Scientific Journal of Eduardo Mondlane University, Serie: Arts and Social Sciences

Editorial

2025-04-17T11:18:46+00:00

NATION, CITIZENSHIP AND ETHNICITY IN MOZAMBIQUE (1975-1990)

2025-04-17T11:18:46+00:00

African states undertook different constructions of citizenship after independence. In Mozambique, the Frente de Libertação de Moçambique (FRELIMO) assumed the construction of the nation-state and citizenship in a single-party regime, to which was added the existence of civil war. In the hegemonic discourses, the formation of the “Homem Novo” was emphasized, which should overcome identity particularities, this time, associated with ethnicity. Although traditionally focused on legal rights, some studies on citizenship in Africa point to the issue of ethnic belonging and inclusion of the individual in a nation as a citizen, making the ethnic dimension a central concern among nationalist projects in most African countries. Thus, based on the theoretical framework presented above, which includes two themes of great relevance, that of citizenship and nation building, and based on a corpus of study composed by semi-structured interviews conducted in Maputo with Mozambican political, academic and writer representatives, literary work and articles from the newspapers Notícias da Beira, Notícias e Tempo, I will use a qualitative analysis and Critical Discourse Analyzes (CDA) to understand how citizenship in Mozambique, in its ethnic essence, is represented between a historical period that goes from 1975 to 1990.

BEYOND ETHNIC AND CLUB MEMBERSHIP: soccer and national identity in Mozambique, 1974-2019

2025-04-17T11:18:47+00:00

Soccer is a very popular sport in Mozambique. Sometimes seen as a recreational and professional activity, soccer also plays a social and political role. However, despite being a sport of masses, from a socio-political point of view, soccer has not received due attention by researchers in social sciences and humanities. To fill this gap, this article studies the contribution of soccer in the construction and strengthening of the Mozambican nation. The article argues that, since the proclamation of independence in 1975, soccer has played a major role in the project of building a strong, united and modern nation. The article further avers that, in a context of cyclical wars and political instrumentalization of ethno-linguistic and regional diversity, the government of Mozambique has relied on the popularity of soccer to promote the idea of belonging to an united and sovereign nation. In this regard, the matches of the national soccer team serve to unite Mozambicans in defense of the homeland, leaving aside people’s ethnic and club differences. The national soccer league in the model of all-against-all, involving clubs from all regions of the country, but which has proved to be financially unsustainable, is supported by government funds because it is believed that it contributes to national unity. Methodologically, is qualitative study based on the historical method to understand political, social and sports events over time. In this process, it uses document analysis, literature review, non-participant observation and interviews with key informants.

NEITHER WAR, NEITHER PEACE: violence in formal peace contexts in Mozambique

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This chapter critically analyses the dissonance between, on the one hand, the understanding of violence and peace based in both mainstream literature and in the speech of political leaders and, on the other hand, the experience of violence and peace experienced daily by citizens in their communities. Adopting the theoretical approach of Studies for Peace, the study focuses on the Mozambican current news and violence that ravaged the country between 2012 and 2018, exploring what happened in the local communities which is invisible by both mainstream literature and political elites in Mozambique and its implications for the process of building and consolidating structural peace.

PARADIGMATIC OPTIONS FOR THE TEACHING/LEARNING OF SPEAKING COMPREHENSION AND PRODUCTION IN FRENCH FOR INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS AND DIPLOMACY

2025-04-17T11:18:47+00:00

The aim of this study is to find out whether or not the action paradigm enables the teaching/learning of speaking comprehension and production in a context of French for International Relations and Diplomacy. Within this scope, on the one hand, we confronted the theories at stake (communication paradigm and action paradigm), and, on the other hand, we developed French for International Relations and Diplomacy Programs, the first being a communicative paradigm and the second an action paradigm, respectively. Likewise, two distinct questionnaires were built for a corpus of sixty individuals. Thus, we conducted Pre-tests for the communication approach and the action approach. Post-tests were conducted after providing training in communication or action according to the cases. The results were as follows: the action paradigm enables the teaching of speaking comprehension, since Pre and Post-tests recorded a progression at the order of 6.6% (93.4% to 100%) against a regression of 23.3% (96.7% to 73.4%) for the communication paradigm in this skill. With regard to speaking production, pre- and post- action paradigm tests recorded a progression at the order of 3% (93.7 % to 96.7%) against 6.7 % (90.1% to 96.7%) for the communication paradigm. These results show that the action paradigm enables the learning of comprehension and production of speaking for specific purposes.

BENEFITS OF READING STRATEGIES INSTRUCTION IN TEXTUAL COMPREEHENSION: the case of Eduardo Mondlane University students

2025-04-17T11:18:47+00:00

ecent studies indicate that reading strategies instruction enables second language learners to use different reading strategies in order to improve their textual comprehension. The current study was conducted in Mozambique, at the Eduardo Mondlane University, aiming at evaluating the impact of a reading strategies instruction program. It involved an experimental group of 25 students majoring in English Language Teaching and a control group of 25 English/Portuguese Translation students. A pre-test, a three-month strategy-based reading instruction program, a post-test and a questionnaire administered at the end of the program were used in the evaluation of the students’ progress in terms of strategic reading and reading proficiency. The findings showed that the experimental group improved its reading comprehension as a result of the intervention. The study demonstrates the need of introducing reading strategies instruction programs in order to improve Mozambican learners’ academic reading and comprehension skills.

TRANSLATION: art or science?

2025-04-17T11:18:48+00:00

The present article tries to demystify one of the ancients’ myths in the field of Translation: its genesis and whether translation had its berth in Art or/and Science. The article combines desk research with data collected from results of exercises administered to students of Translation Theory and Methodology of Translation disciplines of the Translation Degree Course in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, at the Eduardo Mondlane University. The article tries to provide answers to the quest to understanding the myth on Translation or Translation Studies and the correlation that may there be with Art and Science by combining the results of the analysis of the collected data, the author’s professional experience in university teaching and translation and interpretation practice, as well as the analysis of several published studies in the field. The study shows that that there is a non-conclusive link between Art and Science and the berth of Translation Studies as a discipline. It clearly shows, however, that there is an unquestionable crystal clear link indicating that Translation studies started from the Greco-Roman (55 BC /384 BC, Roman Classic Era) and from the pioneering work by São Geronimo (419 or 420 AD) in the field of Translation to the contemporary work of the past 60-80 years in the field of Translation (NIDA, 1964; IMMEL, 1997; MILTON, 1998; BARBOSA, 1990; HOLMES, 2008; NOGUEIRA, 2018).

CRITICAL AREAS IN THE PRACTICE OF TRANSLATION BY UNIVERSITY STUDENTS IN MOZAMBIQUE: implications for Portuguese teaching

2025-04-17T11:18:48+00:00

This article describes the critical areas in the practice of English/Portuguese translation by university students in Mozambique and presents some implications for Portuguese teaching in the Translation major at the University. To this end, it is based on a corpus consisting of 602 sentences extracted from texts translated by finalist students of English/Portuguese Translation major. The linguistic errors were analysed according to the typological grid adapted from Gonçalves (1997, 2010b). The results of the study show that, in the process of translation, the linguistic competence of the target population in Portuguese is not yet satisfactory since the translated texts present linguistic problems in the lexicon, lexicon-syntax, syntax and morpho-syntax categories. The article also suggests the incorporation into the Translation course syllabuses of grammatical topics that reflect the critical areas of grammatical knowledge of this population.

ASSESSMENT OF RESIDENTS' PERCEPTION ABOUT THE QUALITY AND IMAGE OF A COASTAL TOURISM DESTINATION: the case of the Municipality of Inhambane in Mozambique

2025-04-17T11:18:48+00:00

This paper aims to identify the residents' perception of the quality of the tourist destination and the factors that determine this perception in the Municipality of Inhambane, a small urban area located in the south of Mozambique and considered one of the main tourist destinations in the country. For this purpose, we sought through the literature review to identify the attributes that best characterize the tourist destination, taking into account the attractions, infrastructure and equipment and services, to later understand the residents’ (n = 199) opinion about the quality and representativeness of each attribute within the global context of destination quality and image. Of the 24 selected attributes (4 associated with attractions, 12 associated with equipment and services and the rest associated with infrastructure), evaluated according to the 5-point Likert scale (1 = very bad, 2 = bad, 3 = fair, 4 = good and 5 = excellent), it was found that 12 attributes obtained a positive evaluation, with landscapes (with the highest score) and natural attractions considered class A attributes. The study reveals that from the residents' point of view, there are 8 factors that determine the quality and image of the tourist destination, with emphasis on the availability of information, leisure and sanitation on the beaches (which explains 21,397% of the total variance). These results can contribute to the improvement of relations between resident and visitor communities, as well as support the decision-making process on the actions to be created to ensure that the tourist destination attracts more and more visitors and that they have a great visitation experience.