A Idolatria e a Iconoclastia a Ngungunhane nos romances históricos Ualalapi, de Ungulani Ba Ka Khosa e As areias do imperador: a espada e a azagaia, de Mia Couto

Abstract

The present work focuses on: Idolatry and Iconoclasm of Ngungunhane in the historical novels Ualalapi, by Ungulani Ba Ka Khosa, and The Sands of the Emperor: The Sword and the Spear, by Mia Couto. The motivation for discussing this topic stems from the fact that the authors of these works, in their introductory notes, acknowledge that Ngungunhane was the last emperor of Gaza and that he resisted the Portuguese colonial occupation of Mozambique. Therefore, his remains were retrieved from exile as a form of recognition of his heroic deeds (Couto, 2016, p. I). This fact reveals a certain idolatry surrounding Ngungunhane. However, we set out to identify the actions described in the works under study that challenge the heroism of Ngungunhane. In the analysis and interpretation of the data, which were collected through readings of the referenced works, we used the method of dialectical materialism of Karl Marx, which consists of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis, grounded in the theory of György Lukács (2011) on the historical novel. We also used the inductive, deductive, and comparative methods supported by a theoretical basis in the field of history. The study we conducted led us to conclude that the works under analysis are historical novels, since both Ualalapi and The Sands of the Emperor: The Sword and the Spear, although understood as fiction, problematize the official history constructed around the figure of Emperor Ngungunhane. According to the narratives of the works, which were the field of our study, the idolatry of Ngungunhane consisted of an act of mere flattery by his subjects or vassals, due to the fear they had of the sovereign, lest they be exterminated or executed for frivolous or misguided reasons (Khosa, 2000; Couto, 2022). These novels also reveal that Ngungunhane never resisted, at any time, Portuguese colonial domination in favor of Mozambicans, “as is often insisted upon” (Couto, 2015, p. 31). Furthermore, this study shows that the iconoclasm and, above all, the idolatry of this historical figure in official historiographical narratives served specific political and historical purposes, a fact that the two historical novels highlighted when they reconstructed new possibilities for understanding this paradoxical figure in our country.