Weaving a critical idea on Lusophony in timor-leste: between language policies and language policies de facto

Abstract

http://dx.doi.org/10.5007/1984-8420.2015v16n2p139

Historical turbulences and politics related to Timor-Leste prompted a state policy decision of the co-officialization of the Portuguese language in the small Asian multilingual country. This decision, however, intends to characterize the country as Lusophone, which set the creation of a Lusophone “imagined community” (ANDERSON, 2008) since the “de facto” language policies reveal that the Portuguese language is far from being unanimous in daily practices, taking up an exogenous and distant place for many Timorese people. The power relations in their macro and micro instances (FOUCAULT, 1997), produce the emergence of a language that meets diverse interests, including a segregating role and a linguistic hierarchy. The present work proposes to reflect on the Lusitanian language presence in Timor-Leste and the tensions produced by power relations and the conflicting speeches defending (or not) the language. The corpus of analysis consists of official documents of Timor-Leste, testimonials (official and unofficial) of Timorese citizens from different social groups and backgrounds, collected in the work by researchers in the country. What is noticeable is that Timor-Leste is in a dilemma caused by institutional questions about the design of forced Lusophony, what makes the Timorese people, to a greater or lesser extent, to experience an exclusion of languages, cultures and voices in their society by the adopted language policies.