Writing a fictional novel about Manuel Jambo, a young man sent to the M'telela re-education camp in Niassa for daring to think differently.
Project Summary
In 1975, shortly after gaining its independence, Mozambique embarked on an ambitious revolutionary project to create the socialist "New Man." As part of this vision, the regime established a vast and hidden network of re-education camps deep within the country. For years, political dissidents, intellectuals, entire religious groups (such as thousands of Jehovah's Witnesses), and citizens deemed "antisocial" by urban raids were deported without trial to isolated locations in the Zambezia and Niassa provinces, facing forced labor, torture, and oblivion.
This project aims to fund a 15-day literary research expedition through the most remote routes of Mozambique to provide a foundation for writing a historical novel based on real events. The objective is to recover the collective memory of this period, cross-referencing the few surviving official documents with the oral testimonies of the last elders, survivors, and eyewitnesses who still preserve the memories of those forests.
Why is this expedition urgent and necessary?
The history of re-education camps, such as the tragic maximum-security complex of M'telela, has remained silenced for almost five decades. The physical national archives are fragmented, and the voices of those who lived through the ordeal firsthand are fading with time.
This book will not be written from the comfort of an office. To capture the authentic psychology of isolation, the oppression of geography, and the human impact of deprivation, it is urgent to travel the same trails and beaten paths that sealed the fate of thousands of people.
How will your support be used? (Logistics)
Traveling through the most isolated regions of northern Mozambique requires a high-cost professional structure due to the complete absence of rural infrastructure. The funds raised in this campaign will be entirely directed towards the actual costs of terrain travel.
- Off-Road Mobility: Rent a robust 4x4 vehicle and fuel to traverse thousands of kilometers of degraded secondary roads.
- Survival and Connectivity: Rental of satellite communication equipment (Garmin InReach/Iridium), guaranteeing a support line in a region with zero mobile signal or electricity.
- Community Support: Remuneration of local guides and translators specialized in the Lomwe and Yao languages, ensuring that approaches to traditional communities respect local rituals and ethics.
The Impact of the Book
By supporting this campaign, you are not just funding a trip; you are becoming a co-producer of a literary work that aims to break a historical taboo. The historical novel resulting from this expedition will give face, voice, and humanity to the cold statistics of the post-independence period, transforming literature into a living archive of reconciliation and memory for future generations.
About the Novel
The novel follows 22-year-old Manuel Arnaldo Jambo, a member of Joana Simeão's GUMO (United Group of Mozambique), who in the second half of the 1970s is sent to the terrible concentration camp (called a re-education camp) deep in the Niassa province, where others, considered political dissidents and reactionaries by the Marxist-Leninist FRELIMO regime, were also sent; where he awaits his fate, which in truth was already written from the moment he decided to think differently.
