From mud home to cell phones: bridging the generation gap in Mozambique

USPG Mission Companion the Revd Helen van Koevering offers her views on the widening generation gap in the Diocese of Niassa.

The current pace of global change is accentuating a generation gap in Mozambique, with the strain of differing options and ambitions threatening the stability of traditional extended family.

A Mozambican academic said the country today is made up, firstly, of grandparents living in mud homes, living off their machambas (family fields), fearing the spirits and following oral communal traditions; secondly of parents who were displaced during the country’s wars (of independence and civil war), then educated, struggling to maintain a living and hold onto the church as a place of belonging and identity; and, thirdly, of young people who carry cell phones, seek higher education, watch western music videos, eat pizza, wear revealing fashionable clothes, live ‘out of wedlock’, and seek an identity outside of the church.

This generation gap is vividly illustrated in the markets. Twenty years ago, batiks, carvings and paintings depicted distorted figures, with enlarged alien heads and twisted interlocking bodies, all rendered in earthy colours or black ink.

Today, there is more colour, the distorted bodies have been gracefully elongated, and there are more traditional African patterns and detailed scenes of villages and fishermen. The artists seem to be saying that Mozambique is now a more colourful place, more richly patterned, with greater variety and more joy.

No doubt this change in mood partly reflects a renewed optimism following the end of the civil war. Certainly, despite residual pain and ongoing poverty, there is also a sense of fresh hope. But this new atmosphere is also the result of a richer variety of lifestyles and perspectives that now exist among the different generations.

Change is the recurrent theme: from war to peace; from ancient local traditions to the face-paced modern globalised world. It is an advantage that Mozambique’s leaders are able to set these new trends and beliefs within the traditional ways, helping society to absorb change, even embrace it with a Deus é grande (God is great) – words uttered by Christians and Muslims alike.

And Love covers all. The 70th birthday of Sr Buanacaia, an elder belonging to our church, provided an opportunity to see the generations celebrating together. It was uplifting to see the generations sharing memories and thanking God – it was a celebratory love that bridged the generation gap.

I believe the enormous growth of our churches shows that we are meeting a need, providing a ministry ‘standing in the gap’, encouraging life and love among the different generations, and attempting to make sense of it all in God.

Posted on 17.02.2010