Education as an instrument for liberation in Mozambique and Timor-Leste — histories of solidarity and contemporary reflections

Project Information

EDULIBERA

Grant agreement ID: 867413

DOI

10.3030/867413

Project terminated on 30 December 2020

EC signature date 3 May 2019

Start date 1 June 2019

End date 31 May 2021

Funded under

• SPREADING EXCELLENCE AND WIDENING PARTICIPATION

Total cost

€ 159 815,04

EU contribution

€ 159 815,04

Coordinated by

CENTRO DE ESTUDOS SOCIAIS
Portugal

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - EDULIBERA (Education as an instrument for liberation in Mozambique and Timor-Leste — histories of solidarity and contemporary reflections)

Reporting period: 2019-06-01 to 2021-05-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

EDULIBERA proposes to study the ‘education as a liberation instrument’ dimension of the independence movements in Mozambique and Timor-Leste, uncovering the histories of encounters and solidarity between the two peoples from 1974 onwards. The objective is to understand how the circulation of ideas and people between these two places could potentially form the base of common principles around education and social emancipation in the contexts of their post-conflict experiences. This is a study looking into the less known histories of international solidarity connections and personal contacts developed between national liberation movements in Mozambique and Timor-Leste, which were united around the struggle against Portuguese colonial rule.
The Portuguese-speaking African nations were important moral and material supporters of the East Timorese struggle for independence during the Indonesian invasion and occupation period (1975-1999). The Mozambican party FRELIMO provided support to the East Timorese resistance and liberation front (FRETILIN) cadres who lived in Mozambique in the area of university training, as well as political and economic assistance to their diplomatic efforts. In Mozambique, as in Timor-Leste, the education system created since independence carried the objectives of forming a post-colonial national identity, promoting social equity as well as decolonising the curricula to one which is reflective of their history and culture.
The research aimed at stimulating a reflection on how post-colonial nations, which are placed in the periphery of knowledge production, have themselves contributed to transnational movements of solidarity around key principles such as educational equity and social justice.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

"The project's overarching objective was successfully attained — to study alternative histories of social emancipation, formed through subaltern and violent historical processes, and its potential contribution to knowledge creation and sharing between societies, opening up space for more critical and democratic views of the world.
The act of interviewing, publishing and disseminating these preliminary research results contributed to the goal of democratising knowledge production and access, and this was acknowledged by the interviewees and public present in the scientific and public events where the research was presented.
The research, interdisciplinary and multi-sited (Mozambique, Timor-Leste and Portugal), used a methodological approach combining history, post-colonial studies, education and memory studies. The project collected oral histories on the movement of ideas and people between Timor-Leste and Mozambique, interviewing 26 people in Timor-Leste, Mozambique and Portugal: East Timorese diaspora in Mozambique during the Indonesian occupation (1975-1999) and Mozambicans who were part of the solidarity networks during that period. The archival work done in Mozambique and Portugal complemented the oral history research and inserted these individual and collective histories in the broader historical contexts of national development and education policies in Mozambique, as well as in the international south-south cooperation and Asia-Africa solidarity connections.
EDULIBERA results were communicated with broad audiences and the dissemination of research results through publications, participation in international conferences and seminars/workshops held in Mozambique and Timor-Leste — a testament to the action’s relevance and the interest it sparked both in academia and beyond.
The researcher collaborated in the organisation of international seminars and conferences (the Timor-Leste Studies Association conference and the Memory, Archives and Knowledge conference marking the 20th anniversary of the Timor-Leste's referendum for self-determination); she organised a special issue in a peer-reviewed journal (eCadernos CES), co-coordinated peer-refereed conference proceedings and designed an e-learning seminar (CLACSO - Council of Latin American Social Sciences/Centro de Estudos Sociais platform). Several of these events and activities resulted in collaborations and networking with academics in Australia, Timor-Leste, Japan, Canada, Mozambique, which reinforced her longer-term integration in the academic profession and independence as an early career researcher. As a result, two conference papers were presented which will result in publications in 2021 at the conference proceedings and at a peer-reviewed publication. Also, the researcher published articles which build on previous research done in the areas of memory, reconciliation and human rights ideas in Timor-Leste.
Moreover, the sustainability and continuity of the research is further ensured by the researcher's new six-year long contract with the Portuguese national funding Agency for science, research and technology (FCT) on a related theme — ""Transnational histories of solidarity in the south - researching 'other' knowledges and struggles for rights across the Indian ocean"", in particular on Mozambique and Timor-Leste solidarities in the area of education. The website of the project ""Solidarities in the South — Intertwined Histories"" (https://solidarsul.org/) will continue to be regularly updated to communicate both EDULIBERA’s and the new project's results throughout the next 6 years."

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

EDULIBERA enabled to start this study on histories which were previously absent in the historiography on Africa-Asia solidarity networks between colonised people during their independence struggles, even though research was interrupted by COVID-19 pandemic-induced constraints, which meant that the preliminary results would benefit from further research and interviews to be carried out in Mozambique and Timor-Leste.
This research contributed to expanding the scope and methods of the existing theoretical approaches to histories of social movements and international solidarity and to dismantle current frameworks of knowledge production and aid practices in the area of education and social justice that continue to sustain a 'north-south' divide. From the analysis of the preliminary data obtained from the interviews and secondary sources collected in archives, EDULIBERA mapped and identified ideas, experiences and trajectories of the East Timorese in Mozambique which provide insights into education and national development policies adopted by the first independent Mozambican government and its influences in the East Timorese diaspora in Mozambique.
A key objective of this project was fulfilled — to disseminate knowledge about the histories of solidarity between both countries, where research and knowledge about the colonial past from the perspective of the former colonised peoples is still largely untapped, and with younger audiences in Timor-Leste and Mozambique, who are less aware of these south-south connections.
In Mozambique and Timor-Leste, public lectures and training sessions with younger audiences at universities as well as public debates on the solidarity histories between both countries were held with great enthusiasm and interest from the audiences, as well as from the participants in the research, who felt their histories and experiences have been recognised and inserted both into the study of Timor-Leste's long history of struggle for self-determination and also in Mozambique's history on the early years of independence and internationalist solidarities in the area of education.

EDULIBERA Website

Postcolonial Education