Violence and political culture in Mozambique

bibliographic database
Line

Periodical article

Title:	Violence and political culture in Mozambique
Author:	Macamo, Elisio
Year:	2016
Periodical:	Social Dynamics
Volume:	42
Issue:	1
Pages:	85-105
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Mozambique
Subjects:	violence politics independence
External link:	https://doi.org/10.1080/02533952.2016.1163779
Abstract:	This article is an attempt at developing a lens through which political culture in Mozambique can be analysed, described and interpreted. It is based on the notion of a political teleology that emerged out of the conditions within which the country fought for its independence. The paper argues that violence in a symbolic and physical form played a central role in the constitution of this political teleology by, on the one hand, allowing the liberation movement to produce an account of Mozambican history which both gave legitimacy to its own struggle while at the same time undermining alternative accounts and, on the other, set the scene for the implementation of a national project that came to be primarily concerned with the reproduction of the claim to power of the liberation movement. Forty years of independence in Mozambique offer an ideal time frame to attempt the construction of such a lens.