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Based on what we could see from the Milange and Mandimba culture in our first trip (July 1999), and according to the information given by others missionaries, I can say the following:
The most important aspirations of the common woman in Mozambique are
having children and nice clothes ("capulana"). The woman does not feel fulfilled if she has no children. The barren women or those ones who have a barren husband are abandoned by their husbands after being threatened by saying them: "If you do not get pregnant in 3 months, I will go away." These women go to see the doctor desperately and ask for a miracle. After receiving a course of treatment for sexually transmitted diseases, vitamins, anti-parasites, and praying, only some of them get pregnant. The other ones are abandoned and seek another husband who also abandoned them. So they seek another one, . . . and another one. . . and the venereal diseases spread more and more. Neither can a barren woman live with her parents again because it's a shame having a barren woman in the family.
But once the woman has children, her problems do not finish. Most women are not married. Unmarried cohabiting couples are an increasingly common occurrence, and only the man has rights from this union. He can make decisions about the woman and their children without consulting her. If the woman gets married, she has right to opine about family decisions. This is one of the reasons why many men postpone their entrance into marriage, and in a lot of cases, during their life times. Christians, even some pastors, are cohabiting non marital, have 6 to 8 children, and they do not want to get married because "they are not sure what to do" or "maybe later on," etc.
The woman has to work hard to contribute to total family income. She tills the land, cultivates, sows, harvests, brings up the children, brings water and firewood (sometimes kilometers away), and looks after her husband. Most time she works with her younger baby (aged 0-3) on her back. This means that she has to make an effort in all what she does.
If a log has to be moved, the first candidate to do it is the woman, and the lightest thing is carried by the man. There is so much submission that some women walk kneeling at home if there are men present and sit down on the floor, whereas the men occupy the seats.
The woman's muscles are strapping and they are able to lift heavy things up. However, she has more backache and column, bones and joints problems than the man.
The man mixes up his house constantly because it is made from mud and straw. He makes a profit with the crops obtained by the woman and does the shopping for the family - if he did not spend the money on drinks. The loving man give the woman beautiful "capulanas" and another present.
In some families, it is standard practice that parents choose their son's girlfriend when he aged 10-13. His parents ask for her to her parents, and she comes to live with the boyfriend's family. This girl turns into the boyfriend's mother's slave. She has to cook, clean, till, bring water and firewood for the family. After that time, the boyfriend's mother decides if the girl will be a good or bad wife for her son. If so, he can live together with that girl.
Also the girl's fertility is tested. The boyfriend's parents try that the girl get pregnant, and then she has to has an abortion. Only after the boyfriend's mother allow him to live together with the girl, she can give birth to her baby.
Most fertile women began giving birth at 13. They have between 6 and 15 children. Forty per cent of children die before the age of 5 due to malnutrition or no serious sicknesses that are not healed up because of ignorance, lack of medicaments and medical care.
More than 90% of the women give birth at home with the aid of neighborhood midwives. Most of them die during the immediate postpartum because of excessive indention or infections due to insufficient hygiene.
Almost all the women do not know their age. We had to calculate the age by asking the amount of their children and if they have already had grandchildren.
I think that one of our duties as missionaries in Mozambique is dignify the woman's position. Although God's Word was written in a man supremacy social situation, it shows the value given by God to the woman. They are spiritual beings, created in God's image. God created man ("male and female he created them" Gn. 1:27). He gave them the same dignity, and in Christ "there is neither male nor female". All the walls were broken in Jesus.
As Christians we must struggle and pray that no sector of the humankind will be discriminated, denigrated or ignored. Christ came to die for ALL of us. Jesus loved us all the same. He came to seek and to save the lost and that includes "woman's dignity."
I hope this article makes us understand what happens to this human group whom Jesus loved as much as you and me.
Daniel Martin
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