My appointment at Yale represented an extraordinary and, in many ways, unique opportunity to pursue a project that has long been central to my academic ambitions: transforming my doctoral dissertation in music into a book, and in doing so, contributing to a field of popular music studies in Mozambique, that is still taking shape. The responsibility that comes with that reality has always shaped my sense of purpose as a researcher. My primary research goal was to advance the book project History and Memory: Archives and Oral Musical Sources in Mozambique. I conducted archival research at the Yale University Library and the Divinity School Library, focusing on how religious orders in Mozambique from the 15th to the early 20th centuries documented local musical traditions, including the xylophones of the Chopi people. I updated and expanded the bibliography from my doctoral dissertation and completed a tentative draft structure for the first chapter, centred on the analysis of religious archival sources.
This work also clarified the scope of a second book project, A History of Urban Popular Music in Mozambique, which draws on fieldwork I conducted in Mozambique. My theoretical framework shifted considerably in the process: whereas my doctoral dissertation drew primarily on Global North scholarship, my current work now incorporates a wide range of African scholarship across cultural studies, sociology, history, and religion.
Being part of the Council on African Studies community, allowed me to present a talk as part of the CAS lecture series and I was also invited to present at the MacMillan Center’s Academic Exchange sessions. Both papers are being developed for submission to the African Studies Review. I also submitted an abstract to the Institute of Sacred Music’s Annual Conference on the Black Sacred Arts in Accra, Ghana, where I will present the paper with plans to publish it afterwards. Through the networks built during my stay, I was invited to participate in the Fall 2025 conferences marking the 50th anniversary of independence of Portuguese-speaking African countries, (Brown University and Harvard University), and I attended the African Studies Association Annual Conference in Atlanta, where I reconnected with colleagues from South Africa.
I taught a seminar on Music and Politics in Southeast Africa: Mozambique, Tanzania, and Kenya, Comparative Perspectives, which ran for thirteen weeks with a cohort of eight undergraduate students. We traced the sonic history of the region from pre-colonial traditions and missionary encounters through liberation movements, post-colonial nation-building, and contemporary digital cultures, engaging with scholars such as Paul Gilroy, Hugh Tracey, Kofi Agawu, and Thomas Turino. The relationship with the students was one of the most memorable aspects of my time at Yale. We built a warm and respectful rapport throughout the semester, and I learned a great deal from their questions and perspectives. At the end of the course, they surprised me with a gift and a handwritten dedication left at my office, a gesture I will carry with me long after leaving New Haven.
Being part of the CAS community for a year was a privilege in the fullest sense. Getting to meet in person the scholars whose work I had read gave me a sense of what a mature academic community looks like. Professor Ben Machava introduced me to Professor Emerita Jeanne Penvenne from Tufts University, whose decades of historical research on Mozambique proved invaluable. She shared audio materials and testimonies that will directly inform my second book. Professor Kyama Mugambi of the Divinity School invited me to perform African religious music with his students. Associate Director of the Institute for Sacred Music, Eben Graves, invited me to attend masterclasses on gospel music featuring pianist and composer Cory Henry as well as a panel discussion on gospel music at the Divinity School. I had many stimulating conversations with Johnny Steinberg, and it was amazing to find colleagues such as Nandipa Sipengane, from neighboring South Africa.
I made a long-lasting friendship with fellow visiting professor from Nigeria, Patrick Oloko. We went through many of the same issues to settle and adjust to our lives in the United States and remained close until our last day in New Haven. A particularly significant encounter was with Charlotte Ashamu of Yale’s Institute for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage, with whom I discussed potential collaboration with Mozambique’s cultural sector.
New Haven offered more than I expected. I lived at Oden House, a lovely Georgian-style home dating to 1934 and originally owned by Yale professor Henry Farnam Jr. Oden and now serves as a guest house for visiting scholars under the sponsorship of the Institute for Classical Christian Studies. Guests can access Oden’s extensive library specializing in Early Christian Studies and Africa, and many of the visitors are fellow scholars from Africa which made for a special community. I acknowledge Yale graduate student and house manager, Paul Essah, and his beloved wife for doing everything possible to make myself and the other visiting fellows feel at home. I hiked the East Rock trails, visited art galleries, and worshipped on Sundays at the Christian Presbyterian Church, where I made friendships that took me well beyond the Yale community. Campus experience highlights include the Beinecke Library, both its exterior and extraordinary interior, attending the graduation commencement ceremony, and the old campus quadrangle that became one of my favourite spots for quiet reflection.
What struck me most about Yale’s academic culture was that nearly every colleague has at least one published book, and every workshop centred on a book project or chapter discussion. I return to Mozambique carrying that lesson with me and a clear commitment to finish what I started. Yale gave me confidence to put more effort into my book project. I am deeply grateful to the CAS and its community for making that possible.
By: Eduardo Lichuge