“We reaffirm our Mozambican identity in the fight against HIV and AIDS”: Examining educational perspectives on women’s ‘proper’ place in the nation of Mozambique

Abstract

There is increasing recognition of the importance of space in the study of education, resulting in a greatly diversified literature on the geographies of education. This article builds on this growing body of scholarly work to examine a number of critical spatial assumptions underpinning school-based HIV- and AIDS-related education in Maputo, Mozambique. It does so through an analysis of key governmental and ministerial documents and policy-makers’ and educators’ conceptions of the aims of such education. This article highlights how school-based HIV- and AIDS-related education in Mozambique was conceptualized in gendered and distinctly place-based terms. In addition, we elucidate how, despite the various discursive shifts since the struggle for independence from Portugal, young women continue to be construed as the symbolic anchor of the nation, their natural place defined in relation to the domestic, the intimate, and local ‘in-here.’

Keywords

Mozambique young people place-based education HIV and AIDS

Introduction

There is growing acknowledgment within the social sciences of the importance of notions of space and place to efforts to develop more nuanced understandings of social life, practices, and relationships (Massey, 1994; Paechter, 2004). In a similar vein, the ways in which identities are produced, performed, and contested within particular spaces have gained focused attention (Allen, 2013; Nelson, 1999). Although the spatial turn has been slower to gain ground in the field of education, there is a greatly diversified and rich body of literature on the ‘geographies of education’ that engages with, to name but a few examples, spatial dimensions of access to education and educational attainment, and spatial elements of social reproduction through and within education (Holloway et al., 2010; Taylor, 2009). Of particular interest here is scholarly work that has examined relationships between education, identity, and place. Most of the research in this particular field has concentrated on the ways in which schools, through a multitude of daily interactions, curricular messages, and formal procedures, prepare young people to become responsible community members (Del Busso and Reavey, 2011; Matthews and Sidhu, 2005).

Interest in spatiality in the theory and study of education has also included research in relation to school-based HIV- and AIDS-related education, which forms the topic of our article. This burgeoning body of research has concentrated on the role of schools as “sexualising agencies” (Allen, 2013: 56; Talburt and Rasmussen, 2010) and the ways in which the field of sexuality education is informed and shaped by socio-political and historical contexts (DePalma and Atkinson, 2009; Sherlock, 2012). Despite this increasing scholarly attention, there appears to be little explicit engagement with the ways in which school-based HIV- and AIDS-related education is grounded in notions of space, place, and place-based pedagogies. Some of the work that comes closest to this is that of Louisa Allen (2013), which examines the centrality of unofficial spaces and practices in the construction of secondary school learners’ understanding of sexualities in the context of Australia.

Additionally, there seems to be little research examining how conceptions of sexual and gender identities underpinning formal HIV- and AIDS-related education may be shaped by socio-political landscapes and relationships at and across different scales, such as relationships between local and global policies and strategies. Exceptions include the work of scholars such as Chakravarti (2011), who has provided an account of efforts to introduce sex education in secondary schools in West Bengal, India, and the “awkward” attempts of the left-party-ruled government to meet public health concerns expressed by (inter)national agencies while struggling with their own middle-class morality and ambiguous relationship with globalization and colonial legacy (p. 390). This article engages with this apparent gap in the research literature by examining how school-based HIV- and AIDS-related education in Mozambique is geared to developing strongly gendered and place-based identities in an effort to secure the nation’s internal (moral) coherence, in part in an attempt to ensure its place on the global scene. The analysis will highlight the centrality of the notion of women’s emancipation to the government’s efforts to ensure the country’s social and economic progress since the time leading up to, and directly after, independence.

We begin by discussing the theoretical premises of the article, followed by a brief presentation of the methods used to gather the data that are discussed. The sections thereafter provide a historical and documentary analysis and subsequently a discussion of research participants’ narratives. In the concluding section, we highlight the central issues that have emerged from the analysis.

Forming national citizenry through formal education

Public education has long been recognized to constitute a key site for the preparation – or enculturation – of a nation-state’s young citizens (Arnot, 2006). As Baumann and Sunier (2004) observe, state-maintained schools serve a critical role in turning young people into citizens and “integrating social and cultural differences into a pre-defined national whole” (p. 1, emphasis added). This article highlights the ways in which the idea of producing such a pre-determined national whole out of difference and emplacing young people within this space resonates strongly with the overall stated aim of the Mozambican Ministry of Education and Culture (MoEC) to create “the Mozambican identity” (MoEC, 2006, title page, emphasis added).

In the discussion of the data, we draw on the notion of enculturation instead of the more common term socialization. We do so as ‘enculturation’ is conceived as the process of becoming a part of a particular social context that requires both acquisition and participation that may be geared to both reproduction and change. The term ‘socialization’, on the other hand, tends to be interpreted as a passive process of acquisition that is primarily aimed towards ensuring social continuity (Barrett, 2013; Emmerich, 2014). Building on Baumann and Sunier (2004), we extend the idea of enculturation to civil enculturation by also paying specific attention to processes through which individuals learn to function as members of a particular civil culture. Therefore, ‘civil enculturation’ refers to processes of learning ‘appropriate’ social and political norms and values.

The concept of citizenship, in the sense of status as well as practice, is also central to the discussion presented in this article. While citizenship tends to be considered a neutral category and is associated with the public sphere, feminist analyses have shown it to be a gendered and sexualized concept that, in critical ways, is constitutive of individuals’ private lives, bodies, and intimate relationships (Rhoads and Calderone, 2007; Kuhar, 2014). Important in this regard is the work of Enloe (2000) and Nagel (1998), who have drawn attention to the gendered nature of nation-building endeavors. Engaging with the – often symbolic – functions attributed to girls and women in the making and unmaking of the nation-state, these authors argue that these roles are reflective of dominant definitions of the feminine and women’s place in society. Processes of civil enculturation, therefore, need to be analyzed from a gender perspective.

Analyzing perspectives on, and processes of, civil enculturation and nation-building also requires unpacking underlying understandings of children and young people. Drawing on scholars who have sought to describe and deconstruct ‘other’ – that is, non-Western – childhoods, this article seeks to deconstruct and theorize the interactions between local and global constructions of childhood and youth (Kesby et al., 2006; McIlwaine and Datta, 2004). In doing so, we take our cue from authors such as Amin (2002), who argue against a conceptualization of space and place as ontologically distinctive realms; that is, one whereby space is understood as the abstract, the global, the “out-there and intrusive,” while place is conceived in terms of the bounded, local, the “in-here and intimate” (p. 388). Instead, we conceptualize the near and far as co-constituted to such a degree that we cannot ontologically separate that which occurs at the local level from distant happenings and geographies.

Methodology

Data were gathered in Maputo, Mozambique’s capital city, using semi-structured interviews with a gender-balanced selection of educators and policy-makers and documentary analysis of key governmental and MoEC documents. The study was carried out over a period of seven months between 2010 and 2011 by the first author. All interviews lasted between one and two hours and were conducted in Portuguese, which is the official language of Mozambique. Following participants’ consent, interviews were audio-recorded and subsequently transcribed ad verbatim.

Educators (n = 9) were recruited on the basis of their involvement in the provision of HIV- and AIDS-related education to Grade 9 learners in three different public secondary schools. In relation to policy-makers (n = 8), sampling was geared toward establishing a selection of MoEC HIV and AIDS focal points, that is, those responsible for ensuring HIV- and AIDS-related issues were addressed within their particular departments or directorates. Pseudonyms are given when citing participants as well as, for reasons of etiquette, the title ‘Sr.’ (Mr) or ‘Sra.’ (Mrs). A quote from an interview with a policy-maker is followed by the acronym ‘MoEC,’ while in the case of educators a fictive name is used to refer to the school. For reasons of confidentiality, no reference is made to the directorate or department to which policy-makers were connected. All citations are followed by the date of the interview.

Documentary analysis was conducted of key governmental and MoEC documents, including those that, in principle, guided the design and delivery of formal HIV- and AIDS-related education at the time of data collection. The documentary analysis followed a systematic and iterative process, clustering statements according to thematic focus, such as the aims of (HIV- and AIDS-related) education. As May (2011) observes, to interpret “the meanings contained within documents” (p. 205), it is critical to develop an understanding of the socio-political context in which these were developed. While it goes beyond the scope of this article to present this background in detail, it is important to note that the MoEC documents referred to here were developed after former President Guebuza first took office in 2005 and the Ministries of Education and Culture were merged. The integration of these two sectors into one ministry was based on “the recognition of the important role cultural aspects perform in the development of the citizen” (MoEC, 2006: 1). This statement arguably foreshadows the importance the government attached to schools as sites for the civil enculturation of young Mozambicans.

“Povo unido do Rovuma ao Maputo”:¹ Imagining post-independence Mozambique

Mozambique gained independence from Portugal in 1975, after almost 10 years of armed struggle led by the then guerrilla movement Frente de Libertação de Moçambique (Liberation Front of Mozambique, Frelimo) and the fall of the Salazar regime in Portugal (Newitt, 1995). Following independence, the one-party state of the People’s Republic of Mozambique was proclaimed, with Frelimo leader Samora Machel as its first president. The new government set about creating an independent, united nation within the geographical boundaries inherited from the colonial era. On Frelimo’s view, creating the new Mozambique required dismantling colonial institutions and invoking a national identity based on a sense of a shared history of oppression and the designation of a common language, Portuguese (Pitcher, 2002). Frelimo, furthermore, believed it was critical to end the political, social, and internal oppression of the people of Mozambique and start a process that would bring about “a new mentality, a new society” (Machel, 1975, as cited in Pitcher, 2002: 53–54).

Critical to the idea of the new Mozambican mentality and society was the creation of o homem novo (‘the new man’): liberated from the chains of colonialism, feudalism, restrictive traditions, and illiteracy and dedicated to the nation’s progress (Cabaço, 2010). Within this context, Frelimo paid particular attention to women’s liberation for two main reasons. First, the party believed that women had been doubly victimized, that is, not only by the Portuguese but also by the “traditional-feudal ideology” within which women were construed as having one role only: to serve men (Arnfred, 2004: 115). Second, Frelimo regarded women’s emancipation as “a guarantee of [the] continuity [of the revolution] and a condition for its success” (Machel, 1973, as cited in Arnfred, 2004: 109).

Women’s liberation would take place through their participation in what was defined as the central task of the revolution, namely, production, in which, as Arnfred (2004) observes, women had long been actively involved. In addition, women were expected to fulfill their principal role, the education of the young (Newitt, 1995). According to Frelimo, women’s primary domain, the family, was “the first cell of the party” (Machel, 1973, as cited in Newitt, 1995: 548). Under the guise of ‘revolutionary emancipation,’ post-independence Mozambique thus saw a further entrenchment of women’s double workload, that is, in the domestic and economic sphere.

Following the adoption of a system of multi-party democracy and liberal socio-economic policies during the early 1990s, various measures have been adopted to improve women’s position in both public and private spheres. The steps taken have led to a strengthening of women’s political representation at various levels of government. In addition, the Law Against Domestic Violence was approved in 2009, providing an additional formal instrument for the enhancement of gender equality (Tvedten, 2011). As will be clarified, however, despite positive changes such as those already mentioned, the political continuities in terms of the conception of women’s ‘proper’ place in Mozambican society are more notable than the shifts (see also Arnfred, 2004).

Putting “the Nation in First Place”: Government statements²

Similar to post-independence days, enhancing national unity was considered essential to Mozambi-que’s economic and social progress at the time of data collection. This endeavor has been complicated by the country’s high HIV prevalence rates, however.³ Former President Guebuza’s speeches are illuminative in this regard. Addressing “the Mozambican family […] from Rovuma to Maputo and from the Indian Ocean to Zumbo,” in his 2009⁴ “State of the Nation” address, for example, Guebuza stressed the importance of “cohesion” and “patriotic consciousness” in “the fight against poverty” and the response to HIV and AIDS (2009: 4). In a similar vein, former Prime Minister Aires Ali (2010) exhorted Mozambicans to “reaffirm [their] Mozambican identity in the fight against HIV and AIDS” (p. 6).

The frequent references to ‘the Nation’ and ‘Mozambicanness’ in government documents, such as those cited here, are arguably indicative of a nationalistic focus on unity rather than, for example, notions of citizenship and civic rights (see also Enloe, 2000). In addition, these documents highlight the government’s efforts to invoke an image of Mozambique as the pre-determined national whole that Baumann and Sunier (2004) speak of. Former President Guebuza’s speeches also appear to serve as a means to discursively reiterate the territorial boundaries of the Mozambican community.

Education of the country’s young people is posited as central to the creation of a cohesive nation-state and a patriotic citizenry. Young people are hereby construed as “the hope for the Nation and the basis of [an] active population” (Government of Mozambique (GoM), 2003: 17), suggesting they were primarily seen as future citizens and not as political actors in the present (De Los Angeles Torres and Rizzini, 2013). Meanwhile, according to the MoEC 2006–2011 Strategic Plan,⁵ schools should inculcate in learners a sense of patriotism and sense of “Mozambicanness,” defining the latter in terms of “a civilised mentality, order, cleanliness […], modesty, […] respect for one’s kin and society” (MoEC, 2006: 14). Additionally, the MoEC states that it is especially important to invest in women’s education, “given [their] role as mother educator of new generations” (2006: 13). These perspectives are strongly reminiscent of the importance Samora Machel attached to women’s ‘emancipation,’ values of “individual and collective […] cleanliness,” and Protestant Christian values more broadly (Arnfred, 2004: 117).

In summary, key governmental and MoEC texts as well as official speeches illustrate that ‘unity’ and ‘patriotic spirit’ continue to be considered as crucial to Mozambique’s ability to tackle the spread and impact of HIV and AIDS. References to women as the ‘basis’ of society suggest that formal education, including that related to HIV and AIDS, needs to be understood as supporting endeavors to a civil enculturation of young Mozambicans that hinged on the spatial (re)confinement of women to the sphere of the family and home.

Construing the ‘good citizen’: Participant narratives

Similar to the documents previously discussed, research participants’ accounts illustrate that education was regarded as a crucial means to create the ‘good citizen’ and that this citizen was defined in gendered and geo-spatial terms. Illustrative in this regard were the views expressed by Sr. Simião (MoEC, 4 January 2011), who contended that HIV- and AIDS-related education should be geared toward developing “valid individuals,” defined as people who could resolve their own “problems” and those of their community and country. In a similar vein, Sr. Reís (MoEC, 19 October 2010) observed that “our education is not about creating intellectuals but […] to enable people to live in harmony in the locality they find themselves, [to develop] people who know to live for their kin.”

The communitarian connotations of the notion of education underpinning the aforementioned perspectives were similarly evident in the accounts of other participants. Sr. José (KaPfumo School, 14 November 2010), for example, indicated that “without education, society [would be] dispersed without direction and guidelines.” Sr. Carlos (MoEC, 2 December 2010), finally, spoke of education, including that related to HIV and AIDS, as geared to the development of citizens capable of “contribut[ing] to the common good.”

Discussing the role of HIV- and AIDS-related education, participants related the ability to contribute to the greater good to ‘being healthy.’ As Sr. Amade explained,

It is true that someone contaminated with HIV/AIDS can live a long time, but he has his weaknesses [and] there are days when he cannot go and work […] the country needs healthy people in order to develop. A well-educated person, healthy, will develop the country. (Maxaquene School, 15 December 2010)

Sr. António (KaPfumo School, 22 October 2010) spoke in similar terms, clarifying that “the man of tomorrow need[ed] to be healthy,” while Sra. Adelaide stated that “the country need[ed] healthy people” (Gandhi School, 26 October 2010). These quotes suggest that HIV- and AIDS-related education was construed as crucial to safeguarding the health of the country’s future labor force and socio-economic development more broadly. Therefore, not only was the ‘good citizen’ construed as central to Mozambique’s response to the HIV epidemic, in a similar fashion education on issues pertaining to HIV and AIDS was deemed crucial to the process of creating this good, healthy/productive, citizen.

Noteworthy is the conception of (the performance of) citizenship at varying scales in participant accounts. As the data discussed here show, while considerable importance was attached to the notion of the patriotic national citizen, the ‘good citizen’ was first and foremost conceptualized as locally useful and able to tackle global problems, such as HIV and AIDS, at the level of his or her locality. According to Desforges et al. (2005), the (re)scaling of the citizenship in downward and/or upward directions need to be understood in relation to new (hybrid) modes of governmentality which emerged in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. As Yeboah (2007) has argued, however, HIV and AIDS is a global virus with transnational implications. The emphasis on the local in response to the epidemic, and young people’s role in ensuring the unity and harmony thereof (i.e. avoiding ‘dispersement’), entirely bypasses interactions and interdependencies between local, national, and global factors contributing to HIV and AIDS.

Gender and the urban spaces of modernity

According to the MoEC (2006), the development of national and cultural unity was not only essential in terms of national progress, it was also a fundamental means to deal with “the alienating influence of external cultures on the population, especially [for] young people” (p. 111). As Sra. Vânia (MoEC, 3 December 2010) put it, “globalization [has] entered [Mozambique] violently,” while Sr. Amade (Maxaquene School, 15 December 2010) explained that in “today’s world there are many vices” and there was, therefore, a particular need to “pay attention to young people.”

In addition to the risks outside the home, in the shape of, for instance, alcohol and drugs, and the subsequent increased risks of unprotected sex and HIV infection, young people were perceived to be at greater risk of being exposed to a wider range of negative external influences within the space of the home. Many participants referred to the foreign telenovelas (soap operas) and pornographic movies young urbanites had access to. “All [young people in the cities],” Sra. Adelaide (Gandhi School, 26 October 2010) contended, “know how to copy the strange culture,” which was why “young people in the cities are much more excitable compared with those in the countryside.” Participants evoked a past in which the young were firmly rooted and adhered to what were considered desirable (sexual) norms and values. The current generation, on the other hand, was perceived as becoming “easily involved in everything and nothing” (Sr. Alberto, Maxaquene School, 4 January 2011).

Particularly poignant was Sra. Vânia’s account of contemporary young urbanites. Referring to the differences between the upbringing of her generation and that of young people today, and drawing on a frequently made comparison by participants between the city and the countryside, Sra. Vânia related education to ‘roots.’ In her view,

We are from a generation with roots […] A child, especially in the city, leaves in the morning, returns in the afternoon, eats a hamburger here, eats I don’t know what, but I was educated […] you need to go to school in the morning, I go to school, return, if one has chores to do in the home […] but few young people today do so – in the urban zones. There is more instruction, but the prevalence [of HIV is higher] … So, [the young person] consumes all he receives, from outside. It is different in the countryside – there are aspects that in the countryside, they say “no, that is nothing, it is ugly, we will not do that.” (MoEC, 3 December 2010)

Asked about these ‘roots,’ Sra. Vânia clarified that previous generations had known which external ideas to adopt and which they should not, suggesting earlier generations and people living in rural areas today still respected what were defined as ‘traditional’ Mozambican norms and values, such as respect for elders and sexual monogamy. Sra. Vanîa’s comments, and particularly the excerpt given above, are illustrative of a range of interlinked themes that emerged from participant narratives more broadly, namely, the romanticized idea of the home and countryside as pivotal sites for the enactment of an idyllic protected childhood and the changing relationship between young and old.

With regard to the changing relationship between caregivers and young people, various issues emerged. First, participants spoke of the importance of parental guidance, while at the same time observing that parents were largely absent from the home. Particular mention was made of ‘missing mothers,’ an issue which is clearly illustrated in the following quote: “today, the absence of the mother is creating this kind of risky behavior [e.g. alcohol abuse]. Why do I say “absence”? Today, mothers have to work, something which did not happen before according to our tradition” (Sr. Amade, Maxaquene School, 15 December 2010). With parents absent from the home, there was little, participants suggested, to filter messages young people received through, for example, foreign media.

Second, participants believed there was a growing openness between young and old, particularly in the cities. Sra. Adelaide (Gandhi School, 26 October 2010), for instance, reflecting on her experience working as teacher in various rural locations, noted that young people in the countryside “practically regard the teacher as a king,” which meant they did not pose crucial questions, for instance with regard to HIV and AIDS. Another participant, Sra. Viviane (MoEC, 24 January 2011), observed that particularly young urbanites were “closer” to their elders, in terms of sharing the same physical spaces and communicating more openly. Sra. Viviane believed these socio-spatial shifts constituted a change for the better in that they indicated a departure from the “repressive education that we inherited from the colonial regime,” suggesting she regarded the changing relationships as an indication of greater national sovereignty. At the same time, however, Sra. Viviane remarked that

In my view, young people misunderstand this openness […] Indeed, with the globalised world that we have [and] the introduction of many things into the country […] young people do not really understand the messages communicated through [for instance] soap-operas. Those soap-operas which we receive here tell of a particular reality, and young people think that that is good …

Therefore, while participants may at times have considered the increased closeness between young and old to have important positive dimensions, they expressed strong feelings concerning the need for young people to continue to heed their elders given the many (sexual) ‘vices’ in today’s world. As Sr. Carlos (MoEC, 2 December 2010) explained, “these are people with lots of experience […] who have been able to stabilize their emotions. [Whilst] a young person likes this and that, he doesn’t have a solidified personality.” Elders, Sr. Carlos suggested, were crucial in that they were able to provide young people with a ‘solidified’ frame of reference, or to paraphrase Sra. Vanîa, a sense of ‘roots,’ which would enable them to navigate the socio-spatial changes in the “globalized world” that Sra. Viviane alluded to. The perceived lack of a sense of rootedness among the current generation of urbanites in particular explains why participants believed that HIV- and AIDS-related education should be geared to the “remoralization” of young Mozambican women and men (Sra. Vânia, MoEC, 3 December 2010).

The second important theme in the excerpt drawn from the interview with Sra. Vanîa relates to the connections made between the home and countryside, the mother figure, and a proper childhood. Sra. Vanîa’s remarks echo other participants’ observations with regard to the home as the ideal space in which young people received their moral sustenance, a sphere in which the figure of the mother and wife traditionally served a ‘natural’ central role (see also Jones, 1999). The countryside and home are hereby constructed as the intimate “in-here” spaces that Amin (2002) speaks of, which were deemed to be optimal sites for the enactment of a ‘proper’ childhood (p. 388). The space outside the home, that of the city as well as other ‘external influences’ entering the home via cable TV and Internet, on the other hand, was conceived in terms of the disruptive realm ‘out-there’ (Amin, 2002).

According to Kesby et al. (2006), women’s and children’s place within “the customary socio-spatial hierarchy [in Zimbabwe] was under the guardianship of a responsible male elder” (p. 197). The authors contend that the concept of the ideal childhood in the context of Zimbabwe needs to be understood as grounded in a combination of westernized notions of the (sexually) innocent child and local discourses of children as needing to become respectful members of their extended family. In a similar vein, we argue that the wish to ‘remoralize’ young people in Mozambique needs to be interpreted in relation to a desire to ‘re-traditionalize’ the socio-spatial relations between generations and genders, and that ‘tradition’ is hereby best understood as a hybrid of ‘traditional’ rural practices, colonial values as well as ‘modern’ capitalist forces.

The issues raised here highlight that, similar to post-independence days, women were accorded primary responsibility for upholding the nation’s (moral) unity. Sra. Adelaide took this responsibility a step further, arguing that “girls have a responsibility to educate themselves to ensure the progress of the nation” (Gandhi School, 26 October 2010). In a similar vein, disproportionate responsibility was placed on young women’s shoulders to confront the epidemic, a view which was again poignantly worded by Sra. Adelaide. Her remarks exemplify the educational role – in the moral and unifying sense – that participants accorded to women and simultaneously the limited significance men were seen to play in this regard. In her words,

It is on the basis of women that families are formed in Mozambique, and for Mozambique the family is the basis of society. […] I won’t speak of men because the majority of mothers in Mozambique are single mothers. […] It is girls that are the mothers of the nation, they are more responsible [for the nation].

Young women were, furthermore, described as suffering from “that syndrome of female inferiority” (Sr. António, KaPfumo School, 22 October 2010) or “that complex that she has to be below the man” (Sr. Mateo, Gandhi School, 19 November 2010). Participants stressed the need to pay particular attention to female learners in view of their perceived “timidity” (Sra. Vanîa, MoEC, 3 December 2010) in discussing HIV- and AIDS-related issues as well as sexual relationships, particularly in relation to – reportedly sexually assertive – young men. As Sra. Aida vividly phrased it, “because the boy, when the head below rises [laughs], the one on top doesn’t function … So the girl is the one that is more responsible for reminding him [to use a condom], to insist” (Gandhi School, 16 November 2010).

According to participants, young women’s desire to be beautiful and the lack of alternatives to gain an income that was “characteristic of poor countries” (Sra. Viviane, 24 January 2011) meant that young women were more likely “to live a, let’s say, undignified life … let[ting] themselves be taken” (Sr. Augusto, KaPfumo School, 14 February 2011) by wealthier, generally older men for some form of material benefit. In this regard too, the ‘remoralization’ of young people through HIV- and AIDS-related education that participants alluded to was construed as particularly important for young female urbanites.

Young women were thus seen to bear primary responsibility for the ‘remoralisation’ of Mozambique. In addition, the data suggests that participants believed young women would be able to fulfil this central task by taking up – or, more precisely, returning to – what was considered women’s ‘natural’ place, that is, the home, and thereby serve as the “stable symbolic centre” (Massey, 1994: 180) of family, community, and nation. As Massey (1994) posits, women “escaping” from “the spatial confines of the domestic sphere” (p. 180) as a result of the increasing spatial separation between home and work place, is considered a threat to the patriarchal order. Reminiscent of Frelimo’s early statements with regard to women’s ‘emancipation,’ participant narratives suggest that women’s return to their ‘rightful’ place required that they discarded their perceived sense of ‘female inferiority’ and that this would enable them to withstand various articulations of the ‘out-there,’ that is, men’s sexual assertiveness and the temptations of modern life more broadly (see also Chakravarti, 2011; Groes-Greene, 2011). The analysis suggests, therefore, that participants’ views with regard to school-based HIV-related education are indicative of an uneasy relationship with processes of globalization, ‘modern’ life styles, and the impact thereof on young urban women in particular.

Participant narratives thus illustrate Massey’s (1994) argument that spatial control, whether enforced through “the power of convention or symbolism” (p. 180) can serve a central role in the construction of gender and, as Kesby et al. (2006) have also argued, childhood. Children and young people are hereby not only spatially confined – that is, to the home and locality, but also temporally defined in terms of their future rather than current potential.

Conclusion

This article has engaged with one of the key functions of education provided through state-maintained schools: that of civil enculturation, revealing school-based education related to HIV and AIDS to be grounded in a strongly place-based pedagogy. As the article has clarified, the educational response to the HIV epidemic was largely geared to supporting efforts to enhance national unity by strengthening young Mozambicans’ sense of ‘roots’ or ‘Mozambicanness,’ which would allow them to make socially ‘appropriate’ choices.

This article drew attention to notions of ‘proper’ femininity and childhood underpinning school-based HIV-related education in Mozambique and the way in which such education can be seen to support attempts to demarcate women’s and children’s place in society. HIV-related education needs to be understood as geared to spatially confining women to their function as protectors of the family and nation from disruptive forces ‘out-there,’ such as the sexualized images that young people increasingly have access to. The political primacy placed on unity and harmony effectively forecloses discussion of relations between men and women in the construction of the Mozambican nation-state and precludes (young) women from taking up alternative roles within society (see also Enloe, 2000).

This article highlighted the need to deconstruct and theorize the interactions between local and global constructions of childhood and youth in contexts as profoundly affected by HIV and AIDS as Mozambique. This form of deconstructive work would be particularly useful in Mozambique where the formal curriculum stresses the need for young people to learn to resolve problems as they occur within their local communities, including those pertaining to the HIV epidemic, leaving interactions and interdependencies between local, national, and global ‘problems’ largely unproblematized. In order for educators to be able to guide young Mozambican people in the development of necessary resources to navigate the extremes of human experiences, which arguably include HIV and AIDS, far greater dialogue about shifting geographies of gender and youth is called for.

Footnotes

Acknowledgements

The authors are very grateful to the educators and policy-makers who took part in this study. We would also like to thank Dr Claire Maxwell, Dr Huub Dijstelbloem, and the two anonymous reviewers for the helpful comments they provided on earlier versions of this article.

Funding

This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Notes

Author biographies

Esther Miedema is currently employed as researcher and lecturer at the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research (AISSR) of the University of Amsterdam. She is a focal point for the Sexual and Reproductive Health & Rights and Education theme within the “IS-Academie,” a co-funded research project of the University of Amsterdam and the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Esther received her PhD from the Institute of Education, University of London, on school-based HIV- and AIDS-related education in Mozambique in 2013. Her main research interests relate to gender, education, sexuality, and citizenship, with a particular focus on the spatial turn in social sciences and its application in research on sexuality education and young people in the Global South.

Zsuzsa Millei is a postdoctoral researcher at the Space and Political Agency Research Group (SPARG) at the University of Tampere, Finland (2015–2016), and senior lecturer at the School of Education, The University of Newcastle, Australia. Her research examines the ways in which constitutions of “the child” and childhood shift in concert with the changing problematizations about the government of population and individuals. Zsuzsa understands early education as a political practice and uses interdisciplinary frameworks and methodologies to understand how children are positioned and participate as political subjects, as well as how children’s political subjectivities are formed.

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