Issue

Vol. 41 No. 4 (2016): Africa Development

7 - Hidden Processes of Reconciliation in Mozambique: The Entangled Histories of Truth-seeking Commissions held between 1975 and 1982

https://doi.org/10.57054/ad.v41i4.804
Maria Paula Meneses

Corresponding Author(s) : Maria Paula Meneses

mpmeneses@gmail.com

Africa Development, Vol. 41 No. 4 (2016): Africa Development

Abstract




The southern Africa region has witnessed, over the last 50 years, several episodes of violent conflicts, and Mozambique is no exception. The dominant perspective of the Global North on transition to democracy insists on reinforcing a eurocentric version of modernity, symbolized by a linear transition towards a single legal system and nationhood. This dominant international model of justice reproduces violence in the form of epistemicide and privatization of violence. If courts cannot end civil wars, what are the alternatives? This article, which is focused upon Mozambique and based upon interviews and archival data, aims to explore the extent to which the multiple, almost invisible and silenced processes of national reconciliation can find expression within methodologies of national reconciliation processes. Specific emphasis is placed upon the analysis of initiatives (in the 1970s and 1980s) to deal with ‘traitors of the revolution’ in open organized meetings that produced little-known practices of national reconciliation. It is in such a context where the limits of the discourse about ‘universal jurisdiction’ and criminalization of perpetrators of violence are arguably best understood, and where alternatives can find their strongest manifestations and most radical expressions.








Maria Paula Meneses, Centre for Social Studies, Colégio de Sao Jerónimo, Coimbra University, Portugal. Email: mpmeneses@gmail.com




Keywords

National reconciliation Violence Crimes Against Humanity Mozambique
[1]
Meneses, M.P. 2021. 7 - Hidden Processes of Reconciliation in Mozambique: The Entangled Histories of Truth-seeking Commissions held between 1975 and 1982. Africa Development. 41, 4 (Sep. 2021). DOI:https://doi.org/10.57054/ad.v41i4.804.
Download Citation
Endnote/Zotero/Mendeley (RIS)
BibTeX
References
  1. Bell, C. 2009, ‘Transitional Justice, Interdisciplinarity and the State of the ‘Field’ or ‘Non-Field’’, International Journal of Transitional Justice, Vol. 3, No. 1, p. 5-27.
  2. Bragança, A., 1980, ‘Le Marxisme de Samora’, Afrique Asie, Vol. 217, p. xix-xxii.
  3. Cabrita, J., 2000, Mozambique: The Tortuous Road to Democracy, New York: Palgrave.
  4. Clifford, J., 2004, ‘Traditional Futures’, in M.-S. Phillips and G. Schochet, eds., Questions of Tradition, Toronto: University of Toronto Press. p. 152-168.
  5. Coelho, J.P.B., 2003, ‘Da Violência Colonial Ordenada à Ordem Pós-Colonial Violenta: Sobre um Legado das Guerras Coloniais nas Ex-Colónias Portuguesas’, Lusotopie 2003, p. 175-193.
  6. Coelho, J.P.B., 2014, ‘Politics and Contemporary History of Mozambique: a set of epistemological notes’, Kronos, Vol. 39, p. 20-31.
  7. Fanon, F., 1963, The Wretched of the Earth, New York: Grove Press.
  8. FRELIMO, 1977, O Processo Revolucionário da Guerra Popular de Libertação, Maputo: Departamento do Trabalho Ideológico da FRELIMO.
  9. FRELIMO, 1982 [1969], ‘Self-Criticism’, in A. Bragança and I. Wallerstein, eds., The African Liberation Reader, Vol. 2: the National Liberation Movements, London: Zed Press. p. 122-124.
  10. Geffray, C., 1990, La Cause des Armes au Mozambique: Anthropologie d’une Guerre Civile, Paris: Karthala.
  11. Hayner, P., 2001, Unspeakable Truths: Confronting State Terror and Atrocity, New York: Routledge.
  12. Hoagland, S.L., 2009, Giving Testimony and the Coloniality of Knowledge. (http://www.cavehill.uwi.edu/fhe/histphil/chips/archives/2009/docs/hoagland2009.aspx). 23 July 2014.
  13. Igrejas, V., 2008, ‘Memories as Weapons: the politics of peace and silence in post-civil war Mozambique’, Journal of Southern African Studies, Vol. 34, No. 3, p. 539-556.
  14. Kelly, T. and Thiranagama, S., 2009, ‘Introduction: Specters of Treason’, in S. Thiranagama and T. Kelly, eds., Traitors: Suspicion, Intimacy, and the Ethics of State-Building, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 1-22.
  15. Koselleck, R., 1990, Futures Past. On the semantics of historical time, New York: Columbia University Press.
  16. Laban, M., 1998, Moçambique - Encontro com Escritores, Porto: Fundação Eng. António Almeida, 3 Volumes.
  17. Langa, A.V., 2011, Memórias de um combatente da causa, Maputo: JV Editores.
  18. Lugones, M., 2006, ‘On Complex Communication’, Hypatia, Vol. 21, No. 3, p. 75-85.
  19. Machava, B., 2011, ‘State Discourse on Internal Security and the Politics of Punishment in Post-independence Mozambique, 1975-1983’, Journal of Southern African Studies, Vol. 37, No. 3, p. 593-609.
  20. Machel, S.M., 1974, A Luta Continua: antologia de discursos do presidente da FRELIMO, Porto: Afrontamento.
  21. Machel, S.M., 1977, A Vitória Constrói-se, a Vitória Organiza-se, Maputo: Departamento do Trabalho Ideológico da FRELIMO.
  22. Machel, S.M., 1978 [1970], Educar o Homem para Vencer a Guerra, Criar uma Sociedade Nova e Desenvolver a Pátria, Maputo: Departamento do Trabalho Ideológico da FRELIMO.
  23. Mamdani, M., 2012, ‘Historical Research with Historical Depth: Africa, Human Rights and Citizenship’, CODESRIA Bulletin, Nos. 3&4, p. 7.
  24. Mamdani, M., 2015, ‘Beyond Nuremberg: The Historical Significance of the Postapartheid Transition in South Africa’, Politics & Society, Vol. 43, No. 1, p. 61- 88.
  25. Mateus, D.M., 2006, Memórias do Colonialismo e da Guerra, Porto: Edições Asa.
  26. Meneses, M.P., 2007, ‘Pluralism, Law and Citizenship in Mozambique: mapping the complexity’, Oficina do CES, Vol. 291.
  27. Meneses, M.P., 2011, ‘Images Outside the Mirror? Mozambique and Portugal in World History’, Human Architecture, Vol. IX, p. 121-137.
  28. Meneses, M.P., 2012, ‘Powers, Rights and Citizenship: The ‘return’ of the traditional authorities in Mozambique’, in T. Bennett et al., ed., African Perspectives on Tradition and Justice, Cambridge: Intersentia. p. 67-94.
  29. Meneses, M.P., 2015, ‘Xiconhoca, o inimigo: Narrativas de violência sobre a construção da nação em Moçambique’, Revista Crítica de Ciências Sociais, Vol. 106, p. 9-52.
  30. Moiane, J., 1984, ‘O Direito nas Zonas Libertadas’, Justiça Popular, Vol. 8&9, p.11-14.
  31. Mondlane, E.C., 1967, ‘Helen Kitchen: Conversations with Eduardo Mondlane’, Africa Report, Vol. 12, No. 8, p.31-32 and 49-51.
  32. Nalyambipano, S.T., 2013, Memórias de um General da Linha da Frente, Maputo: Gabinete de Estudos da Presidência da Republica.
  33. Ncomo, B., 2003, Uria Simango, Um Homem, Uma Causa, Maputo: Edições Novafrica.
  34. Pachinuapa, R., ed., 2011, Memórias da Revolução 1962-1974, Maputo: Centro de Pesquisa da História da Luta de Libertação Nacional e Associação Nachingwea.
  35. Peixoto, C. and Meneses, M.P., 2013, ‘Domingos Arouca: um percurso de militância nacionalista em Moçambique’, Topoi, Vol. 14, No. 26, p. 86-104.
  36. Peterson, D.R., 2012, Ethnic Patriotism and the East African Revival: a history of dissent, c. 1935-1972, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  37. Pitcher, A., 2006, ‘Forgetting from Above and Memory from Below: strategies of legitimation and struggles in post-socialist Mozambique’, Africa, Vol. 76, No,1, p. 88-112.
  38. Quinn, J.R., 2009, ‘What of Reconciliation? Traditional mechanisms of acknowledgement in Uganda’, in Quinn, J.R., ed., Reconciliation(s): Transitional Justice in Postconflict Societies, Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press. p. 174-206.
  39. Ricoeur, P., 2006, Memory, History, Forgetting, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
  40. Roth-Arriaza, N. and Mariezcurrena, J., eds, 2006, Transitional Justice in the Twenty-First Century: Beyond Truth Versus Justice, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  41. Santos, B.S., 1998, ‘The Fall of the Angelus Novus: beyond the modern game of roots and options’, Current Sociology, Vol. 46, No. 2, p. 81-118.
  42. Santos, B.S., 2004a, The World Social Forum: a User’s Manual. (http:// www.ces.uc.pt/bss/documentos/fsm_eng.pdf.), 20 June 2013.
  43. Santos, B.S., 2004b, ‘A Critique of the Lazy Reason: against the Waste of Experience’, in Wallerstein, I., ed., The Modern World-System in the Long Durée, London: Paradigm Publishers. p. 157-197.
  44. Santos, B.S. and Avritzer, L., 2007, ‘Introduction: Opening Up the Canon of Democracy’, in B.S. Santos, ed., Democratizing Democracy, London: Verso Press. p. xxxiv-lxxiv. S/a, 1977, Tortura na colónia de Moçambique: 1963-1974, Porto: Afrontamento.
  45. Teitel, R., 2003, ‘Transitional Justice Genealogy’, Harvard Human Rights Journal, Vol. 16, p. 69-94.
  46. Thomaz, O., 2008, ‘‘Escravos sem dono’: a experiência social dos campos de trabalho em Moçambique no período socialista’, Revista de Antropologia da USP, Vol. 51, No. 1, p. 177- 214.
  47. Trouillot, M.-R., 1995, Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History, Boston: Beacon Press.
  48. West, H., 2003, ‘Voices Twice Silenced: betrayal and mourning at colonialism’s end in Mozambique’, Anthropological Theory, Vol. 3, p. 343-365.
  49. Wieviorka, A., 2006, The Era of the Witness, Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Read More

Author Biography

Maria Paula Meneses

Centre for Social Studies, Colégio de Sao Jerónimo, Coimbra University, Portugal.

Email: mpmeneses@gmail.com

Download
PDF
Statistic
Read Counter : 484 Download : 43

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Most read articles by the same author(s)

Similar Articles

<< < 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 > >> 

You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.