At the time of Mozambique's declaration of independence from Portugal in 1975, no common
language existed. Because more than eight major languages are spoken in Mozambique, leaders
of the successful revolution decided to utilize Portuguese as one way to unify the citizens and to
bring about a new Mozambican identity. This study addresses effects of the introduction of
Portuguese (the innovation) championed by a powerful change agent (the governing revolution
ary leaders) on a populace (the targeted audience) that was no more than 7% literate in the
language. Relationships between national language policies and popular language usage in
Mozambique are discussed.
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