It might have been expected that coming-of-age rituals such as the female initiation ceremonies in northern Mozambique would have disappeared as a consequence of the increasing commodification of agricultural production, expanding electrification of rural towns and villages, general proliferation of mobile phones and other indications of economic changes and modernizing lifestyles. Such is, however, not the case. To a certain extent what has happened is the opposite. Initiation rituals, male and female, are practised today with more vigour and zeal than 20–30 years ago. Frelimo was squarely against ‘traditional customs’ like initiation rituals, which they found deeply backward and woman-oppressive. During the 1970s and the first half of the 1980s Frelimo and the OMM (the National Women's Organization, Organização da Mulher Moçambicana) campaigned consistently against initiation rituals and other customs and practices, such as lobolo (bride price) and polygamy. At the end of every political meeting people would shout, waving their clenched fists towards the ground: abaixo ritos de iniciação, abaixo lobolo (down with initiation rituals, down with lobolo). During these years initiation rituals were less frequently practised, and if practised at all they took place in secret – which to some extent was a violation of the very idea of these coming-of-age rituals. The initiation rituals are social celebrations, and part of the point of the celebration is the announcement to the world that NN's son/daughter has now been through the initiation rituals and thus counts as a grown up man or woman.