Clara Terra Benevides Sanches
The narrative investigates the place that mixed-race and black women occupy in the Mozambican social body and thus reflects on the immense existential emptiness that leads them on their journey. In Mia Couto’s work, the confession of the 'hidden lionesses' remains the order of silence as far as the plot is concerned, but through their speech, a cry echoes, almost like a cry for help, when they recognise the place of semi-slavery to which they are subjected. Violence occurs firstly through the impossibility of choosing, leaving them with only one option: to annul themselves in order to at least survive. The reflections on physical, psychological and sexual violence reveal how the gender issue is constructed through the aesthetics of violence against Mozambican women, which is backed up by tradition and the patriarchal system. The traumas and pain discussed in this work broaden the debate on gender violence that challenges authorities not only in Mozambique, but around the world.
