Discourse Patterns in First Language Use at Hcme and Second Language Learning at School: an Ethnographic Approach

Setting I 72

The people they have conquered ... can only claim any sort of
equality by actually becoming 'Portuguese'. ... This is the policy
of 'assimilation', which lies at the base of the Portuguese claim
to non-racial ism. The theory is that every inhabitant of the
Portuguese Empire has the opportunity to absorb Portuguese
civilization, and that if he does this, he will then be accepted on
equal terms with those born Portuguese, irrespective of colour or
origin. (Mondlane, 1969:37).

The official census book of 1958 gave this definition of assimilado :

A civilized population is the number of whites, yellow and mixed-
blood individuals and also those of the negro race that satisfy
the following conditions:

1) Speak Portuguese;

2) Do not practice ways and customs of the natives;

3) Have a profession, are engaged in commerce and industry, or
own property for their living.

Those who do not satisfy these conditions are uncivilized.
(Azevedo,1980:204).

The ability to speak Portuguese, as much as being a Catholic, became then
synonymous with civilization, for both the handful of blacks who
succeeded (1.4% in 1970) and for the many excluded. (See Mondlane, 1969
for an account of the inferior status in which the ass іш і Iados were kept,
despite official propaganda), ɪt has been noted that, among the
conditions required, language was the only one that could not be
simulated in face-to-face encounters (IEDE 1983b). School was the main
agent of Portugalization via language and religion: Africans had to attend
Mission schools, while the State schools were for the Portuguese and the
assiailados (J(.E.C. 1980). The Missionary Statute of 1941 established that

... in schools the teaching and use of the Portuguese Language is
compulsory. Outside school too, missionaries and auxiliary staff
will use the Portuguese Language. In religious instruction,
however, native languages may be used. (Art.69).

The relationship between 'being fluent in Portuguese' and 'being civilized'
constitutes the base of the attitudes towards Portuguese that are still
very strong today: particularly in urban areas, parents recognize its
higher status and try to use it with their children even if their own
competence is very limited; and Maputo schoolchildren interviewed for a
Sociolingulstic survey responded that Portuguese is their mother tongue

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