FRELIMO

Quando Deus fez o mundo, para que os homens prosperassem decidiu dar-lhes apenas duas virtudes. Assim:

- Aos Suíços os fez estudiosos e respeitadores da lei.
- Aos Ingleses, organizados e pontuais.
- Aos argentinos, chatos e arrogantes.
- Aos Japoneses, trabalhadores e disciplinados.
- Aos Italianos, alegres e românticos.
- Aos Franceses, cultos e finos.
- Aos Moçambicanos, inteligentes, honestos e Frelimistas.

O anjo anotou, mas logo em seguida, cheio de humildade e de medo, indagou:

- Senhor, a todos os povos do mundo foram dadas duas virtudes, porém, aos Moçambicanos foram dadas três! Isto não os fará soberbos em relação aos outros povos da terra?

- Muito bem observado, bom anjo! exclamou o Senhor.- Isto é verdade!- Façamos então uma correcção! De agora em diante, os Moçambicanos, povo do meu coração, manterão estas três virtudes, mas nenhum deles poderá utilizar mais de duas simultaneamente, como os outros povos!

- Assim, o que for Frelimista e honesto, não pode ser inteligente. O que for Frelimista e inteligente, não pode ser honesto. E o que for inteligente e honesto, não pode ser Frelimista .

Esta é interessante ... pode ser usada para qualquer partido ... MDM, Renamo, PIMO ou whatever ... eu estou sem cores partidarias, mas people vamos votar

Linguas Africanas e o Ser Africano (Adenda 1)

Entrei no outro dia, numa dialectica com uma amiga sobre a importância das linguas africanas na definição de quem somos e como nos comportamos. Isto porque, na África do Sul, onde correntemente resido, aos individuos de raça africana/negra que não falam as linguas nativas é dado o titulo de coconuts (Cocos), numa metáfora alusiva alusiva ao seu comportamento identico aos caucasianos.

Será que eu deixo de ser negro, preto, africano só porque não falo a minha lingua materna? Será que sou menos ou mais por causa disso?

A conversa tambem assenta-se no facto de Moçambique ter elegido o Português como lingua franca e oficial ao invêz de uma das linguas locais. Será que nós nos dissociamos do que é nosso, aonde está o orgulho Africano? Porquê não damos valor a lingua de Ngungunhane mas a de Camões? Se a Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda tem o Swahili como lingua franca e oficial, a Africa do Sul as 10 linguas locais como oficiais, porquê em Moçambique nós não somos ensinados na nossa lingua?

Aqui vai o papo, Adenda 1:

Eu

There are about 43 languages spoken in Mozambique, how do you impose one of those into your population? And if that is going to create conflicts, do you get one of your neighbours languages? Among languages spoken in Mozambique are Elomwe, Cisena, Echuwabo, Swahili, Bitonga, Njau, Shona, Xitswa, Ronga, Makonde, Ndau

Portuguese is the official language in 10 countries: Angola, Brasil, Cabo Verde, Timor Leste, Guiné Bissau, Guiné Equatorial, Macau (not a country anymore - but it is an official language), Moçambique, Portugal and São Tomé e Príncipe. They also speak portuguese in Goa (Southern India).
That makes it 6 African countries, 1 Latin American country, 1 Western-European country, 1 South-East Asian country, 1 Central Asian region, 1 Southern Asian region.

Swahili is the official language in 3 African countries: Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. That makes it 3 African countries …
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
I like African languages and value them dearly, however we must admit that they don't open you doors of possibilities in this global world. We must also be aware that 35% of the Swahili's vocabulary derives from Arabic (the language), hence it's not a 100% African.

We can value what's our while avoiding internal conflicts. Mozambique noticed that a way to avoid conflicts was not to deem any existent ethnic group more important than the others, and not to deem any national citizen different to the others. The way to unite the country was to bring an externality, something that no national citizen could claim ownership of and at the same time we created a country, a nation more united than a solid rock, impenetrable even by water.

A lot of Mozambican citizens by the time of independence already spoke Portuguese, it is a simple medium of communication, it doesn't alienate national pride and it unites us to the world, it facilitates communication with the Latin world.

There is a fallacy in the African world that if you are truly nationalist you should dump whatever customs have western provenience … but true African nationalism is to value the great things we have and using the positive things that the West has to offer to our own advantage and at our own discretion.
Again I'm an avid supporter of African languages and believe that they can and should be revived … but like we agreed the other day justice should never take precedence over peace … truth is that we as Africans have been indoctrinated with a divide and rule mentality, hence we will value more the western rather than the fellow brother's culture. Had the Government imposed a Southern language the Central and Northern population would have complained and claimed that the South is trying to impose a new colonial regime, had it been a Northern language, a similar scenario would have prevailed. Claims of minorities taking over majorities, and etc, like it happened elsewhere in Africa. Hence we had to transmit some sense of neutrality and let the country ride peacefully, I mean create a nation.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________

According to Answers, there are about 43 languages spoken in Mozambique. How do you impose one of those into your population? And if that is going to create conflicts, do you get one of your neighbours languages?
To give you some background, in 1997, our languages were (note there is some overlapping in this): Emakhuwa 26.1%, Xichangana 11.3%, Portuguese 8.8% (official; spoken by 27% of population as a second language), Elomwe 7.6%, Cisena 6.8%, Echuwabo 5.8%, other Mozambican languages (Swahili, Bitonga, Njau, Shona, Xitswa, ronga, makonde, ndau, etc) 32%, other foreign languages 0.3%, unspecified 1.3% (1997 census) … today the stats are way different.

A more recent note from Wikipedia: Mozambique is a multilingual country. A number of Bantu languages are indigenous to Mozambique. Portuguese, inherited from the colonial period, is the official language, and Mozambique is a full member of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries. Ethnologue lists 43 languages spoken in the country
According to INE - Mozambique's National Institute for Statistics -,Portuguese is the most widely spoken language in Mozambique: 39.6% of the national population and 72.4% of people living in urban areas are fluent in the language. Other widely spoken languages include Swahili, Makhuwa, Sena, Ndau, and Shangaan (Tsonga). Other indigenous languages of Mozambique include Lomwe, Makonde, Chopi, Chuwabu, Ronga, Zulu, and Tswa.
Small communities of Arabs, Chinese, and Indians speak their own languages (Indians from Portuguese India speak any of the Portuguese Creoles of their origin) aside from Portuguese as their second language. Most educated Mozambicans speak English, which is used in schools and business as second or third language