Jamisse Domingos Ofisse

Personal info

Name:

Jamisse Domingos Ofisse

Age:

26 years

Profession:

Teacher

Nationality:

Mozambican

Country, city:

Mozambique, Nhamatanda

Story

In 2006, while I still was a student at the Teacher Training College in Nhamatanda EPF, I was trained as a grassroots comics trainer and taught comics to primary school students in Manica, where I worked as a teacher after graduation.

I came back to Nhamatanda EPF and helped Jacob Jorge, the comics coordinator there, to run workshops. Jorge left in 2009 and I have been responsible for the workshops since. In 2009, I have been in charge of four 4-day workshops with 25 participants in each. The themes were malaria, cholera, hiv/aids, drugs, politics, and elections. The comics were pasted up in the local authority offices, the hospital, the police stations, and in schools.

The participants were students from the Teacher Training College and from the Vocational Training College in Nhamathanda.

People who participate in this programme think about the themes and issues themselves. Although the issues are serious, it is fun to make comics. While making the comics, the participants gain a lot of knowledge on the issues at hand. The comics are all made in Portuguese, because nobody knows how to write the local language. Often the challenge for the participants is to make the story short, and I have been helping them with that. In the last workshop we also made some eight-page booklets.

This interview was conducted by Ms. Elena Taubert of UFF-Finland in October 2009. UFF-Finland had a three-year comics program in Mozambique (2007-9).

Contact

World Comics Finland