POST-CARDOSOISM

This is the translation of an article by Marcelo Mosse, published in metical.
[Click here to read the Portuguese original]

Carlos Cardoso is an unmissable landmark in the history of Mozambican journalism. The proof is that one year later, the question still most prominent in the media is: "what is the state of Mozambican journalism without Cardoso?"

The consensus response, with few exceptions, is: "bad". Bad in the sense that the level of critical intervention has fallen. There is less investigation of corruption; there are fewer denunciations of the lies of the state.

This means we are moving toward a society with only one voice, with the media drained of its social role and paralysed. Clearly, Cardoso embodied the political and social struggle; he was the vanguard of a utopianism that fed our future. This is the reason he carries such great weight in the history of the Mozambican media.

His death began a new era, the essence of which seems to be the acceptance of the crumbling of the foundations of an independent and powerful journalism -- a journalism born in the 1990 Constitution and that broke its links with the socialist state.

Cardoso was not only a landmark for journalism, but also for civil society in general, which he did so much to stimulate. The fear that is said to muzzle journalism also silences the struggle for other social and political options, restricting participation and the development of alternatives. In summary, the life force of our democracy: the vigour and determination of the political opposition, transmitted not by political parties, but by civil society, has been decimated. And, one year after, that is the characteristic of post-Cardosoism.

Translated by J. Hanlon
[Click here to read the Portuguese original]

metical - archives 2001