Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Glossary
- Map of Mozambique
- Introduction
- Part I CONCEPTIONS OF GENDER & GENDER POLITICS IN MOZAMBIQUE
- 1 Women in Mozambique
- 2 Notes on Gender & Modernization (1988)
- 3 Family Forms & Gender Policy in Mozambique 1975 – 1985 (1989–1990)
- 4 Simone de Beauvoir in Africa:Woman – The Second Sex?
- 5 Gender in Colonial & Post-colonial Discourses (2003)
- Part II NIGHT OF THE WOMEN, DAY OF THE MEN: MEANINGS OF FEMALE INITIATION
- Part III IMPLICATIONS OF MATRILINY IN NORTHERN MOZAMBIQUE
- Epilogue
- References
- Index
1 - Women in Mozambique
Gender Struggle & Gender Politics (1987)
from Part I - CONCEPTIONS OF GENDER & GENDER POLITICS IN MOZAMBIQUE
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Glossary
- Map of Mozambique
- Introduction
- Part I CONCEPTIONS OF GENDER & GENDER POLITICS IN MOZAMBIQUE
- 1 Women in Mozambique
- 2 Notes on Gender & Modernization (1988)
- 3 Family Forms & Gender Policy in Mozambique 1975 – 1985 (1989–1990)
- 4 Simone de Beauvoir in Africa:Woman – The Second Sex?
- 5 Gender in Colonial & Post-colonial Discourses (2003)
- Part II NIGHT OF THE WOMEN, DAY OF THE MEN: MEANINGS OF FEMALE INITIATION
- Part III IMPLICATIONS OF MATRILINY IN NORTHERN MOZAMBIQUE
- Epilogue
- References
- Index
Summary
Women in the war: towards a new gender identity
The liberation of women is a necessity for the revolution, a guarantee of its continuity and a condition for its success. (Samora Machel, 1973)
In his opening address to the first conference of the Mozambique Women's Organisation (OMM) in 1973, Samora Machel, President of Frelimo, affirmed that women's emancipation was an integral aspect of revolutionary struggle. In 1973 Frelimo was still a liberation front engaged in armed struggle against colonial rule. The northern part of Mozambique was a battle ground and the first OMM conference had to be held in the Frelimo camp at Tunduru in southern Tanzania. A photograph of the participants of this first conference can be seen In the OMM's national secretariat in Maputo. Peasant women and women guerrillas are pictured lining up outside the meeting hut, with Samora Machel in battledress amongst them. The non-hierarchical atmosphere depicted in this photograph is in marked contrast to the more formal arrangements on similar later occasions (Photo 1.1).
The participation of women in the war was massive. In 1967, at the request of the women themselves, a women's detachment of the guerilla army – Destacamento Feminino – had been formed. Part of its task was to inform and mobilize the peasant population. To support this work, a broader non-military organization of women was needed. This was how the the OMM originated in 1973. Between 1981 and 1984 I worked as a sociological consultant of the OMM.
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- Sexuality and Gender Politics in MozambiqueRethinking Gender in Africa, pp. 23 - 38Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2011