On the unsustainability of development: the discourses of the production of “emptiness” in the framework of an international cooperation program

Abstract

This text has as its central theme the development discourses surrounding the ProSavana (Tripartite Cooperation Program for Agricultural Development of the Savannah Tropical in Mozambique), a joint cooperation project of the Brazilian, Japanese and Mozambican governments. The purpose is to interpret how the idea  of “emptiness” is produced and reinforced in the official dissemination material of the program, as well as in its master plan. Subsidiarily, some interviews with key interlocutors were also used. The reflection mobilizes the theoretical-methodological frame of discourse analysis of French matrix in dialogue with critical perspectives of the development. The analysis points to the (re)production of an idea that the Mozambican Savannah would be an “empty place”, uninhabited and waiting for development, in spite of the subjects that are there and their own forms of existence in the world. In addition, although ProSavana does not formally intend itself a sustainable development program, it is evident the imperative to mobilize it as such. However, it seems to be an innocuous attempt, in view of a repetition of practices of eviction of the innovation that does not have predominant implications that imply sustainability.