Literacy, Power, And Democracy In Mozambique by Judith Marshall

Author:Judith Marshall [Marshall, Judith]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Anthropology, General
ISBN: 9780429714832
Google: 7imNDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2019-03-07T04:52:13+00:00

Three work sessions were proposed, and the first one took place on January 17. Morais could not be there but a group of fourteen people including management, party, and representatives of the organizations of workers, women and youth attended. I had planned it in my best “popular educator” style with plenty of participation, with fond memories of sessions in Nicaragua using these methods. I envisaged a quick introduction of myself and how the idea of the sessions had emerged. Then I planned to ask those who had come to work in smaller groups, looking at the experience of literacy at CIM over the past decade and analyzing the successes and difficulties with respect to participation, teaching materials, incentives, the role of women in literacy, and the role of the Party and the mass organizations in literacy. The results of the small group sessions were then to be discussed collectively, followed by a slide tape presentation on the experience of literacy in other parts of Mozambique. The slide tape show was one I had developed for use in Canada, but had shown to colleagues in the DNEA where it had prompted much discussion.

Delays in arrival got us off to a late start. The work in the small groups was done, although not in a particularly dynamic fashion. In truth, few of them had anything to say about literacy because they were really distant from it. In addition, I had forgotten that what Nicaraguans do at the drop of a hat, organizing themselves into small buzz group, is rare in Mozambique these days. In the immediate post-independence era of the GDs, many such discussions took place. Now the very idea of an unstructured discussion, without guidelines set and the “correct answer” signalled was already highly novel. We had started so late that I decided to do the collective discussion of the results of the small group discussions during the next session.

The slide tape show did capture people’s interest, but I was struck by the fact that, for many, it was the first time they had ever seen slides used in this way. They were really bowled over by visual presentations of their reality in and of itself, leave aside content, never mind critical analysis.

Today was the day for the second work session with the OTM. I had prepared for it, already feeling that the thing was not going to go. I got there and nobody had come. & Second thoughts allowed that it might not have been all my fault! Underlying it all is a lot of uncertainty from the OTM as to what this is all about. They have a lot to do — and this thing of literacy is not seen as a top priority. It was definitely Mário Morais’ enthusiasm that got it established at all, and when neither he nor the secretary of OTM came to the first session, the thing weakened.

It’s interesting. Everything that you do to establish a process less authoritarian, less directive, appears as a signal of uncertainty as to how to proceed, almost as weakness.

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