The Maputo Reader’s Corner is a new space here in the ELT Online Reading Group to promote the habit of reading and sharing together poems and stories in English. The immediate objective is creating a space where we can read and share literary stories and poems for creating conversations in English, and in the longer term we aim to encourage members write and publish their own poems and stories on the website.
The Maputo Readers' Corner is for English students and teachers from private and public English schools in Maputo City, but with the online space we will also count on contributions from schools outside Maputo City and even out of Mozambique.
This space is actually part of a tripartite project that promotes three kinds of reading groups: reading groups in your local school/workplace, radio sessions on Maputo Corridor Radio, the Radio Mozambique English Channel, and the online sessions on this website. A team of facilitators will help groups organise and conduct their group’s temporary reading sessions for an easier access to stories and poems that will be read and shared on Local, Radio and Online sessions. Members are invited to suggest the stories they would like to read and share with others, be it an original story in English or a story in Portuguese but would like to see it translated for sharing in English. The stories and poems we will share with you are from English school textbooks approved for use by the National Education System authorities, translated stories selected from Portuguese textbooks, and also from books being used in private English teaching institutions.
Telling stories is an African way, tell yours now!
General Activities
1. English Learning and Teaching (I –V level) for RC members
2. Translation/Interpretation (English – Portuguese and vice-versa)
3. Research on ELT trends (especially) in Mozambique
4. Seminars and Workshops on ELT and the Role of Literature in ELT
5. Reading Groups at Schools: Academic Association (NALEnglish)
6. Reader’s Corner: Radio sessions at Maputo Corridor Radio (MCR)
7. Newsletter (reporting our activities and the schools’ involvement)
8. Publish and English Forum (research, literature, interviews)
9. Camping and Tour Guiding
10. Anthology (writing competitions)
Maputo – Mozambique
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| Tagore_The_Judge.pdf | 139.13 KB |
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Madala
Sadly
Work will accomplish
Two hectares for
“Macume Mambire”
The years passed
The world spun
Madala away passed
His story lived.
(A poem by “Grupo de Estudantes Moçambicanos”) from "Livro de leitura, grade 7, edited by the Ministry of Education in 1982 in Mozambique.
Madala – an old man
Macume Mambire – Twenty Escudos (Portuguese currency that was in use in Mozambique in the past colonial years) - meaning in the poem - "for a little money"
Its really interesting to read this simple but deep poem here!
There is something I d like to share about Mozambican poetry in general. We had a poet who became a hero and he rarely wrote long poems. Normally he wrote short poems. We have many more mozambican poems which are really really short. This is something that needs to be understood, because its somthing like a shed, a sudden blow! Its too deep and sometimes its not easy to understand.
another aspect in our poetry is language: we always feel ok when we make a salad of our national language with another local language, now that there are some meanings that are better expressed in our mother tongues. This is common around here. So, Tanguene, thansk for sharing this poem here!
we hope there will be more to be shared at this corner.
Mon Ami
Hi Tanguene, Mon Ami & All,
Thanks , Tanguene , for posting this thread by "Grupo de Estudantes Moçambicanos"/ Group of Mozambican Students.
It seems that this poem evokes a sad and unfair labour position. I think Madala represents not only an old man unfairly paid for his "two hectares"/work but also all the still existing "Madala(s)" whose similar story keeps alive.
It is interesting the students' reflection on the topic and the reader's learning of some local cultural vocabulary.
Thank you!
Maria
Dear Reader,
I would like to thank you for reading and sharing this poem which is typically Mozambican, this show us the potential of cultural interaction we can have using literary legacy of each country in a global group like our reading group. I would like to share my views about the poem:
The first stanza show us that Madala is prompt to carry out his work but somehow forced, he is not wiling because of the rewards he would get. The second stanza seems to happen many years after Madala has been regularly accomplished his work, there has been changes (“The world spun “) and Madala is not forgotten, he has played a great role and his contribution resulted in the world we see today (buildings, railways, schools and factories he has build). The second stanza evokes Madala´s heroism.
Tanguene
It's a short and deep poem, surely!
I think it's in the line of other mozambican poetry, that deals with social matters, by poets like Rui de Noronha (in the very beggining...), Craveirinha and Noémia de Souza, Gulamo Khan, Isaac Zita and others. Would be interesting to analyse the connections with other poems like "os molwenes" (Zita), "primavera" (Craveirinha) and others.
Regards
Dear Readers,
Firstly, we would like to wish all Mozambicans and everyone out of Mozambique a nice day, with all positive energy at work.
Thanks, Tanguene, for sharing your views on the poem Madala. When you say "... he is not willing because of the rewards he would get" it shows us the unfairness from some employers towards workers who had been labouring, regularly accomplishing their work.
We hope all Madala's plight can be recognised these days. We wish for today's workers there and in every country a true, fair, dignified recognition at every level of their life.
Cheers,
Maria
Dear Maliche
Thank you for sharing your views about Mozambican poetry, I agree that many poems are about social intervention, even if we can well distinguish each poet´s talent in doing so. Craveirinha is excellent on that - he writes poems in a mocking style while revealing or denouncing some lack of balance, status or other features that make us realise the differences. In his "Primavera" (spring) he show us people sitting in a restaurant and having drinks and good conversations while he describes a group of carriers (of goods from and to ships in the harbour) passing by, dirty, coming from work and having a conversation of their own, and when they saw the ones sitting comfortably they stop they loud talk as they feel displaced and fall in a whispering silence. It seems they have kept silent only for the time they were near the restaurant and the poet purposefully show us the picture of all people being the same somehow (those sitting comfortably and having good conversations and the poor coming from work) and bring an idea that they all have some feelings/hopes that are similar: they anxiously waiting for the spring to come. He doesn’t talk about social divisions but you see it through reading - I hope one day we bring Primavera and Molwenes (the homeless) for sharing. Let´s look for translated ones into English.
Thanks for your contribution
Tanguene
Dear Reader,
Read and share with us the story “The Judge” written by the “Nobel prize winning poet, writer, painter, thinker, maverick educational reformer and perhaps the greatest song writer of all times - Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) remains a revered figure in both Bangladesh and India”. Tagore is considered not only a writer but also a revolutionary education activist. Many of his stories are being translated into English now which opens the opportunity for world readers to enjoy his creative writing.
In the judge he tells us a story of a woman (Khiroda) who after many disappointments she had had she decided to end her own life and of her baby. She jumped into a well, but her neighbours found out about it and rescued her and her baby was killed. The judge sentences her for life imprisonment and at the end of the story the judge realizes he was the one who had convinced her to leave her parents home when they were young with promises of prosperity, but he later dumped her as he had done with many other girls he met.
We thought about a few questions to start the discussion: What do you think was the importance of flashback in building of the story? Do you think suicide was a good decision for Khiroda to solve the social problems she was having? Would you commiserate her after you learned that the judge who tried and sentenced her for life imprisonment was partly to blame? Think about the reaction and state of mind of the judge when he understood that the ring Kirhoda was hiding the one he gave her in the past.
Wish you a good reading and post your comments and share with us!
Read the story here http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/sites/teacheng/files/Tagore_The_Judge.pdf
Tanguene and Mon Ami
Hi Tanguene and Students from Mozambique,
Impossible to remain neutral after reading the poet´s lines, so simple yet so profound, so much similar to many stories of inmigrants here in Argentina, though miles away I can feel Maputo is close to me. thanks for sharing your culture, your language your knowledge, your wisdom!
Pilar
Hi Pilar and All,
Thank you for reading and for posting your comment to MRC, it´s a great encouragment, we got motivated to bring more from our culture and expose to world readership. Your contribution has become a source of strength, the oline reading group is not just a learning venue but also a source of inspiration.
Thanks a lot
Tanguene