Fighting Ghosts

Last week, Vina, a close friend, came by my house for a visit. Beyond the always present desire to share the pleasure of my company, a project of hers had stalled, and she was wondering if I had any ideas. It turned out that for the past few years she had been working with a group of young writers and poets to produce a book of their work. At various points, it had been patronized by the NGO Ibis, the Ministeiro da Cultura, and the Centro de Desenvolvemento Juvenil (Youth Development Center). But as a result of a single poem which was critical of the government in a broad sense, they had lost all official support. Though she had attempted to enlist the support of several different government officials, they all fell through when she realized that they were only interested in her sexually. So without the support of any NGO or government official, the wonderful works that these children were creating were going unpublished.

Unfortunately, I was encountering publishing problems of my own.

After a month of editing delays, the most recent edition of the Jornal Escolar de Alto Molócuè had finally gone to the press on Tuesday, and all that was left was distribution. Being a school newspaper, this required the signature of the Director da Escola, which until now was just a formality. But instead of getting the go ahead to paste the paper to the wall of the school and drop off copies at various government offices, I received a text from my director asking me to come into his office. It seemed to him, and the pedagogical staff, that our most recent edition was pessimistic and too critical of how the school was being run. Instead of lauding over their many accomplishments, we were promoting a glass-half empty view. He even went so far to say that we were ramble rousing and creating problems where there were none. Though I strongly disagreed with him, I understood the position he was in. Being the only newspaper in Alto Molócuè about Alto Molócuè, JEAM has an unfortunately high profile. Publishing and distributing the problems would be an embarrassment for the not only the school, but especially the Director. Knowing that many of my other projects depended on his approval and support, I didn’t try to press him on the principal of an independent press or the idea that an informed debate is positive in the long run. Instead, I cowardly threw my counterpart Frietas under the bus, saying that if had more support from the teachers at the school, these types of cultural misunderstandings could be avoided. In the end, I left his office with the publication of this edition in limbo and a very dirty feeling of resentment and betrayal.

Lamenting on these problems to Vina, I complained about the insecurity of “these” government officials. What were they so afraid of? Though Mozambique has 3 political parties (FRELIMO, RENAMO, and MDM), the reality is that only FRELIMO has any actual power. In a city like Alto Molócuè, where seeing a t-shirt, banner, or capulana for anything but FRELIMO is unheard of, there isn’t actually any opposition. Discussing this with Vina, I asked “if there is no chance that the party could lose an election, what is the harm in having a conversation about the problems in our community? It like they’re fighting something that doesn’t exist. It’s like they’re fighting ghosts.” To which she raised an eyebrow, and responded “but are you sure that ghosts don’t exist?”