![Sample our Humanities journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5939/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Humanities.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
This article aims to identify the sounds, editorial policies and values promoted by Radio Moçambique (RM) during the so-called “socialist period” (1975–1986). Given the high illiteracy rate in the country, RM became the primary medium for informing the populations of FRELIMO’s ideology – the ruling party within a single-party regime – and for spreading the values related to the “new Mozambican man” project. Building on Marissa Moorman’s “sonorous capitalism” concept (2008), this article explores the place of music in promoting and anticipating political and cultural changes in post-colonial Mozambique.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Interviews
Interview with Sol de Carvalho, filmmaker and former director at RM, held at Cinema Scala on Avenida 25 de Setembro, Maputo, on 23-03-2018.
Interviews with António Alves da Fonseca, director of Produções GOLO and former director of RM, held at Edifício GOLO at Avenida Mao Tsé-Tung, 488, Maputo, on 10-11-2016; 10-14-2016; 2016-10-18; 10-04-2017.
Interview with Américo Xavier, former employee and music producer at RM, held at Escola de Jornalismo de Maputo at Avenida Ho Chi Minh, 103, Maputo, on 10-21-2016.
Interview with António Marcos, musician and composer, held at the restaurant “Taverna Doce” at Avenida Mao Tsé-Tung, 57, Maputo, on 11-04-2017.
Interview with João de Sousa, journalist at RM, held at Centro Social da RM, at Rua da Rádio, Maputo, on 04-04-2017.
Notes
1. Conferência Nacional do Departamento de Informação e Propaganda”, Tempo, 271, 14–12-1975: 56–63
2. This and other cited documentation were translated to English by the author, except where noted.
3. Mozambique Liberation Front (FRELIMO) was created on June 25th, 1962, in Dar Es Salam, Tanzania, as the result of the joining of three preexistent liberation movements: the National Democratic Union of Mozambique (UDENAMO), created in 1960 in Salisbury; African National Union of Independent Mozambique (UNAMI), created in 1961 in Malawi; and Mozambique African National Union (MANU) created in 1961 in Kenya. Eduardo Mondlane became its first president, from June 25th, 1962, until his death on February 3rd, 1969. As a United Nations official, Mondlane first tried to negotiate independence through diplomacy; however, after the continuous obstinacy of Portuguese authorities, he decided to start an armed guerrilla struggle. On September 25th, 1964, the first attacks took place in the provinces of Cabo Delgado and Niassa, starting a liberation war that lasted for almost ten years, until the signing of the Lusaka Accords on September 7th, 1974. After a transitional government, the independence was formalized on June 25th, 1975, with Samora Moisés Machel (1933–1986) as the first president of the People’s Republic of Mozambique. The armed struggle and the communal experiences in the so-called “liberated areas” served as inspiration for the creation of a new society that would control its means of production, as well as its expressive practices. According to FRELIMO´s ideologists, the main objective of the revolution was the creation of the “new Mozambican Man”, that would emerge with the future communist society. As part of that process, the values of the so-called “vicious, colonialist and capitalist man” had to be refuted and countered (Machel, Citation1977; Cabaço, Citation2001, p. 112).
4. In 1975, the illiteracy rate in Mozambique was 93% (Ngunga, Citation1999).
5. The non-universality of some concepts such as “music” was pointed out by many authors, justifying this idea by the existence of groups and societies that don’t have a term to designate their “humanly organized sounds” (Blacking, Citation1973). The concept “music” also excludes many other important aural dimensions, such as the political slogans and speeches which were intrinsic to the radio listening experience during the analyzed period, hence the focus on sound studies should also be considered (Guillebaud, Citation2017; Samuels, Meintenjes, Ochoa, & Porcello, Citation2010). Nonetheless, this article adopts other concepts such as “expressive modes”, “expressive culture” and “expressive practices” as substitutes for ethnocentric terms such as “music” and “dance”, although these may be used merely as operational concepts. For more information regarding music categorization in Africa see Stone (Citation2008); for the Mozambican case see Carvalho (Citation2002); Freitas and Carvalho (Citation2022).
6. The history of radio broadcasting as well as the phonographic industry during the first years after independence is far from being fully explored. Aside from my own work, Schwalbach’s master thesis (Schwalbach Citation2002) on cultural policy and popular music still remain one of the most interesting efforts on this topic. More recently, Leonel António Simila (Citation2019) developed an important and timely PhD research focusing on the role of cultural policy and radio broadcasting for the enactment of the multiparty system after 1994, focusing on Nampula’s provincial node of RM. Unfortunately, the author didn’t delve into the musical policy promoted within this province.
7. In this article, the term post-colonial is mainly used in a more literal connotation, to characterize the period initiated with the formal decolonization as part of the “nation-building” process, without neglecting the premises of “postcolonial studies” as a privileged space for contestation and deconstruction of power structures and discourses produced from a privileged colonial perspective. It also aims to comprehend the persistence of exploitation processes – frequently labeled “neo-colonialists” – beyond formal independence, as confirmed by the continuity of social, economic, and political inequalities that prevailed in previous forms of governance (Cooper, Citation2005, p. 27; Loomba, Citation2015, p. 24; Gilbert & Tompkins, Citation1996:2; Mbembe, Citation2001).
8. “Cultural policy” can be understood as a set of institutional initiatives defined by public or private organizations to stimulate and orient the expressive modes of a particular group or society (Nery, Citation2010). It can also be applied as a way to obtain consensus in the process of social transformation. Through the analysis of this “policy”, we can understand how a particular group intends to represent itself, not only for internal cohesion but also for international projection. Consequently, the study of “cultural policy” should consider the social conditions that allowed the construction of the cultural field, its history, and the respective agents and institutions involved in its development, reproduction, and self-legitimation (Bourdieu, Citation1989).
9. For the full list see Freitas (Citation2020); the interviewees directly cited in this article are identified in the references list.
10. Since this research was carried out by a Portuguese citizen within a former Portuguese colony, I tried to anticipate any negative reactions or misinterpretations that this endeavor emerged from neo-colonial objectives – a perspective that I vehemently refuse. In the course of my fieldwork, I always sought to circumvent and ward off such ideas, by carefully and unequivocally explaining my objectives. A revised book version of my thesis was published in late-2020 in Mozambique, as part of my ethical stance to make my PhD results easily available in the country where I conducted my fieldwork (Freitas, Citation2020).
11. Audio file: “D.111 e 112.75 Reunião da Informação com S. Machel – 29 de Ag 1975”, RM audio archive.
12. “Xirico” is the name of a common bird in Mozambique, whose scientific name is “serinus mozambicus”.
13. “Xiricos sem tampa”, Tempo, 579, 15–11-1981: 52–53.
14. Interview with Sol de Carvalho (23–03-2018).
15. “Boites. Que contrapartida para elas?”, Tempo, 345, 15–05-1977: 24–25.
16. Audio file titled: “D.111 e 112.75 Reunião da Informação com S. Machel – 29 de Ag 1975”, RM audio archive.
40 m:36s.
17. The word “Xiconhoca” is composed of two names Xico and Nhoca: the first derives from Francisco Langa, referred to as Xico Feio, a Political Police (PIDE-DGS) employee known for his torture sessions at Machava jail. Nhoca means “snake” in most Mozambican languages. FRELIMO’s Department of Information and Propaganda used this infamous character to publish, in newspapers, many behavioral or evaluative dimensions that characterized the so-called “enemy of the revolution”. For more information, see Meneses (Citation2015).
18. Tempo, 380, 15–01-1978:2.
19. “Conferência Nacional do Departamento de Informação e Propaganda”, Tempo, 271, 14–12-1975: 56–63.
20. RCM’s first survey into “indigenous music” started in 1938–39 following the interest of Portuguese composer and radio orchestra conductor Belo Marques (1898–1987) in transcribing “indigenous melodies”. The results were subsequently published in Radio Moçambique magazine and in a book (Marques, Citation1943; Freitas, Citation2021a, pp. 451–452). Also, during the 1940s Hugh Tracey recorded chopi timbila musicians in partnership with RCM (Morais, Citation2021, p. 12), even though these recordings were, in most part, ignored by the radio station. It was only in 1955 that RCM started broadcasting a short musical program with local “indigenous music”, sponsored by commercial brands such as Philips or Pfaff, which were interested in boosting the sales of radio receivers and sewing machines to the local population. In April 1958, these experimental broadcasts in local languages were designated “Hora Nativa” and, by 1962, they were transformed into autonomous channels named “A voz de Moçambique” (Freitas, Citation2021b, pp. 108–109).
21. In another publication co-written with Freitas and Carvalho (Citation2022), I delved into the role of revolutionary anthems and traditional music as nation-building tropes, taking into account the analysis of three national and international events: FESTAC77 (1977), the National Festival of Popular Dance (1978) and the National Festival of Song and Traditional Music (1980).
22. “Revolutionary anthems” is a four-part choral expressive practice (including Bass, Tenor, Alto and Soprano voices) whose development is intimately related to the sonorous experience of the liberation war, the transition period, and the first years after independence. A detailed musical analysis of these anthems was presented in Freitas (Citation2020); and Freitas and Carvalho (Citation2022). Maria Paula Meneses (Citation2019), also analyzed these songs mainly through their lyrical content (as a printed source) focusing on how they became an alternative way of “being” and “writing” history.
23. Interviews with António Alves da Fonseca (11–10-2016; 14–10-2016; 18–10-2016 e 10–04-2017).
24. Interview with Américo Xavier (21–10-2016).
25. “Contribuição para a análise crítica da informação na RPM”, Tempo, 359, 21–081977: 18–19. Authorship: Luís Bernardo Honwana.
26. Interview with Américo Xavier (21–10-2016).
27. Interview with António Marcos (11–04-2017).
28. “Programas recreativos da Rádio Moçambique”, Tempo, 442, 25–03-1979: 59–61.
29. Which included guitar, bass, synthesizer, saxophone, trumpet, drums, and percussion.
30. “Evoluí como baterista num meio que parecia hostil”, Tempo, 1011, 25–02-1990: 50–55. Authorship: Paulo Sérgio.
31. Tempo, 442, 25–03-1979: 59–61.
32. Reference “Ngoma 0001”.
33. Mozambique did not have any copyright laws until 1998, when the Mozambican Society of Authors was officially created.
34. Interviews with António Alves da Fonseca (11–10-2016; 14–10-2016; 18–10-2016 e 10–04-2017).
35. Interview with António Marcos (11–04-2017).
36. Interviews with António Alves da Fonseca (11–10-2016; 14–10-2016; 18–10-2016 e 10–04-2017).
37. Reference “Ngoma 0078”.
38. “Debate da música moçambicana ao «ritmo da felicidade»”, Tempo, 567, 23–08-1981: 68–69. Authorship: Sarimate.
39. “Sarimate ou a hiena que vestiu pele de cabra”, Tempo, 573, 04–10-1981: 54–56. Authorship: Anselmo de Vaz Trindade.
40. “Música Africana na RM. O Continentalismo do Sr. Cossa”, Tempo, 574, 11–10-1981: 58–60. Authorship: João Maússe Massingir.
41. “Música Africana na RM. A RM não é gira-discos”, Tempo, 575, 18–10-1981: 58–60. Authorship: Bento Mavila.
42. Interview with Sol de Carvalho (23–03-2018).
43. Regarding a letter signed by former FRELIMO combatants on the possibility of peace talks with Renamo, Roberto Della Rocca noted that: “the letter reflected on a possible adhesion of some FRELIMO cadres to positions defended by RENAMO, in particular, on blackness and the reappropriation of Mozambique by the black people. Machel had incorporated into power numerous Indians and Portuguese from Mozambique associated with blacks through their militancy in FRELIMO. Now someone feared that the flag bearers of ‘Mozambicanity’ in an ethnic sense, which following Machel’s death were conquering space within FRELIMO, would conclude an agreement with RENAMO” (Rocca, Citation2012, p. 31).
44. “Música Africana na RM. Por uma discussão em bases correctas”, Tempo, 585, 27–12-1981: 54–58.
45. Interview with João de Sousa (04–04-2017).
46. According to Bruce Berman, “Once we move beyond the distorting myths of the ‘artificiality’ of the nation state in Africa, the supposed disruption of its development by the ancient primordial sentiments of primitive tribes, and the consequent relegation of sub-Saharan Africa to the dark and alien ‘other’ beyond the experience of the rest of the world, we find that, as elsewhere, the nation state in Africa is a continuously unfinished project, a contingent outcome of the universalised social forces of globalised modernity and its own distinctive cultural diversity, mediated by the idiosyncrasies of the colonial experience of Western domination. African nations both shadow the development of Western nation states, the real historical nation states, rather than the idealised forms too many scholars use the template for assessing the failures of non-Western nations; and are a portent of the challenges posed to all nations by contemporary globalization” (Berman, Citation2013, p. 372).
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Marco Roque de Freitas
Marco Roque de Freitas completed his PhD in Ethnomusicology in May 2019. He is presently a research fellow at ROSSIO Infrastructure: Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities; and Visiting Assistant Professor at NOVA FCSH. His academic production focuses mainly on three themes: 1. Expressive behaviour, gender and sexuality; 2. Nation-building and nationalism in postcolonial Africa; and 3. History of Ethnomusicology and sound archives.