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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Foreign and Domestic Factors in the Transformation of Frelimo |
Author: | Simpson, Mark |
Year: | 1993 |
Periodical: | Journal of Modern African Studies |
Volume: | 31 |
Issue: | 2 |
Period: | June |
Pages: | 309-337 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Mozambique |
Subjects: | Frelimo Politics and Government international relations |
External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/161007 |
Abstract: | This article examines the trajectory of Frelimo, currently the ruling party in Mozambique, focusing on the complex interplay between various factors which have contributed to the metamorphoses it has undergone since its founding in 1962. As a liberation movement, Frelimo headed the successful anticolonial struggle against Portuguese rule, a reflection of its ability to bring together the diverse elements of Mozambican society for the attainment of the shared objective of independence. In the course of the armed struggle, a more radical wing of the movement sought to alter the political agenda from one of strictly political independence to one of the wholesale transformation of Mozambican society along Marxist lines. Following the eventual victory of the radical faction, the period after independence (1975) saw the gradual transformation of Frelimo into a restricted Marxist-Leninist vanguard party. The years between 1977 and 1989 saw the demise of Frelimo's project to transform Mozambique into a socialist stronghold in Africa. At the Fifth Party Congress in 1989, Marxism-Leninism was officially abandoned and Frelimo was transformed into a broad front 'democratic socialist' organization. The momentum of reforms continued in December 1990, when the National Assembly adopted a new multiparty constitution. Notes, ref. |