Mozambique is a country composed of a variety of cultures, religions, ethnic groups and languages. It is often seen as a model country for harmonious coexistence, tolerance and understanding between different ethnicities and religions.  

Mozambique is a LDC country, ranking among the ten least developed countries in the world. The transition to peace in the 1992 was the major event in the country’s recent history. Other major changes such as the transition to democracy, the transition from a centrally planned to a market driven economy and the Structural Adjustment policy have significantly influenced the country’s economic, social and politic structure.  All these factors are crucial in defining cultural strategies and programmes fostering the economic and social integration of the population in general and more specifically women and youth. Sixteen years of war not only destroyed most of the country’s physique and social infrastructures, but it also left little space for putting culture into the agenda of the country.  

The government of Mozambique and culture

Culture is however increasing as a priority for Mozambique. Safeguarding and promotion of local and national culture and its diversity is pivotal for building a culture of peace. Mozambique has successfully put behind the years of conflict and today the peace is stable. The current fight in Mozambique is against poverty and the Government is undertaking social, economical and cultural activities to strengthen the development of the country. It sees now culture as one of the priorities together with other development objectives, and also an integral element in achieving those objectives. It is vital for the success of development efforts to integrate aspects of local and national culture in areas such as education, health, economic development, poverty reduction and fight against HIV-AIDS. 

In the five-year Government plan for 2005-2009, culture is seen as an important contributor to the human and social development but also to the economic development at local and national levels. Cultural industries can contribute to the reduction of poverty through creation of self-employment opportunities. The cultural and natural heritage of Mozambique is also seen as major factor in the development of tourism.

In addition to the economic contribution, the Government plan also highlights the importance of Mozambican cultural diversity, the culture of peace and inter-cultural dialogue in view of multilateral international cooperation. Promotion of the cultural richness of Mozambique is seen as a major contributor to gaining sympathy and solidarity on the international arena.

Culture has, in one form or another, been  in the plans of the Government since the independency in 1975. There have been several variants of the Governmental service responsible of culture; 1975-1983 Ministry of Culture and Education, 1983-1987 State secretary for culture, 1987-1992 Ministry of Culture, 1992-1996 Ministry of Culture and Youth, 1996-2000 Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports, 2000-2005 Ministry of Culture, and since 2005 Ministry of Education and Culture.

The current Government has for the first time in Mozambique’s history developed a strategic plan for culture. In addition to pure programme contents, the plan looks into the human resources, cooperation with other actors within the sector, financing, institutional reform, as well as more programmatic issues. 

However, the culture sector has always been disadvantaged in terms of access to resources. The staffing of the Governmental services both in central and provincial levels faces constraints as the vast majority of staff is under-trained and the sector is lacking funds for recruitment of new personnel as well as for the training of the existing staff.


Situation of the culture sector

The creators of culture, artists, and communities in general are elemental for the execution of a country’s cultural policies. In Mozambique there are some associations and cooperatives representing the interests of their sector but in general the culture sector is fragmented and it is difficult to find good civil society interlocutors that represent truly and effectively the interests of the sector or a segment within the sector. The lack of funds and knowledge on legal and organizational issues can be seen as the main cause for the limited number of this type of organizations. Training and funding is needed also for the existing organizations to enable them to work more efficiently and in particular for women groups being those usually even  more vulnerable as they generally lack access to resources.

Museums
Mozambique has presently nine (9) museums and a non specified number of monuments. The management of the Department for Tangible Cultural Heritage at the ministry is hampered by the lack of staff, training programs for existing staff, as well as lack of financial resources and equipment. 

The lack of financial resources contributes to the low quality of services provided by museums and monuments. The condition of buildings, museums and monuments is deteriorating, museum objects are not renovated sufficiently often, no publicity material is being produced, and it is difficult to contract consultants for elaboration of educational programmes. Furthermore, lack of transport hampers the establishment of networks with schools and local communities and lack of ICT equipment and infrastructure (computers, printers, scanners, telephones, fax, internet connection, etc.) disables the creation of electronic inventories and databases, online virtual museums, and the search of information and inspiration through internet. 

Communities are important partners for development of museums. The objects exhibited in museums are representative to the communities they come from, and thus the cooperation on local level in collecting objects and in getting information on local traditions is elementary for the protection and preservation of local culture. Communities are currently involved in small scale conservation efforts through cleaning of the monuments and awareness-raising among the local youth on the importance of the monuments and the need to preserve them. Further training is needed for the traditional and political leaders, local administration, teachers, and community members.

Intangible heritage
Communities are where the intangible cultural heritage lives and grows. It is fostered in traditional customs, rituals, stories, and other forms of cultural expressions. Mozambique has a wide variety of local languages some of which endangered to disappear. Reporting and documenting those languages are not only important for the safeguarding of the intangible national heritage but also important for elaboration of IEC materials in local languages, important for all development proposes and in particular for HIV/AIDS prevention.  

Communities are the ones that ensure that the traditions are passed on to younger generations. And with regards to the HIV/AIDS pandemic, it is essential to understand which values, norms  and attitudes are conducive to behavior that either promotes the expansion of the pandemic or that can be used for the fight against the disease. Particular attention needs also to be given for the safeguarding of specific oral traditions and cultural expressions of women groups

Communities also organize local cultural programmes during national and local festive dates. Mozambique was recently honored by the nomination of Timbila as a Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Cultural Heritage. This gives Timbila the international recognition it deserves and will help in financing the safeguarding of this vulnerable heritage. Timbila is made vulnerable through the relative lack of interest by youth to continue the tradition as well as the lack of raw material (due to deforestation) needed for the manufacture of the instruments.

Government and other stakeholders need to support the communities’ efforts to safeguard and promote their heritage. Documenting and recording of traditional cultural expressions is one of the ways of providing support. Identification and promotion of masterpieces can also help to mobilize national and international interest and support. The new basic education curriculum, in force since 2004, allows 20% of the time to be allocated to culture. This offers possibilities to reinforce the capacity in the communities in preservation of their heritage.

Cultural Industries
Cultural industries offer great development possibilities for Mozambique. The concept is generally understood including printing, publishing and multimedia, audio-visual, phonographic and cinematographic productions, as well as crafts and design. For some countries, this concept also embraces architecture, visual and performing arts, sports, manufacturing of musical instruments, advertising and cultural tourism. The Mozambican Government considers cultural industries those sectors that produce cultural goods; including shows, cinema and audiovisual, music recording studios, production of musical instruments, and book among others. 

Cultural industries need to be driven by actions developed by the civil society, but unfortunately in the current situation the number of cultural entrepreneurs in the country is still quite limited. The relative passiveness of the civil sector in this regards can be largely explained by the small size of the national market for cultural goods and services and to lack of support to develop the activities.

The film sector developed significantly after the independence of Mozambique in 1975. Many short films were produced portraying the revolutionary liberation movement and these films constitute an important element for the country’s collective memory. Unfortunately, a fire some years ago destroyed part of the national film archive. The restoration of the damaged films and safeguarding and promotion of the cinematographic heritage is important for the country and needs to be supported by the stakeholders. Further, the bulk of cinematographic equipment dates to 1975 and is by now broken or obsolete, and needs to be renovated.  

In the film industry, there are currently more than 14 registered companies and 72 movie theatres in the country. The production costs of cinematographic and audiovisual products are high and the sector lacks private investors. Mozambique also lacks professional training for filmmakers, there is no film school and thus only opportunities to be trained are abroad. National production of films and audiovisual products is weak, and about 60 of the 72 movie theatres in the country are not operational as they cannot finance the regular importation of films. This has also lead to the emergence of illegal video projection sites.  

Music industry as well suffers from the lack of private investment and the high rate of piracy is eating the income the artists and record companies could receive from their work. Piracy is a major problem in Mozambique and constitutes one of the main threats and impediments for the development of music industry in the country.  

Production of musical instruments is important for creation and interpretation of music. Mozambique is currently importing large number of instruments, and it lacks a production industry of musical instruments, especially when it comes to conventional instruments. Concerning traditional instruments and materials, there are many qualified producers in the country but the distribution network is weak.  

Crafts sector has great potential as there are many skilled artisans in Mozambique and there is excellent quality raw material in the country, especially the valuable hard woods. The sector is, however, fragmented and the commercialization of crafts is unstructured and usually uncountable due to its non-formal nature and the small number of formal sales outlets and exporters. The national market is small and to succeed as a craft entrepreneur, the aim has to be set to export markets.

The main obstacles for the Mozambican artisans’ entry to export markets seem to be the varying quality and levels of production (often production capacity is too low) as well as the lack of respect for deadlines. In general it can be said that artisans have weak understanding of business-making, due to having little or no formal education. This makes professional training and even basic education (starting from literacy and numeracy) very important for the development of the craft sector. The sector also needs assistance in organizing itself better and stronger linkages and exposure to export markets, as well as support in developing new and innovative products based on local traditions and raw materials. Revival of old craft traditions such as  silver jewelry production are as important as exploring better use of locally available raw materials for crafts production, in particular in areas with great potential for generation of income for families and in particular women

It is in this context,  UNESCO Maputo is implementing a major culture project called Development of Cultural Institutions of Mozambique to address some of these problems and weaknesses of the culture sector in Mozambique. The project is being implemented in close collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Culture and funded by Sida. more

In the area of cultural policies, UNESCO Maputo is also giving technical assistance to the Ministry in drafting the strategic plan for culture.