I was born between two religions. My mother is Christian and my father follows Islam. Both religions weren’t able to answer my questions, on a logical and rational way. I have ‘accidentally’ taken part on a meeting on a Saturday afternoon event at the Comunhão Espírita Cristã de Mozambique (CEC). This institution is the main spiritist spot in Mozambique. I then started to go to different courses and take part on study groups.

O Consolador: How would you describe the spiritist movement in your country?

On the last two to three years Spiritism is moving forward, with the help of some friends from Brazil and some dedicated friends in Mozambique. We went through some difficult times in the past.

O Consolador: How many institutions exist in your country?

There are 3 institutions in Maputo; the capital and largest city of Mozambique. There is a group called Grupo Arco-Iris in the city of Beira, which is coordinated by Raul Calane.

O Consolador: What are the biggest difficulties found?

The first challenge is to realise that the Doctrine will not solve our problems. This should be seen as an instrument to work on our inner issues, but through our own inner reformation.

There is the challenge in material terms: lack of books, material and physical space for the institutions.

O Consolador: What has been the Brazilian influence in the spiritist movement in Mozambique?

The help has been enormous. Our brothers from the Brazilian Spiritist movement have helped us massively in Mozambique. We would like to especially mention Raul Teixeira, Emanuel Cristiano, Orson Peter Carrara and Pedro Aganian. We are also helped a lot by the South African spiritist movement from Johannesburg. We worked together with Pedro Aganian from Angola for the last year in order to organise seminars and create new links between our countries.

O Consolador: Do you believe the Spiritist Doctrine is not progressing quicker due to the African culture influence?

No, I don’t think so. The African culture’s base is spiritualist, in essence. There is a very strong ritualistic component within the culture, but accepting the dead is an aspect that is part of our society. 

O Consolador: Do you believe Spiritism is growing in your country?

Yes, I think so. It’s still not consolidated in the culture, but this is our challenge for the next few years.

O Consolador: How and why?

The movement has grown slowly, but constantly. This would have seemed impossible 3 or 4 years ago. We started, for example, our first course of Introduction to the Doctrine and the attendance rate has been higher than expected. We also are consistently hosting monthly lectures and charity assistance in our country. If we had even more help from Brazil we could do even more, I believe. 

O Consolador: How does the integration between the spiritists in your country happen? 

We had some challenging moments. I believe each group has found its place and we are working together now, cooperating with each other. There is a lot of exchange between the groups.

O Consolador: Is there any exchange with other countries in Africa?

Yes, there has been constants exchange with South African and now with Angola. 

O Consolador: How often does the spiritist literature arrive in your country?

The biggest challenge we have in Mozambique is the access to the spiritist literature, since our country is still among the world's poorest countries. If a person wants to buy a book, he/she will need to make an enormous sacrifice since the average book price is equivalent to 40% of the minimum wage. That is why the Brazilian books are not easy to find in our country. The first Spiritist Book Fair was done with the help of Brazilian spiritist friends who donated several books to our library. We were able to resell them for a very small price.

O Consolador: How can Brazil help the African spiritist movement more actively?

If we managed to extend the TV and radio channels that exist in Brazil to the African continent this would be a great step. This process would be equivalent to what some TV and radio channels are doing already, transmitting via DSTV ⁽²⁾. The Brazilian and Spiritist Networks need to look at PALOP⁽¹⁾ as an opportunity to disclose our wonderful Doctrine. This will be a challenge for Brazil.

O Consolador: How was the Book Fair?

It was an amazing experience. There were a lot of people who came out curiosity to our stand and are now taking part on the first course of Introduction to the Doctrine.

O Consolador: Can you please tell us the profile of people who take part on the public spiritist meetings you are involved with?

We have three main groups. There are those who are searching for answers and are curious. They don’t want to commit to the Doctrine, but are looking for solutions for their individual problems. There are also those who have learned abut the Doctrine, are aware of their commitment to their own inner reformation and are working towards it. We also have those who know of their commitment and feel the need to do charity work. This group is the smallest of the three, but I believe this is quite common at spiritist centres. Let’s not forget religious freedom has only been available for the last 20 years in Mozambique, for historical reasons. We had long periods in our History where we were quite limited religiously speaking.

Notes:

⁽¹⁾ PALOP - The Portuguese-speaking African countries are a group of five African countries where the Portuguese language is the official language: Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau, Mozambique and São Tomé and Príncipe. It is a branch of CPLP. In Portuguese the group is commonly referred to by the acronym PALOP, a colloquial acronym which means African Countries of Portuguese Official Language.

Five of these African countries are former colonies of the Portuguese Empire, which came to an end in the 1970s, shortly after the Carnation Revolution military coup of 1974 in Lisbon. However, Equatorial Guinea, a former Spanish colony, converted Portuguese into the country's third official language, aiming to be allowed into the CPLP.

⁽²⁾ Digital Satellite Television (also known as DStv) is MultiChoice's multi-channel digital satellite TV service in Africa, launched in 1995. This exists in the USA, Portugal, Angola, Mozambique and other countries.

⁽³⁾  If you would like to contact Afonso, his details are:  asicmz@gmail.com  and  asicandar@millenniumbim.co.mz