Limites para além das fronteiras administrativas: uma análise das relações entre um grupo de residentes de Namaacha, Moçambique e Lomahasha, Swazilândia e entre Macuacua, Moçambique e Mbuzine, África do Sul

Abstract

This paper analyzes social continuity from two border points namely, Namaacha- Mozambique and Lomaacha - Swaziland, Macuacua -Mozambique and Mbuzini - South Africa. From the literature consulted, the subject of borders is discussed from three perspectives, the the first of which presents the border as a line of rupture between two countries with their respective peoples. The second, which shares the idea that the border marks a rupture, defends, however, that, despite the mentioned rupture, there is interaction and cultural exchanges between residents of each of the countries that share the border. Finally, the third perspective presents the frontier as a space of continuity. The first two perspectives, on the one hand, allow us to understand that the border line cuts social relations, on the other hand they close the space to understand other meanings of border. In turn, the third perspective analyzes the frontier as a space of continuity where the subjects have their own rationale for delimiting the space, however at the same time. restricting oneself to a historical analysis loses sight of the understanding of how people experience the sense of limit and the border in their day-to-day lives. Based on ethnographic data in this work, I show that, on the one hand, the administrative frontier separates the population of Namaacha and Lomaacha, Macuacua and Mbuzini, on the other hand, in their daily lives, their relations extend beyond those borders. Thus, on the side of Namaacha the limit of these relations occurs in Chimuchuanine and on the side of Lomaacha in Simunye; on the Macuacua side the limit is Cocomela and on the Mbuzini side Mlhume all well into the interior of each country, from the administrative borders that separate the countries. The population of these places as long as they are within these limits considers themselves to be in their space of belonging, in which they develop their strategies of social reproduction in such a way that they only consider being abroad when they exceed these limits and only in these circumstances do they consider the use of passports for their legitimacy legitimate. identification. The results of the present study show how borders and limits are socially constructed, using an experience of interaction of people that is lost in time, and differently from that stipulated through administrative mechanisms.