Different mechanisms, same result: Remembering the liberation war in Mozambique

Abstract

Even though scholars have made substantial contributions in connecting the fields of transitional justice and memory studies, important questions remain unanswered. The question of sequencing is one of them. How does a certain TJ mechanism condition the implementation of subsequent mechanisms and how together they shape memory narratives in a given society? This article builds on the case of Mozambique. Soon after the signing of the General Peace Agreement in 1992, the Frelimo-led government approved Amnesty Law 15/92 and with it, the past was to be left in the past. Such a choice was different from the one taken by Samora Machel—Mozambique’s first president—between 1975 and 1982. By promoting a quasi-truth commission, Machel revisited Mozambique’s colonial past and brought comprometidos’ actions into the open. This article finds that whether the government opened up about the past or sought to leave it behind, the result has been the same: the celebratory reproduction of the liberation war narrative. Resorting to path dependence and critical junctures, this study explains the ways in which such a narrative has become hegemonic throughout the last four decades.

Introduction to The Future of Peace

“…A former colony of Portugal, Mozambique achieved independence as a State in 1974. 185 This followed a decade-long, internal effort for independence that involved major components of violence and political unrest. 186 The major military and political actor in the independence effort was the Frente de Libertacao de Mocambique (Frelimo), which continued as an official party once Mozambique became a State.…”