Sonic representations of Mozambicans in Radio Mozambique Magazine between 1933 and 1962

Abstract

The history of broadcasting in Mozambique shows that radio listening in the context of “historical colonialism” (SANTOS, 2018) was conditioned and changeable according to the ideological needs and interests of the power holders. This paper seeks to understand the extent to which sound (music) created identities and transformed social relations in the Colony of Mozambique between 1933 and 1962. This consists of the analysis of “Revista Rádio Moçambique” (Radio Mozambique Magazine, as the main source), Rádio Clube de Moçambique (RCM) and the colonial administration reports on culture and cultural practices and other bibliographic materials related to the music and musicians from Mozambique. The analyses of these materials aims to identify reports and examples about identities socially created from listening to sounds produced “by the other” ”(black people from Mozambique). In this case, I focus on the articulation “of sounds with textual representations of listening and the auditory imaginary” (STOEVER, 2016, p.7). Therefore, the literature review reveals that sound served as the framework for the structuring and (re)configuration, not only of Rádio Clube de Moçambique in its most diverse dimensions, but also of social relations in that territory. In other words, sound and listening were important tools in creating a “hierarchical”, “primitivized” and “racialized” social relationships in Mozambique.