Testimonies of suffering and recasting the meanings of memories of violence in post-war Mozambique

Testimonies of suffering and recasting the meanings of memories of violence in post-war Mozambique

This chapter explores the role that testimonies can play in helping survivors to come to terms with painful memories of the violence of the civil war (1976–1992) in Gorongosa, a district of the Sofala province, located in the centre of Mozambique. Gorongosa district is a former war zone where the majority of the people survived the war while remaining in their home area. At the end of the war, many survivors
wished to forget the horrors they had undergone and focus on the task of repairing their lives. However, intrusive wartime recollections often disturbed post-war recovery processes. Given the local importance of narrative to give meaning to past experiences in Gorongosa, I engaged in conversations, in partnership with a Dutch-based mental health centre (Centrum ’45), with war survivors in order to determine whether the testimony method could help them deal with their painful wartime memories. War survivors accepted the offer and I selected and trained two assistants, one male and one female who worked as translators from the local language into Portuguese. The testimony sessions were performed in secluded spaces within the yards of the witnesses’ own houses.

Files associated with this item cannot be displayed due to copyright restrictions.