ABSTRACT
Drawing on key constructs from postcoloniality and decoloniality in a broader sense, the decolonial lenses offered by Linguistic Citizenship are used to uncover and discuss colonial ideologies, discourses, and practices that persist in the implementation of bilingual education in Mozambique. Linking historical and ongoing policies and practices and taking as a reference the ways Portuguese and African languages have been conceptualized and valued in education and in society at large how different actors appropriate, enact, reframe, or resist these colonial ideologies and discourses is discussed. In spite of the current legislative and discursive openness to linguistic and cultural diversity in Mozambique, bilingual education practices, as well as linguistic practices in the wider society, still reflect a monolingual and monocultural colonial legacy in which Portuguese emerges as the de facto legitimate language of education, citizenship, and socio-economic mobility.
