Sleepwalking Land

The acclaimed 1992 novel Sleepwalking Land by white Mozambican author Mia Couto was first published in Couto’s native Portuguese as Terra Sonâmbula, and then translated into English by David Brookshaw in 2006. A magical realistic narrative set in the aftermath of the civil war that devastated Mozambique in the 1980s, the novel won the 1996 National Fiction Award from the Association of Mozambican Writers (AEMO) and was one of the selection committee’s choices for awarding Couto the 2014 Neustadt International Prize for Literature.

Relying heavily on dreamlike imagery, blurring the lines between fantasy and reality, and drawing on traditional Mozambican folklore for his metaphors, Couto contrasts the beauty of the landscape with the horrors faced by survivors of the war. The fighting itself is not depicted. Instead, readers are expected to know that in the 1970s, Mozambique fought a war of independence against its colonizer, Portugal—but that slowly, as Portuguese power retreated, the Mozambican side splintered into factions that began fighting against each other. Orderly civil war descended into chaotic and opportunistic banditry and warlordism, and groups of soldiers marauded the countryside. In all, close to a million people were killed and five million were displaced from their homes.

The novel opens as two men—middle-aged Tuahir and teenage Muidinga—meet each other at a refugee camp and flee. Staying at the refugee camp can only lead to death, an old woman explains—her solution is to force herself to do heavy physical labor to always appear useful and not expendable. The relationship between the two men is not clear; they could be father and son, or nephew and uncle, or just simpatico strangers. This ambiguity is compounded by the fact that Muidinga has amnesia—because of a recent illness, he can no longer walk well, read, write, or remember his name. As the pair runs, much of the early plot focuses on the young man recovering these life skills as well as knowledge of the world around him.