A revista Diadorim utliza uma Licença Creatve Commons - Atribuição-NãoComercial 4.0 Internacional (CC-BY-NC). Diadorim, Rio de Janeiro, vol. 21, Especial, p. 109-124, 2019. Received on: August 30, 2019 | Accepted on: October 08, 2019 https://doi.org/10.35520/diadorim.2019.v21nEspa28414 SOWING WOMEN, HARVESTING A NATION: RETHINKING THE MOZAMBICAN FEMALE CONDITION IN PAULINA CHIZIANE’S NIKETCHE: UMA HISTÓRIA DE POLIGAMIA SEMEANDO MULHERES, COLHENDO UMA NAÇÃO: REPENSANDO A CONDIÇÃO FEMININA MOÇAMBICANA EM NIKETCHE DE PAULINA CHIZIANE: UMA HISTÓRIA DE POLIGAMIA Lidiana de Moraes 1 Mozambican writer Paulina Chiziane opens her novel Niketche: Uma História de Poligamia 2 with a Zambezian proverb that says: “A woman is earth. If you don’t sow her, or water her, she will produce nothing” 3 . From this statement, it is possible to sense that we are about to embark on a journey to a world that has yet to be deeply explored by literature: the world of women of Mozambique. Most of the literary production of the country usually portrays the matter of womanhood through the words of male writers. Paulina Chiziane is a pioneer in introducing us to a new literary terrain. Through her gaze into the feminine condition, the epigraph becomes open to a diferent interpretation. Even though the saying may be understood as a compliment to women; it also raises some questions in regard to the position female characters do partake in society. After all, who is responsible to sow and water earth, so it can produce something? By addressing a third party as the one responsible to make sure that women are productive, aren’t we ignoring their capacity to be fecund in spite of the interference of others? Who determines when, why, what, or how women are supposed to be fertile (in every sense of the word)? 1 Doutoranda no programa de Literary, Cultural, and Linguisitc Studies, da University of Miami, departamento de Modern Languages and Literatures. 2 Translated into English with the title The First Wife: A Tale of Polygamy. 3 “Mulher é terra. Sem semear, sem regar, nada produz.”