A Campus Novel Turns Student Stories Into a Public Debate

Mozambican writer Sérgio Raimundo launched O Docente das Notas Sexualmente Transmissíveis (“The Professor of Sexually Transmitted Grades”) on Wednesday at Camões – Centro Cultural Português in Maputo, describing the novel as a literary vehicle for a subject he says universities still treat too timidly: sexual harassment and the abuse of power on campus.

The book follows a professor as its central character and draws on stories the author says he heard in different Mozambican universities and faculties. It addresses harassment of female students and other forms of violence in the academic space, while also touching on abuse of power, corruption and grief. Raimundo stressed that the work is a novel, not an academic investigation: it does not present data on concrete cases, but builds a narrative from lived and overheard experiences.

Raimundo argues that universities should not be seen only as places for producing knowledge; they can also be sites where violence against students — especially women — occurs. In his view, institutional and personal silence around harassment helps abuse become normalized, and he paraphrased his message bluntly: “Silence is what waters all the evil that we do not denounce.”

The author said he hopes the book will be presented in different parts of the country and, above all, in universities, because he believes the theme should be discussed by students, lecturers and teaching institutions themselves.

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Why Sérgio Raimundo Wants Universities, Not Bookshops, to Carry the Conversation

A deliberate bet on fiction over data

By insisting that this is a novel rather than an academic study, Raimundo avoids the burden of documenting individual cases and instead uses narrative to make the issue visible. That choice gives the book wider cultural reach, but it also means the debate it opens will be shaped less by evidence of scale and more by recognition of the story. The advantage is accessibility: a campus novel can be read and discussed in classrooms without the defensiveness that often accompanies formal complaint statistics. The limit is that it may not satisfy institutions or policymakers looking for a measurable basis for action.

Turning universities into forums, not just subjects

The author's stated plan to take the book to universities is the more consequential part of the project. Instead of treating the novel as a literary event, he is proposing universities as the venue where students, lecturers and administrators meet the material. That shifts the institution from being the setting of the criticism to being a participant in the conversation — a position that may generate engagement or, equally, institutional unease.

The silence argument is aimed at everyone on campus

Raimundo's claim that silence feeds the problem distributes responsibility beyond individual perpetrators. It suggests that harassment persists not only because of abusive behaviour, but because institutions and bystanders allow it to go unanswered. That framing is likely to resonate in campus settings where victims fear retaliation or where internal complaint procedures are perceived as ineffective, though the book itself does not offer a verified account of how widespread such silence is in Mozambique's universities.

What Students, Lecturers and Institutions Can Do With the Book Tour

The book launch creates a specific opening for campus-level discussion rather than a policy change. The most concrete next step comes from the author's stated intention to present the novel at universities across Mozambique.

  • Student associations and academic departments: use the author's stated willingness to discuss the book on campus to request a session that includes students and lecturers, making the discussion structural rather than a one-off literary event.
  • University leadership and faculty: treat the book's theme as a prompt to examine how harassment complaints are received and whether institutional silence — the behaviour the author identifies as enabling abuse — is being tolerated in their own setting.
  • Campus media and teaching staff: keep the distinction clear between the novel's fictional narrative and documented cases, while allowing the author's public appearances to surface the real stories he says inspired the work.