Paper short abstract:

The article describes the coastal societies’ struggle and ambivalence over the relative value of schooling vs. village-based knowledge and skill acquisition necessary for the community members to live within their structural constraints.

Paper long abstract:

Coastal communities in northern Mozambique tend to stand out from the rest of civil society. This is most evident in relation to lack of the access and ownership of natural resources, social opportunities such as education, access to information and decision making means and the influence of cultural-hereditary characteristics of coastal society. Social and physical marginality, child labour and migratory lifestyles are a main part of discourse on marginalization of fishing communities. They demonstrate reluctance and self-censorship in freedom of expression, which according to researchers are deeply rooted in the particular political history of Mozambique.

This article discusses these perceptions and related educational practices as culturally mediated responses to the collective uncertainty and marginalization of the coastal livelihoods. It describes the community's struggle over the relative value of schooling versus village-based knowledge and skill acquisition necessary for the community members to live within their structural constraints. Furthermore, it points towards the political power questions, suggesting that coastal society's ambivalence about the utility of schooling may be seen as one of the dilemmas of citizenship in contemporary Mozambique. It demonstrates that meanings they construct about schooling are shaped by their cultural history and their attempts to maintain their livelihoods in the context of political power.