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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:O impacto da revolução dos transportes nas relações entre homens e mulheres na província nortenha de Nampula, Moçambique (1913-1961)
Author:Chilundo, ArlindoISNI
Year:1995
Periodical:Revista internacional de estudos Africanos
Issue:18-22
Pages:215-244
Language:Portuguese
Geographic terms:Mozambique
Portugal
Subjects:gender relations
Makua
colonialism
forced labour
Abstract:Before the introduction of modern forms of transport, the expanding market economy had made Macua women in Nampula, Mozambique, more dependent on men both for the payment of taxes and the acquisition of essential goods. However, since agriculture was a predominantly female domain, women directed their activity towards commercial production in their 'machambas', selling their products directly in shops, while men worked as wage labourers. In this way, they made possible the payment of the hut tax demanded by the colonial administration. Failure to pay the hut tax implied forced labour, from which women could not exempt themselves, involving their subjection to the hard work of road and railway construction. As road and rail transport expanded during the first half of the twentieth century, its impact on the daily lives of Macua men and women strongly perturbed family relations. In effect, while it facilitated greater colonial control and power over the domestic economy in northern Mozambique, the coercive extraction of labour was accompanied by heavy social costs, namely within the family, where it aggravated the exploitation of women. However, new economic opportunities also allowed women to overcome marriages which they had not desired, as well as reinforcing matrilineality within the lineage. Notes, ref., sum. in English, text in Portuguese. [Journal abstract]