Moçambique e “uma guerra que parece não ter fim” em Terra Sonâmbula

Abstract

On 4 October 1992, the General Peace Agreement (GPA) was signed bringing to an end the armed conflict that plagued Mozambique for sixteen years (1976-1992). Even though this day is celebrated as the Day of Peace and Reconciliation, officially marking the end of the war between Frelimo and Renamo, it can also be seen, more broadly, as the end of an era of direct violence and armed conflict that had began with the National Armed Liberation Struggle (1964-1974) against Portuguese colonialism. In his novel Terra Sonâmbula, Mia Couto intertwines two different stories, combining present and past, and uncovers the destruction caused by this “war that seems to have no end”. We argue that this idea of continuity of the war in Mozambique can be understood through three different ways: through the links between the colonial-liberation war and the civil war; through the individual memories of those people who experienced it directly or indirectly and, more broadly, through public memory; and, finally, through the endurance of colonial relations in contemporary Mozambican society. To build our analysis, we drawn on Terra Sonâmbula and on the scholarships on Post-colonialism and Memory Studies.