Paper short abstract:

Creolisation and the linguistic repertoire of Mozambique reflects the extent of colonial contact. Interactions between various ecological systems and European seafaring nations is reflected in Mozambican linguistic policies. Language is a site of sociocultural and political change.

Paper long abstract:

Free and forced movement of people from Africa across the Indian Ocean to Asian lands is a centuries old phenomenon governed by the natural rhythms of the monsoons. Interaction between various ecological systems - the hinterland, urban and coastal areas and the sea - was inevitable. Trade goods were bartered or sold to meet the demand for manpower to fuel the imperial machinery which enhanced the Indian Ocean slave trade. Africans were forcefully moved across and within the Indian Ocean to new lands which became their homelands. Creolisation resulted from the mixing of peoples and cultures but the contact situations varied and the linguistic repertoires reflected the depth of the contact zones. Interactions between the maritime areas and inland are also evident in the trading patterns of European nations. Encounters of the Portuguese, as the pioneer Europeans to come into prolonged contact with Indian Oceanic peoples, and break into a trade that was locked by the natural rhythms of the monsoon winds is significant. The structure of Portugal's colonial outputs can be divided into two. The first, a shifting population of colonial administrators, priests and traders, and the second, a more stable population who tended to assimilate with the local people. The second group would act as agents for linguistic change. This paper focuses on Mozambique and the effects of Portuguese mercantile expansion on the people and their linguistic complement arguing that language is a site of sociocultural and political change.