Paper short abstract:

The focus will be the celebrations of the slavery abolition in Mozambique witch are an answer to the hegemonic view of the island trough site of world heritage. In the celebration the presence of the Portuguese in the island, is gazed; a strategy for rebuilding identity.

Paper long abstract:

In 2009, the celebrations of 23 August in the island had two dimensions: from one side the celebration was translated by the dramatization of the capture of slaves and in other side by different openings that were related with the colonial heritage. This happened accordingly the fact that the island is a World Heritage place, that in this sense are complementary. Whoever the celebration is a dramatization of the present and of the past in the present. The Abner Cohen perspective that makes this more understandable; what matters are the processes and the actors involved, interrelated, in contact; the meanings given or used; the symbols chosen.The aim of the paper is to explain the celebration as part of the monumentalization process of the community, that shapes material culture, but to the expression of their collective memories.