Literacy practices in northern Mozambique: “baneanes”, “mujojos” and “mouros” manuscripts in the 18th and 19th centuries

Abstract

The writing of African History, started in the 1950’s, initially focuses on the use of oral sources over written documents for the analysis of Africa’s past. Recent research have highlighted the importance of the interplay between the oral and the written in pre-colonial, colonial, and post-colonial contexts. This article explores literacy practices in northern Mozambique, examining how writing circulated and was used by people identified as “baneanes”, “mouros” and “mujojos”, between the end of the eighteenth century and early nineteen.