The Disquieting of History
Record type:
paper
Creator:
Pam
Publisher:
SAG
Host:
This article presents a case study of Goan Mozambicans — a diasporic group created out of the itinerant quality that characterized Portuguese (de)colonization in the Indian Ocean. Many chose to emigrate from Portuguese India to Portuguese Africa between the 1920s and 1950s. That some Goans chose to stay while others left in the aftermath of Mozambican independence (1975) is also tied to this migratory history. An ethnographic life history approach is employed to access individual varied experiences of migration. Findings will suggest that Goan Mozambicans occupied an ambiguous position in the colonial order of things, and identify them as local cosmopolitans in postcolonial Mozambique.