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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Local Powers and Decentralisation: Recognition of Community Leaders in Mocumbi, Southern Mozambique
Author:Gonçalves, EuclidesISNI
Year:2006
Periodical:Journal of Contemporary African Studies
Volume:24
Issue:1
Period:January
Pages:29-52
Language:English
Geographic term:Mozambique
Subjects:decentralization
rural areas
local politics
traditional rulers
Development and Technology
Economics and Trade
Politics and Government
External links:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02589000500513770
http://ejournals.ebsco.com/direct.asp?ArticleID=44D281A6753AA4E2BB55
Abstract:In 2000 the government of Mozambique passed a decree that introduced community leaders, defined as 'people who exercise some form of authority upon a given community or social group'. Examination of the local dynamics of the process in Mocumbi, a district subdivision in the hinterland of Inharrime district in the southern part of the Inhambane province, indicates that the introduction of community leaders did not significantly reform local political arenas, where people have a history of creatively adjusting government reform to local needs. Instead it fuelled power disputes in local political arenas, which are characterized by a mixture of institutions from the colonial, socialist and democratic periods. Kin and party politics were reactivated as new and old actors vied for power in the new dispensation. Local government representatives sought to manipulate the process in favour of Frelimo. Based on previous experiences of State interventions and the recent civil war, local people were generally ambivalent about the decentralization process. Research findings from Mocumbi challenge dominant assumptions about the strong legitimacy of traditional chiefs in rural areas. They also challenge perspectives that look at rural political processes through dichotomous lenses and see clear-cut distinctions between socialist and democratic periods, traditional chiefs, village or dynamizing groups, secretaries and community leaders, and people's loyalty to Frelimo or Renamo. Ethnographic fieldwork was conducted in Mocumbi during nine weeks between November 2003 and February 2004. Bibliogr., notes, ref. [ASC Leiden abstract]
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