Lourenço do Rosario

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Lourenço Joaquim da Costa Rosário , Lourenço do Rosário for short , (* 1949 in Marromeu , Sofala Province , Portuguese East Africa ) is a Mozambican literary scholar and founder and former rector of the Political Technical University of Maputo (1995-2017).

Life

Youth and education

Lourenço do Rosário was born in 1949 in the small town of Marromeu in the central Mozambican province of Sofala in the then Portuguese colony of Mozambique. His father worked as a foreman in a sugar cane plantation. At the age of six, Rosário moved to Malawi with his father, but was unable to follow suit due to the differences between the Portuguese and British school systems, so his father sent him back to Luabo ( province of Zambézia , Mozambique) to continue his education there .

Academic career

After his training, Rosário completed the Portuguese military service from 1970 to 1973. He then moved to the capital Lourenço Marques (now Maputo ), where he taught at the Escola Preparatória do Noroeste . In the course of the Carnation Revolution , the independence of Mozambique and the request of the ruling FRELIMO to leave the country for all Portuguese, there was a great need for teachers in the country's schools. He was then transferred to the largest secondary school in the country, Escola Secundária Josina Machel , from 1975 he was chairman of the school's board of directors. He headed the secondary school until 1977, when he was transferred as a lecturer to Eduardo Mondlane University and lectured there until 1979. He then headed the Centro 8 de Março, which belongs to the university, until 1982.

During this time, Rosário also belonged to a small negotiating group whose task it was to organize scholarships for Mozambican students abroad. In the first round of negotiations in Portugal in 1980, the group initially managed to obtain funding from the Gulbenkian Foundation for five grants, three for study in Portugal and two in the United Kingdom. Rosário himself studied Romance languages ​​(Portuguese / French) at the University of Coimbra with one of the scholarships from 1980 to 1983 .

After completing his studies, Rosario's wife refused to return to Mozambique, which was plagued by famine and drought in the 1980s. Since he followed his wife's wishes, he was fired from the University of Maputo despite his requests. Rosário then taught at the Universidade Nova in Lisbon . In 1987 he received his doctorate in Luso-African literary studies, also from the University of Coimbra. His dissertation dealt with the process of history transformation in oral narration.

In 1988 Rosário returned to Maputo and began teaching as a visiting professor at Eduardo Mondlane University at the invitation of Rector Rui Baltazar . In 1994 he finally returned.

Foundation of the ISPU

After his return, Rosario devoted himself to his long-cherished wish to found a university next to the Eduardo Mondlane University. After talks with the then President Joaquim Chissano , who, however, could not offer him any financial support, he managed to raise various types of funding. In 1995 he founded Mozambique's first private - non-state and non-church - higher education institution, the Instituto Superior Politécnico e Universitário (ISPU), later called Universidade A Politécnica . He headed the institution as Rector from its foundation until September 2017. He was succeeded by Narciso Matos.

In addition to his lectureships in Lisbon and Maputo, Rosário has made guest appearances at various other universities, including the University of Hamburg, the University of Milan and the Federal University of Minais Gerais. His main research interests are in oral African narration and literary criticism.

Political commitment

Apart from his academic career, the two largest parties in the country, FRELIMO and RENAMO, appointed Rosário as one of the mediators for the sometimes violent conflict between the two parties from 2013. He also publicly criticized FRELIMO for its role in the conflict, including the Hatred of the Franco-Mozambican lawyer Gilles Cistac , who was later murdered , must stop.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Curtas notas biográficas de Lourenço do Rosário. In: Biografia.co.mz. June 3, 2016, Retrieved December 28, 2018 (Portuguese).
  2. ↑ Biografia do Reitor da Universidade. Universidade A Politécnica, 2015, accessed December 28, 2018 (Portuguese).
  3. ↑ Lourenço do Rosário: Universidade Politécnica homenageia fundador e primeiro reitor. In: @Verdade. April 20, 2018. Retrieved December 28, 2018 (Portuguese).
  4. ↑ Ilídia Alberto: A Politécnica homenageia 'electricista que ilumina mentes'. In: O País. April 18, 2018, accessed December 28, 2018 (Portuguese).
  5. ↑ FRELIMO devia ter "travado ódio racista contra Cistac", diz Lourenço do Rosário. In: voaportugues.com. Voice of America, March 5, 2015, accessed December 28, 2018 (Portuguese).
personal data
SURNAME Rosario, Lourenço do
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rosário, Lourenço Joaquim da Costa (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Mozambican literary scholar
DATE OF BIRTH 1949
PLACE OF BIRTH Marromeu , Sofala Province , Portuguese East Africa