“…Moreover, according to the author, conditions for reconciliation are an accurate understanding of the past, accountability, victim recognition and the rule of law, all inserted in the institutional realm. Other empirical cases like Mozambique show that those conditions alone are not enough (Bueno 2019).…”
This chapter dives deeper into the theoretical framework proposed in this book by identifying, characterizing and proposing concrete indicators at the observable level for assessing and analyzing the elements of identity in conflict. The argument developed is that an empirical examination of the processes of identity building in protracted conflicts shows that these feature two main elements—and coexisting dynamics—which can be seen as opposing poles that might contribute to deepening the conflict or promoting its transformation instead. By identifying the dimensions and observable indicators that allow for an assessment of these processes of dehumanization and peace-less reconciliation, this chapter offers a tool for empirical analyses of protracted conflicts and policy development toward their positive transformation.
“…Moreover, according to the author, conditions for reconciliation are an accurate understanding of the past, accountability, victim recognition and the rule of law, all inserted in the institutional realm. Other empirical cases like Mozambique show that those conditions alone are not enough (Bueno 2019).…”
This chapter dives deeper into the theoretical framework proposed in this book by identifying, characterizing and proposing concrete indicators at the observable level for assessing and analyzing the elements of identity in conflict. The argument developed is that an empirical examination of the processes of identity building in protracted conflicts shows that these feature two main elements—and coexisting dynamics—which can be seen as opposing poles that might contribute to deepening the conflict or promoting its transformation instead. By identifying the dimensions and observable indicators that allow for an assessment of these processes of dehumanization and peace-less reconciliation, this chapter offers a tool for empirical analyses of protracted conflicts and policy development toward their positive transformation.
“…Instead, reconciliation was believed to be best served through the Mozambican state abstaining from both attempting to ascertain war crimes or taking action against alleged perpetrators. This mode of thinking was already apparent in 1989 in the statements of then President of Mozambique, Joaquim Chissano (quoted in Bueno 2019: 431): We extended the Amnesty Law and tried to inform followers of the so‐called RENAMO that the Amnesty is a necessity. They think that they have not committed any crimes, but we know that rebellion and resorting to violence are crimes that are illegal in the People's Republic of Mozambique, not to mention the atrocities they commit and have committed against the people that are known throughout the world, and the theft of the people's goods.…”
Section: Civil War and Reconciliation (1976/7‐2010)mentioning
confidence: 99%
“…In order to make sense of this particular chronocratic (Kirtsoglou & Simpson 2020) configuration in Mozambique, the relations between chronos and aion (despite its future orientation) and the calls to fundamentally rethink the nature of the political subject, by Deleuze, Mbembe, and Scott, respectively, are all helpful. At one level, the current violence in Mozambique, naturally, reflects the failure of reconciliation in a technical sense, including failed integration of Renamo fighters into the military and the configuration of the one-party state (Bueno 2019;Jentzsch 2022;Wiegink 2019). At a more fundamental level, however, while identifying such dimensions is key, I believe the ethnographic material indicates the impossibility of even thinking forms of reconciliation without a future.…”
Section: Irreconciliation Time and Justice: Repurposing Uncontained V...mentioning
At least 1 million people died during the Mozambican civil war (1976/7-92). Unfolding after gaining independence from Portugal (1975) and alongside experiments with Afro-socialism in the 1980s, the war, despite its brutality, has not been subjected to global templates of reconciliation processes. Thus it comprises a unique case to probe what irreconciliation might mean -both as a political horizon and as an analytical concept. This text juxtaposes ethnographic material from rural, central Mozambique from the late 1990s and early 2000s emphasizing reconciliation with material from the same spaces from the 2010s onwards, where I identify what I term a 'politics of irreconciliation'. I will make three arguments. First, informed by Hannah Arendt, I approach irreconciliation as fundamentally about the rejection of a world of violence in search of a world shared in common. Second, drawing on recent anthropological theorizing about temporal regimes and chronopolitics, I argue for the salience of a non-linear understanding of the politics of irreconciliation to grapple with the fact that civil war violence is understood as dangerously uncontained rather than nominally past. Third, within the context of Mozambique, forgiveness and its other, irreconciliation, are not only intimately tied to the temporally past or present; they are also, as I show, produced by a tangible and intense absence of a productive future.From 1976/7 to 1992, Mozambique was devastated by a civil war that razed the countryside and thoroughly transformed the social and political landscape (Morier-Genoud, Cahen & do Rosário 2018). The war engulfed society, generating an estimated 1 million casualties with a further 5 million of the around 18 million population (in 1975) becoming internal or external refugees (Lubkemann 2008). Heavily simplified, the civil war involved the forces of the liberation movement-turned-political party Frelimo (Frente de Libertação de Moçambique) fighting a guerrilla war of insurrection waged by Renamo (Resistência Nacional de Moçambique). 1 Alongside the civil war, Frelimo spearheaded an Afro-socialist revolution under the charismatic leadership of Mozambican President Samora Machel. Fuelled by the vision of unlocking the potential of a country downtrodden by Portuguese colonial violent rule since the 1500s, Frelimo revolutionized the country's sociopolitical order (Isaacman 1978). Rolling out a
“…The fidelity to centralized control of both politics and the public purse is in part a reflection of the ongoing conflict between Frelimo and its main political revival and former civil war nemesis, the National Resistance Movement (Resistência Nacional de Moçambique, or Renamo). Given Renamo's strength in Mozambique's central provinces, and Frelimo's dominance in elections over much of the rest of the countryincluding in national elections, which it has consistently won-there is a lack of incentives for Frelimo to comply with the promises of decentralization made during the Peace Accords ending the country's civil war in 1992 (Bueno, 2019;Vines, 2013).…”
Section: The Rootedness Of Control In Pre-and Post-independence Decentralizationmentioning
National authorities across Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa have implemented various forms of fiscal decentralization over the past three decades with equivocal results. The design of such reforms has long rested on theories based on the experiences of high-income countries’ efforts at increasing local autonomy, accountability, and basic service efficiencies. Critics of the global advocacy for fiscal decentralization, however, point to several challenges with its implementation across diverse political economies that differ significantly from those in high-income environments. Nonetheless, these critiques often obscure the impact that colonial regimes and their legacies have on current efforts to fiscally decentralize. In two post-colonial environments where fiscal decentralization projects have unrolled, namely Mozambique and Mexico, we show how colonial imprints remain critical to understanding efforts at fiscal decentralization. Our focus in these cases is on how race-based caste systems introduced under colonial administrations fed the development and evolution of dual governance systems across spaces and peoples that bred mistrust between residents, local authorities and central authorities. We argue that the conflicting rationales in evidence between stakeholders involved in fiscal decentralization projects today are rooted in the social mistrust and power struggles born from these colonial experiences. In conclusion, we contend that fiscal decentralization reforms must explicitly grapple with these spatialized and racialized legacies of mistrust and the diverse rationalities guiding stakeholders in both the design and evaluation of public policies meant to strengthen local autonomy, transparency, and efficiencies.
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