MOZAMBIQUE CONVENTIONS

series of agreements concerning relations between South Africa and Mozambique. The initial convention, concluded between Portugal and the Transvaal republic in 1875, provided for commercial relations between the parties and the building of a railroad between Loureno Marques in Mozambique and the Transvaal. After the annexation of the Transvaal by Great Britain in 1877, the convention was recognized by Britain and Portugal in 1882 and reaffirmed in 1901. A new convention, in 1909, between Portugal and the governor of the Transvaal, included provisions for the recruitment of labourers in Mozambique for work in the Transvaal mines. These provisions were revised in a convention of 1928 between Portugal and the Union of South Africa. Further revisions were made later, notably in 1934 and 1964. Cultural life Mozambique enjoys a great range of cultural and linguistic diversity. Islamic culture, Swahili language, and matrilineal Bantu-speaking groups coexist in northern and central regions, reflecting prevailing patterns in neighbouring Tanzania and Mala wi. The great variety of people of the Zambezi valley overlap culturally and linguistically with neighbouring Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, and patrilineal, cattle-keeping people who share a heritage with neighbouring Nguni-speaking groups in South Africa and Zimbabwe are common in the south. Amid the variety of languages, social relationships, artistic traditions, clothing, and ornamentation patterns is a common theme of dynamic and creative cultural expression in song, oral poetry, dance, and performance. Although material and performance arts are deeply embedded in daily religious and social expressions, some regional traditions are well known throughout the nation and beyond. The haunting paintings of Malangatana Valente Ngwenya, commonly known as Malangatana, have captured an international audience. Malangatana and the muralist Mankew Valente Muhumana have inspired the formation of artist cooperatives, particularly around Maputo. The carved wooden sculpture and masks of the Makonde people of northern Mozambique and Tanzania and the complex Chopi orchestral performances, or midogo, are among the best-known artistic traditions. Popular music includes the work of Alexandre Langa, Xidimingwana, and the Nampula group Eyuphuro. Soccer is the nation's favourite sporting activity. Mozambique's soccer team competes with other African nations and within the Portuguese-speaking Sporting League, which also includes Angola, Portugal, and Brazil. From the first decade of the 20th century, African writers and journalists published their own newspaper in the capital city. Despite problems of colonial censorship, the paper provided a forum for African intellectuals and writers throughout the century. Mozambicans studying abroad during the 1950s contributed to the literary and artistic flowering best known by the French term ngritude. Writers used the colonial language to convey the experience of the colonized and to reconfirm the validity of African cultural expression. Some of Frelimo's leading figures, such as Marcelino dos Santos and Srgio Vieira, wrote poetry and encouraged poetic expression as a tool of resistance. Mozambique's best-known writers in Portuguese include Lus Bernardo Honwana, Jos Craveirinha, and Orlando Mendes. The linguist and short-story author Bento Sitoe writes in Tsonga. The Association of Mozambican Writers sponsors seminars and public readings and publishes for the national market. The publishing group at Eduardo Mondlane University and the Historical Archive publish scholarly journals, monographs, edited collections, archival guides, and collections of documents. With independence Mozambican cultural institutions underwent a fundamental transformation; although some institutions remain closed, most have eventually reopened in a different form. The Historical Archive of Mozambique, the Museum of the Revolution, the National Money Museum, the Geological Museum, and the Natural History Museum are the principal museums, archives, and libraries. Despite Frelimo's emphasis on pride in African cultural heritage, its ideology of scientific materialism clashed sharply with important components of that heritage until the late 1980s. Spirituality, herbal and faith healing, rites of passage, direct criticism of leadership through poetic performance, and lineage authority over women all contradicted government efforts to reorder society along socialist lines and to define national culture through government-controlled newspapers, radio, publishing, and television. The government owns and controls most of the printed media, including Notcias, the daily national paper; Tempo, the weekly magazine; and Domingo, the Sunday paper. The Mozambique Information Agency is the country's official national and international news agency. Locally, Frelimo's Office of Mass Communications in Maputo has developed radio messages, murals, and a cartoon figure called Xiconhoca (Chico the Snake, named after a despised agent of the dreaded colonial secret police), the embodiment of negative social attitudes, to convey its social message and to encourage communication with and among the nonliterate population. Jeanne Marie Penvenne