Liberation Script; a competition that can only be de-dramatized in a democratic environment where such narratives are no longer considered as a political threat.