Mozambique and “a war that seems to have no end” in 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. Even though this day is celebrated as the Day of Peace and Reconciliation, officially marking the end of the war between Frelimo and Renamo (1976-1992), 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 Liberation Struggle (1964-1974) against Portuguese colonialism. In his novel Terra Sonâmbula, Mia Couto intertwines two different stories, combining present and past, in order to uncover the destruction caused by “a 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 people’s collective memory; and, finally, through the endurance of colonial relations in contemporary Mozambican society. Drawing on writings of Mia Couto and the scholarship on Post-colonialism, Peace Studies and Memory Studies, this article examines the continuity of the war in the country and how this violent past still remains present through memory narratives.