Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Violence, peacebuilding, and state formation in Mozambique

2020; Oxford University Press; Volume: 119; Issue: 476 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1093/afraf/adaa008

1468-2621

Alex Vines,

Peacebuilding and International Security

Much has been written on the external linkages of Mozambique’s civil war but much less on what Morier-Genoud et al.’s edited volume calls ‘the war within’. This is an edited volume with chapters focusing on different regions. The outstanding contribution is Michel Cahen’s Chapter 4, ‘The War as Seen by Renamo’: Drawing on original RENAMO military communications, it examines the guerrilla politics and the ‘move to the north’ at the time of the Nkomati Accord, 1983–1985. It is rare for a study of a guerrilla war, using its own written documents—as most analysis to this day is based on oral testimony. From these documents Cahen has been able to map out the military regions under RENAMO control and the three overall provincial commands—these were divided into regions, all named after animals such as Crocodilo, Gato, and Leão (pp. 109–112). Cahen also argues that the Nkomati Accord was a driver for RENAMO to develop a social base but ‘still in its early days in 1984 (p.143) and concludes that RENAMO was a “plebeian guerrilla movement” within late capitalism.