In paradoxical twists of fate, for many once colonially occupied nations, the language of the oppressor became the language of freedom, unification, and healing. Examples abound in Africa, where European-originated languages such as English and Portuguese operated as instances of a lingua franca bridging ethno-linguistic divides for the pursuit of self-determination and the consolidation of national identities. Crónica, as a form of literary journalism located in the Portuguese and Spanish languages, was and has been instrumental in the panorama of Mozambican journalism as an instrument for identitarian construction. In Mozambican crónicas by José Craveirinha in a period of pre-independence and by Luís Carlos Patraquim in an era of post-independence, it is possible to see the Portuguese language undergoing processes of appropriation and change for the purposes of a Mozambican sense of pride and nationalism. Our study analyses how Portuguese linguistic hybridization occurs in the crónicas by these two authors while exemplary of the language paradox of the once colonized choosing the language of the former colonizer as a stepping stone for self-expression and identity.