Betwixt and Between: 'Traditional Authority' and Democratic Decentralization in Post-War Mozambique

Abstract

THE ESTABLISHMENT of the Frente de Ubertafdo de Mozambique (FRELIMO) party/state upon independence in 1975 was, for most rural Mozambicans, inseparable from FRELIMO policy on former autoridades gentilicas, meaning chiefs recognized and utilized by the Portuguese colonial regime as Harry G West is a Lecturer in the Department of Anthropology at the London School of Economics. He has conducted research in Mozambique over the past six years. On 23 June 1999, Scott Kloeck-Jenson was killed along with his wife Barbara and their two children, Zoe and Noah, in a car accident in South Africa. Scott's death is a great loss to the community of scholars and policy-makers working in Mozambique. He and his family will be dearly missed by friends both in Mozambique and at home in the United States. Scott was in the Department of Political Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Resident Program Manager for the University of Wisconsin Land Tenure Center's Research Project in Mozambique. He had conducted research in Mozambique over die past diree years. This article draws upon bodi individual and collaborative research undertaken by me authors. hi 1992 and 1993, West worked in Sofala, Manica, Gaza and Inhambane provinces with die support of the University of Wisconsin's Land Tenure Center (LTC) Research Project in footnote continued overieaf 455 1. Regedorias were also called regulados in many places.

Frelimo's Political Ruling through Violence and Memory in Postcolonial Mozambique

“…Era consciente de que me enfrentaba a un tema sensible y delicado, pues durante la década anterior, marcada por una larga transición de un modelo de socialismo revolucionario a un modelo de democracia multipartidaria, la legitimidad de las autoridades tradicionales se había convertido en uno de los principales temas de discusión entre los dos grandes partidos políticos mozambiqueños: el Frente de Liberación de Mozambique (FRELIMO) y la Resistencia Nacional de Mozambique (RENAMO) 3 . Durante la década de los noventa, el debate sobre la necesidad de restablecer las instituciones tradicionales estuvo presente en todo el continente africano (West & Kloeck-Jenson, 1999;Perrot y Fauvelle-Aymar, 2003;Florêncio, 2005;Iniesta, 2007). En Mozambique, dos hechos de relevancia internacional marcaron la amplitud del debate y reforzaron su incidencia en la política mozambiqueña.…”

“…El discurso oficial del FRELIMO aseguraba que la guerra civil que empezó a finales de los setenta era, esencialmente, fruto de la desestabilización provocada por Rodhesia y Suráfrica, y que la RENAMO no era más que un grupo de bandidos y mercenarios a sueldo de aquellos regímenes racistas. El libro de Geffray proponía una lectura alternativa de la guerra en Mozambique: no toda la violencia venía de fuera, pues, independientemente de la injerencia extranjera, buena parte del apoyo interno que la RENAMO fue ganando a lo largo de la década de los ochenta era una respuesta a la violencia inherente al proyecto político del FRELIMO. Por otro lado, por las mismas fechas en que se publicaba el libro de Geffray, el Ministerio de Administraciones Públicas puso en marcha un proyecto de investigación a escala nacional que estaba generosamente financiado por los Estados Unidos (West & Kloeck-Jenson, 1999;Fry, 2000). Esta investigación se centraba precisamente en el papel de las autoridades tradicionales en la transición a un gobierno democrático, y en la necesaria revitalización de la sociedad civil mozambiqueña (Lundin y Machava, 1995, 1998.…”

“…gonista, pues la investigación de campo estaba liderada por la antropóloga brasileña Irãe Baptista Lundin. Sin embargo, mientras Geffray usaba la tradición para poner en el punto de mira el autoritarismo del FRELIMO y la violencia ejercida contra su propia población, la investigación liderada por Lundin era una iniciativa ministerial que ensayaba, a partir de las autoridades tradicionales, una adaptación ideológica a la nueva hegemonía neoliberal (West & Kloeck-Jenson, 1999).…”

Violence, Sacrifice and Chiefship in Central Equatoria, Southern Sudan

“…3 A sample of the literature includes : Goheen 1992;Nyamnjoh 2004;Ray 1996;van Kessel and Oomen 1997;Vaughan 2000Vaughan , 2005West and Kloeck-Jenson 1999. Mamdani's distinction between citizens and subjects, asking whether, as brokers, chiefs are also implicated in narrow state patrimonialism, and whether therefore their resurgence may entrench a (colonial-style) system whereby access to rights and resources is confined to recognized members of a 'community', defined by its chief (Buur 2004;West 1998). While the strong links between urban-centred government and home villages lead Geschiere and Gugler (1998) to conclude that everyone is 'both citizen and subject ', Fanthorpe (2001) focuses on youth in Sierra Leone who were 'neither citizen nor subject' as a result of the exclusionary legacy of colonial chiefdom policies.…”

Tensions of Tradition: Making and remaking claims to land in the Oecusse enclave

“…It is extremely complex for outsiders to correctly identify the socially relevant level of landownership (cf. Geertz 1972;Ward 1995;West 1998;West and Kloeck-Jenson 1999;Zerner 1994). settled coast links to debates over whether this indicates an individualising trend in landholding, which has received much attention in ethnographies and land administration elsewhere (Healy 1971;Lea 1997;Martin 2004;Simpson 1971;ter Haar 1948;Ward and Kingdon 1995b).…”