Paper short abstract:

Ideology and Science interaction is one of the most intricate problems of the African Studies in post-colonial times. Much “taboos” cover the debate, much emotions arouse when Science attempts to overcome Ideology, especially when it touches the “nation”. The case of Mozambique is paradigmatic.

Paper long abstract:

We have, as a main problem, the characterization of "Moçambicanidade", a task made harder for being such a recent phenomenon. But at the same time, this is a common problem when reflecting and debating the various "national cultures" of the world, even in the Portuguese case, where, despite its eight centuries of history, the debate on "Portugalidade" is not yet close. In the Mozambican case we can thus only glimpse a few key aspects of the present configuration of Mozambican culture, never seizing to point out that the lack of anthropological, sociological and political studies in Mozambican culture heavily conditions the depth of the analysis.