As memórias das guerras e as guerras de memórias. Mulheres, Moçambique e Timor Leste

This text problematizes the narration of women’s suffering that emerges from a set of in depth interviews conducted in 2008 and 2009 in Maputo, Mozambique and Dili, East Timor, in order to address three issues. First, to understand some of the peculiarities and resemblances of women’s experiences in the Mozambique and East Timor wars. Second, to discuss whether the narration of suffering may be turned into a political value and a public acknowledgment of legitimacy to make decisions and govern or, on contrary, whether it is understood as unproductive and disposable. Finally, the author seeks to show that there is more bravery within a pluriversal nationalist imagination than in that of virile and narcissistic heroes