The Mozambican Cotton Cooperative: The Creation of a Grassroots Alternative to Forced Commodity Production

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Periodical article

Title:	The Mozambican Cotton Cooperative: The Creation of a Grassroots Alternative to Forced Commodity Production
Author:	Isaacman, Allen F.
Year:	1982
Periodical:	African Studies Review
Volume:	25
Issue:	2-3
Period:	July-September
Pages:	5-25
Language:	English
Geographic terms:	Mozambique Portugal
Subjects:	colonialism cooperatives cotton Agriculture, Natural Resources and the Environment Development and Technology Economics and Trade
External link:	https://www.jstor.org/stable/524208
Abstract:	In 1957 a dozen northern Mozambicans living in the Makonde highlands organized the Mozambique African Voluntary Cotton Society. In 1960 it was outlawed as being to the opinion of the Portuguese officials a hotbed of subversive activity. Despite its short life, the MAVCS played a significant role in the economic and political history of the colony. It permitted peasants free space in which to operate while simultaneously binding them firmly to the colonialist-capitalist system. Formed in reaction to the colonial state's policy of forcibly restructuring local production to meet the needs of the metropolitan textile industry and serving as a center for covert political activity, the cotton cooperative nevertheless provided the conditions in which peasant labor could be more easily extracted. Analysis of the cooperative also provides insights into the relationship between commodity production and incipient class formation in peasant societies. Notes, oral data, ref.