Politicization of Ethnic Groups: An Anthropological Approach of Political Conflicts in Mozambique - Academic Journals | Athens ...
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2021-4148-AJSS – 16 MAR 2021
1 Politicization of Ethnic Groups: An Anthropological
2 Approach of Political Conflicts in Mozambique
3
4 In Mozambique there was an internal and horrible conflict from 1976 to 1992,
5 ended with General Peace Agreement; the second political tension started in 2013
6 and ended in 2014 with the Accord of cessation of hostilities; the third one began in
7 2015 and ended in 2019. The fourth conflict started from the end of 2019 and is still
8 ongoing between the Government and RENAMO. Among a number of factors, there
9 is an apparent ethnic motivation in these conflicts. The study aims to analyse the
10 influence of ethnicity in political conflicts. To what extent the ethnic elements
11 influenciate the internal political conflicts in Mozambique, is the departure question.
12 The main finding show a tendency to a politicization of the three main ethnic groups
13 settled in the three main geographic regions of Mozambique, namely Changana-
14 south, Macena - Center and Macua-north, by the political parties. The literature
15 review and an empirical study based on questionnaires addressed to population
16 from the three regions of the country and interview to politicians were used to
17 produce the study. The study is important because it brings an approach of conflict
18 beyond, neither armed, nor political ones.
19
20 Keywords: Ethnicities, Ethnic groups, Politicization, Political conflict, Mozambique
21
22
23 Introduction
24
25 Looking at the political situation in the world at the end of the twentieth
26 century, the immediate impression is that most of the serious armed conflicts
27 today have an important ethnic dimension (ERIKSEN, 2001:261).
28 The research entitled Politicization of ethnic groups: An anthropological
29 approach of political conflicts in Mozambique, aims to analyse the politicization
30 of ethnic groups in Mozambican political conflict.
31 Most of researches in Mozambican conflict focus in political and
32 economic issues as the immediate causes of internal tensions. Though it is true,
33 we cannot disregard the ethnicities in general panoramic view of this political
34 conflict. The anthropological approach of conflicts constitutes an important
35 element to complete the study of peacekeeping in Mozambique and the main
36 novelty found in this work.
37 The combination of bibliographic method and empirical one, sustained by
38 questionnaire resulted in the compilation of the final work.
39 The research is composed by five main parts. The first part constitutes an
40 introduction with an overview of the entire work and technical elements such
41 as objectives and research question and the meaning of the main concepts. The
42 second part draws up an historical background of Mozambique from colonial
43 period up to 2020 trough literature review. The third part describes the
44 methodology used to produce the research. The fourth part discusses the
45 obtained results through statistical instruments. The research ends with a
46 conclusion emphasised by the opinion of the author.
47
12021-4148-AJSS – 15 MAR 2021
1 Objectives
2
3 The research aims to analyse the politicization of ethnic groups in
4 Mozambican political conflict.
5 To fulfil this objective, three other specific objectives need to be
6 addressed:
7
8 - To identify the causes of political conflicts in Mozambique.
9 - To evaluate the weight of politicization in the political conflict in
10 Mozambique.
11
12 Problem
13
14 Mozambique faced 16 years of civil war from 1976 to 1992, ended with
15 General Peace Agreement of October 4, signed buy the two belligerents parts,
16 that is, RENAMO and the Government.
17 From 1992 up to 2013 the country held a peaceful term that served as an
18 example in SADC (Southern Africa Development Community) region.
19 However, from 2013 there are cyclic political conflicts ended with agreements
20 later violated by the main actors.
21 The agreements address deeply the political and economic issues and
22 nothing to ethnicities, thus, emerges the question: to what extent the
23 politicization of ethnic groups in Mozambican contributes to political conflict.
24 In searching to the clear answer to the posted question, three other sub-
25 questions need to be addressed:
26
27 - How do voters react in relation to ethnicities on their political
28 decisions?
29 - What is the position of ethnicities with regard to inequalities regional
30 development in Mozambique?
31 - What is the weight of ethnicities in the causes of political conflicts in
32 Mozambique?
33
34 Hypotheses
35
36 - Probably the politicization of ethnic groups contributes in a large scale to
37 increase political conflicts in Mozambique. The politicians dispute to conquer
38 support based on their ethnic origin and it creates tensions between
39 geographical regions.
40 - Maybe the politicization of ethnicities has nothing related to political
41 conflicts in Mozambique. The economic and political issues solely cause
42 political conflicts.
43
44
22021-4148-AJSS – 15 MAR 2021
1 Conceptualization
2
3 Political Conflict
4 Deng in Alao (2007:19), defines conflict as “a situation of interaction
5 involving two or more parties, in which actions in pursuit of incompatible
6 objectives or interest result in varying degrees of discord. . . .
7 Nicholson, in Alao, for his part, argues that conflict occurs when there is
8 interaction between at least two groups whose ultimate objectives differ.
9 In both cases, the groups become involved in mutually opposing and
10 violent interactions aimed at destroying, injuring, or controlling their opponent.
11 From the above definitions we find two central factors agreed among
12 scholars:
13
14 - The presupposition of the existence of at least two different units, with
15 agreement that something differentiates them. These units may be
16 individuals, communities, or countries, and the demarcating factor may
17 be personality, ethnicity, geography, nationality, race, religion, ideology,
18 or a combination of some of these.
19 - The existence, or perceived existence, of incompatible interest.
20
21 Hugh Miall quoted by Alao, lists four criteria that distinguish conflict from
22 other situations. For the interest of this thesis is worth to highlight only two:
23 the clear difference of opinion regarding values, interests, aims, or relations;
24 the parties may be either states or “significant elements of the population”
25 within the state.
26 Apart from the existence of group of population and the difference of
27 values between them, it is also important to look into the outcome of this
28 conflict. Miall contends that the outcome must be of great importance to the
29 whole society and political or legal solution must be impossible, so that
30 violence becomes the last resort.
31
32 Ethnic Group
33 According to Bissessar (2017), the actual usage of the term "ethnicity"
34 dates back to 480BC, to describe the Hellenic community in Greece. She
35 defines ethnic group as a community with the following characteristics:
36
37 - shared descent of the same blood;
38 - shared language - speaking the same language;
39 - shared sanctuaries and sacrifices;
40 - shared customs like fashion.
41
42 About 1500 years later, Narroll (1944:283), in defining an ethnic group in
43 the anthropological literature designated a population which:
44
45 - were largely biological and self-perpetuating;
32021-4148-AJSS – 15 MAR 2021
1 - shared fundamental cultural values realized in over unity in cultural
2 forms;
3 - were made up a field of communication and interaction;
4 - had a membership which identified itself, and is identified by others, as
5 constituting a category distinguishable from other categories of the
6 same order.
7
8 In his part, Schermerhorn quoted by Bissessar, defines an ethnic group as a
9 collectivity within a larger society having real or positive common ancestry,
10 memories of a shared historical past, and a cultural focus on one or more
11 symbolic elements defined as the epitome of their peoplehood.
12 Currently, there is a vast specialized literature on the topic of ethnicity
13 however, it is obvious that these concepts have not changed a lot.
14 Some other scholars such as Guibernau and Rex (1999:34), based on their
15 focus, put much emphasis on sharing nationalism, multiculturalism and
16 migration. In the view of these scholars ethnic groups must go beyond sharing
17 the biological ties, to those of nationalism and migration along history.
18 In practice this definition does not bring anything new because all of these
19 elements were included in fundamental values, such as national history.
20 For political anthropology, the real issue with ethnicity is its relation to
21 politics and power. Using this line of thoughts, Edwin quoted by Lewellen
22 (2003:168) defines “the essence of ethnic existence” as “the differential access
23 to means of production and rights to shares in production returns.”
24 This definition of ethnicity would not be in line with the numerous
25 viewpoints that find the essence of ethnicity in symbolic meanings, such as
26 religious, cultures, history, language and in the extreme cases, the race.
27 Nevertheless, such a perspective is valuable in focusing on the very real
28 power differentials among ethnic groups and the importance of ethnicity in
29 making claims to power.
30 Due to the focus on finding a relationship between ethnicity and political
31 conflicts, Lewellen´s definition best fits in this research. Thus, for the purpose
32 of this thesis, ethnic group should be understood as the one subordinate to a
33 dominant group, then within the state, ethnicity is marginal by definition. There
34 are always ethnic groups when people claim a bulk of returns or rights.
35 However, it is obvious that ethnicity can become an important form of
36 cultural capital. That is, belonging to a certain group can be utilized in political
37 struggle. In certain regions of Mozambique, for example, being Macua,
38 Machangana or Macena can be an important, perhaps even essential, asset to
39 influenciate local elections.
40
41 Cohesion of Ethnic Groups
42 Currently the cohesion of ethnic groups is in question of the boundaries of
43 each group. The same is in the question of identity because, due to the
44 globalization, it becomes hard to identify a clear separation from one group to
45 another.
42021-4148-AJSS – 15 MAR 2021
1 It is, as Hall & Gay (1996:60) labelled as "the fear", which is in fact quite
2 justified, that everything, even meaning, will dissolve in globalization.
3 The globalization places ethnic groups in threat of disappearance or in lack
4 of cohesion due to the flow of everything, such as people (migration), market,
5 and above all, the flow of information through social networks. This vision is
6 strongly defended by the structural-functionalists, such as Seymour Lipset,
7 Karl Marx, and William Beer, to quote some.
8 In contrary, Bissessar (2017:7), based on Max Webber, finds a way in
9 which the ethnic groups survive in a globalized and politicized world. She
10 noted, and quite rightly, that it was the way the political community was
11 organized which appeals to shared identity and ethnicity and brings it into
12 action. Along history the groups had all persisted in maintaining the
13 consciousness of an ethnic group. Thus, ethnic resurgences were occurring all
14 over the world.
15 In this maintenance it is important to pick up some points that have created
16 a common consciousness in a framework that Weber (1968) called reactive-
17 ethnicity model.
18 To explain this framework, Weber argues:
19
20 - Discrimination: Ethnic solidarity was reinforced when there was
21 discrimination such that individuals were assigned to specific types of
22 occupation and other social roles on the basis of observable cultural
23 traits. It was more intense if at the end, members of one group were
24 restricted to subordinate and unrewarding social positions, creating
25 levels of inequality between the groups. In practice it created unfair
26 competition where each group felt in the same condition to occupy
27 privileged position and to earn better rewards. The unfavourable groups
28 involved in these competitive tensions heightened their cohesion within
29 the groups.
30 - Social boundaries: If a group maintained its identity when their
31 members interacted with others this was in fact a criterion for
32 determining membership and ways of signalling membership and
33 exclusion. In this case, ethnic groups were not based only on
34 occupation of exclusive territories but rather they were validated by
35 their social life to tight the cohesion within the groups. Although Weber
36 put too much emphasis on the social boundaries, in the field of ethnicity
37 we cannot relegate the importance of territory.
38
39 Thus, Barth, cited by Bissessar, when discussing why ethnic communities
40 are preserved, he highlights the criterion of cultural ecology, with a clear
41 indication of territory. Barth proposed that group adaptation must take the
42 following forms: Groups may occupy clearly distinct territories in the natural
43 environment and may be in minimal competition for resources; groups may
44 monopolize separate territories in which case they would compete for resources
45 including political power; while groups occupy different territories they would
46 still be in close interdependence in supporting matters.
52021-4148-AJSS – 15 MAR 2021
1 In current ethnic groups such as machangana, macena and macua, in
2 Mozambique, the cohesion attempts to monopolize separate territories to
3 compete for natural resources and political power is dominant in a such
4 competition.
5 In globalization´s world becomes difficult to separate ethnic groups by
6 territories due to the flow of people from different points to other. They carry
7 out their own ethnic identity but are forced to be shaped by the same political
8 power.
9 According to Smith (1960:767), the various ethnic groups have their own
10 family systems, their own productive economies, their own languages and
11 religion but not their own political system. In the political sphere they are all
12 controlled by one dominant segment.
13 In these societies, therefore, all the communities or segments must
14 participate in, or be subject to, common political institutions, otherwise the
15 political unit would fragment into its component cultural sections.
16 Furnivall (1945), also analyses ethnic groups as having its own religion, its
17 own culture, and its own ideas and ways of life. This author finds that the
18 members of each group mix with those of other groups only in the market
19 place, in buying and selling. They meet each other by the economic motive,
20 with a desire for individual material advantage.
21 Based on Furnivall and Smith we can some up that ethnic groups tend to
22 maintain their lifestyles (religion, culture, ideas) but they fill forced to be
23 bound by the common political power and market place.
24
25 Politicization
26 According to Gebrewold in Francis (2008:158), "there is a common
27 argument that bad governance in Africa is at least partially caused by
28 ethnicized political culture".
29 This type of political culture based on ethnic alliances is known as
30 politicization.
31 The politicization consists on manipulation of public opinion within the
32 ethnic group in such a way that everything turn in favour to the ethnic leader.
33 Politicization of ethnic identity implies mutual expectations and affective
34 trust politically, economically and morally between the leader and population.
35
36
37 Mozambican Political Context from Independence (1975-2020)
38
39 The construction of Mozambican State was not in one time. It passed
40 through phases since pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial. However, the
41 Mozambican state in modern sense starts from independence in 1975.
42
43 Pre-colonial
44
45 According to Newitt11, the origin of the inhabitants of Mozambique is as a
46 result of immigration of Bantus from a region known as Great Lakes in the
62021-4148-AJSS – 15 MAR 2021
1 fourth century, to Southern Africa. The Bantus expelled the first inhabitants
2 known as Hotentotes and Khoisan to southwest Africa.
3 Those people who settled in various countries of southern Africa, in
4 Mozambique they were divided into three large groups:
5
6 1. The first group of Bantu was consisted of the Macua and Ajaua tribes
7 and settled from Rovuma to Zambeze Rivers (North). These groups
8 also settled in Tanzania.
9 2. The second group of Bantu consisted of Ndau and Chona tribes that
10 settled in territory between the Zambeze and Save rivers (Centre). The
11 Chona tribe extended out to Zimbabwe.
12 3. The third group which was located in the region of the Save river and
13 Maputo (in the south) consisted of the Zulu and Tsonga (changana)
14 tribes and they extended out to South Africa.
15
16 According to their roots and the environment encountered in each region,
17 they formed three main dominants ethnic groups namely, Macua, Macena and
18 Machangana, respectively in north, centre and south of Mozambique.
19 These ethnic groups set themselves up in small chiefdoms which gradually
20 coalesced into larger kingdoms. These were Marave empire in North,
21 Monomotapa empire in center and Gaza empire in south.
22
23 Colonial
24
25 The European countries economically robust imposed, during the
26 European expansion, that to be considered the colony, each metropolis must
27 occupy the entire African country. Portugal was a small country in terms of
28 size, and economically weak. The official abolishment of slavery in 1842
29 became the Portugal's economic condition worse, so that he was unable to
30 explore the vast territory of Mozambique.
31 According to Alden (2001:3) Portugal granted the concessionary
32 companies a multi-year charter, exemption from taxation by the colonial
33 authorities.
34
35 - The Niassa Company, which had leased the northern third of the colony
36 in 1891, engaged in a number of stillborn agricultural schemes.
37 - The Mozambique Company in central region, its major accomplishment
38 was the building of a railway linking Southern Rhodesia with the
39 Mozambican port of Beira.
40
41 From Maputo to Save river remained a territory with direct Portuguese
42 administration.
43 An anthropological approach is worth to make this relationship between
44 the former empires and colonial administration, that is, the concession of these
45 territories coincidently combines with the former distribution of chiefdoms and
46 with ethnic groups according to regions.
72021-4148-AJSS – 15 MAR 2021
1 Independence - endogenous and exogenous environment for the conflict
2
3 Mozambique was a Portuguese colony throughout almost five hundred
4 years (1498-1975) to the independence on 25 June 1975.
5 Apart from the 10 years of liberation war, according to Newitt in Bertelsen
6 (2016:27) the independence was, arguably, to a large extent a result of a coup
7 d’état on 25 April 1974 that toppled Salazar’s authoritarian government in
8 Portugal, as well as the recognition by the new regime of the vast financial
9 resources being squandered in the country’s colonial wars
10 Upon independence, Mozambique once again moved to a 16 years civil
11 war between RENAMO1 and the Government. The reasons of RENAMO
12 creation range from endogenous to exogenous explanation.
13 From exogenous explanation, Bertelsen (2016), points out that Southern
14 Rhodesia and South
15 Africa were directly involved in battles on Mozambican soil, ran army
16 bases, provided logistics, and also killed Frelimo activists abroad.
17 Mozambique settled Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army
18 (ZANLA) guerrillas, hence was opposed to Rhodesian government. Similarly,
19 because Mozambique helped ANC2 to fight against apartheid in Republic of
20 South Africa, the south African government supported RENAMO as a way of
21 retaliation.
22 From endogenous explanation, RENAMO gained popularity in
23 Mozambique from population that was not sympathizing with government
24 politics, mainly the villagization for increasing agricultural production in the
25 early 1980s the attacks on traditional authority, especially the régulo3 (local
26 chief), and prohibition of traditional practices, arguing that were “obscurantist”
27 and therefore counterproductive.
28 Regarding the geographic region, the civil war was strongly supported in
29 the centre and then expanded to almost over the country such as in the north as
30 in the south Mozambique, lasting until the General Peace Agreement (GPA) in
31 1992.
32
33 Peace and a success example 1992-2013
34
35 From the 1992 GPA up until 2013, it appeared that the democratic
36 framework then established had been a rare case of post-civil war success.
37 The political scene was dominated by the two former enemies (Frelimo
38 and Renamo), political violence ceased and regular general elections were held
39 every 5 years from the first general elections in 1994.
1
RENAMO - stands Resitência Nacional Moçambicana (Mozambican National Resistence),
currently the main opposition political party.
2
African Nation Congress, the main political party from South Africa.
3
Régulo was the local chief with legitimacy authority created by the colonial government to
implement its regulation and for tax collection.
82021-4148-AJSS – 15 MAR 2021
1 According to Regalia (2017), Mozambique was then seen as a successful
2 case of liberal peacebuilding, where electoral politics took precedence in the
3 negotiation of political agreements.
4
5 2014 New Political Conflicts, Old Operational Theatre
6
7 Tension between Frelimo and Renamo has always existed, even in times of
8 peace. However, smaller scale conflict re-emerged in 2013 between Renamo
9 and the Government.
10 The purpose of Renamo’s insurrection should not be underestimated.
11 Regalia (2017:11) refers that:
12
13 by targeting specific areas and industries strategic to the country’s economy,
14 Renamo has been resorting to its old guerrilla and destabilisation strategy,
15 whereby it seeks to weaken the government to then force concessions, which it
16 hasn’t otherwise been able to obtain through the ballot. Central to this strategy
17 has been the disruption of transport routes, which damages commercial
18 operations, and, indirectly, Frelimo’s source of income as ruling party.
19
20 Disruption of key transport axes, and resources was something which
21 Renamo was already renowned for during the civil war era, and is something it
22 has successfully re-implemented in recent years.
23 This conflict ended with the Accord of cessation of hostilities signed by
24 government and Renamo before October 2014 general elections. The ceasefire
25 was signed on 5 September 2014 by Afonso Dlhakama (late president of
26 Renamo) and Armando Guebuza (Ex President of Mozambique).
27
28 2015-2019 Renamo with his 6 provinces
29
30 Soon after the results of General Elections, Renamo started claiming that
31 the elections were not fair, although the international observers concluded that
32 they were.
33 Renamo was pushing for greater decentralization of power, asking that
34 provincial governors be elected directly by local population, rather than
35 appointed by the ruling party in Maputo.
36 Rigalia (2017:13), points out that Dhlakama claims that the current
37 nomination system leads to provinces, which had voted in majority for Renamo
38 in the presidential election, being exclusively governed by Frelimo
39 representatives, appointed by the President.
40 Beyond political issues such as power, the Renamo's idea is that the profit
41 of recent discovery of natural resources does not benefit to general population.
42 Hence, by decentralisation through election of Governor, Renamo can lead
43 the 6 (out of 11) provinces where he won majority of votes.
44 Since the debate was taken seriously by Assembly of Republic, the
45 Constitution was amended to accommodate it, which was previously
46 unconstitutional. Thus, from the 5th general elections in 2019, the governor is
47 elected through the party's list, being the first one from the list.
92021-4148-AJSS – 15 MAR 2021
1 This constitutional change paved to an end of the violence lived from 2015
2 through, the Accord of definitive cessation of hostilities, signed on 01 August
3 2019, by the government represented by President of Republic (Filipe Nyusi),
4 and RENAMO by his new president Ossufo Momade.
5
6 The Cultural Elements in the Εmergency of Political Violence in Mozambique
7
8 According to the report nº1/2020 of the Institute of Peace and Security
9 Studies, the causes of conflicts in Mozambique range from political, economic
10 and ethnic.
11
12 Political Causes
13 The weight of this cause is the centralisation of power and the weak
14 governance.
15 From independence in 1975, FRELIMO4 is the ruling party.
16 As the power is a means to play in advantage it has permitted to
17 FRELIMO to gain significant control over state institutions.
18 The above mentioned report (2020:4), states that the result of the
19 centralised power is demonstrated through a winner-takes-all system that
20 allowed FRELIMO to have a significant advantage politically and financially
21 over the opposition. In this system the winner points provincial Governors,
22 relatively a high number of deputies to the Assembly of Republic, as well as
23 the Provincial Assembly members.
24 Fortunately this system was changed through Law 03/2019 of 31 May
25 which states in its article 6, nº3 "Governor of Province is elected the head of
26 list of political party, colligation of political parties or group of electors who
27 have a majority of votes to the Provincial Assembly"5. From the 5th general
28 elections of 2019 the winner does not take all and the State moves to
29 decentralised system.
30 The previous system was obviously weakening the central government in
31 the sense that all the politics were designed and decided by the central
32 government and the periphery (Province and District) had no chance to
33 contribute to the development.
34 The combination of centralisation and weak central governance led to
35 instability of the country and to an untrust relationship between FRELIMO and
36 RENAMO.
37
38 Disparities of Ethnic Regions
39 As it has been referred throughhout the paper, there is a clear regional
40 ethnic division in Mozambique, namely: machangana in south, macena in
4
FRELIMO is the party that led the National liberation war against Portuguese colony,
5
From Portuguese (É eleito Governador de Província o cabeça-de-lista do partido político, da
coligação de partidos políticos ou de grupos de cidadãos eleitores que obtiver a maioria de
votos nas eleições para a Assembleia Provincial), (Nº3, article 6). All passages quoted from
Portuguese or French-language sources have been translated by the author, unless it is
previously stated.
102021-4148-AJSS – 15 MAR 2021
1 center, macua in north. Thus,disparities in Mozambique revolve around
2 regional inequalities between the centre, north and south.
3 The macua and macena ethnic groups from north and center respectively,
4 they claim that political power is concentrated in machanga from south.
5 According to Cabrita (2000:19), in the Macua's view, "Southerners
6 benefited more in terms of education and training due to the colonial
7 administration being more strongly felt in the south of Mozambique".
8 This faction is noticed since early the foundation of FRELIMO,
9 concerning its leadership among northerners and southerners members. The
10 founder and first president of FRELIMO, Eduardo Mondlhane6 was a
11 machangana from south- Manjacaze - Gaza province. The second president of
12 FRELIMO, was also the president of the first Popular Republic of
13 Mozambique, Samora Machel7, was from south, Chokwe- Gaza. The second
14 president of Mozambique, Joaquim Chissano, was a machangana from south,
15 Chibuto-Gaza. The third president of Mozambique, Armando Guebuza, was a
16 macua from north, Murrupula- Nampula, but he grew up in south - Mafalala,
17 Maputo. The current president, Filipe Nyusi is a maconde from north, Mueda,
18 Cabo-Delgado and he also grew up in south - Maputo.
19 The location of machanga, in south cannot be underestimated in this
20 analysis. Its proximity to South Africa, a powerful economic country, and the
21 centralisation of power, has contributed to the concentration of economic
22 resources in this region, specifically in the capital city - Maputo.
23 In searching of economic and political equities, the ethnic groups macua
24 from north and macena from centre claim for the equalities of rights between
25 these regions.
26 Although there are mineral resources in north and centre, the asymmetries
27 in comparison with south are so visible, according to Jahan (2018), with
28 exception of Gaza, the provinces of Maputo, Inhambane are under the average
29 of Human Development Index (HDI), which is 0.446. The center and north
30 Provinces are above the average of HDI of the country. The highest is Maputo
31 city with 0.611 and the lowest one is Cabo Delgado with 0.383.
32 Indeed, the poverty reduction has not been equal in the country, with
33 continued high poverty rates in the provinces of the northern.
34 These inequalities fostering the ethnic dimension endurance the political
35 conflicts in Mozambique.
36
37
38 Methodology
39
40 With regard to general methods, the work follows the Inductive method.
41 The results from the anthropological approach of political conflict in
6
Eduardo Mondlhane was the founder and first president of FRELIMO. He was killed by a
letter bomb in 03.03. 1969.
7
Samora Machel succeeded Mondlhane in the leadership of FRELIMO and when Mozambique
became independent in 1975, that is the emergence of the new State of Mozambique, he was
pointed as the first President of the Republic. He died in 1987 in a flight clash.
112021-4148-AJSS – 15 MAR 2021
1 Mozambique should be used to other African states, taking into consideration
2 that that majority of them were later organized by empires and kingdom before
3 the modern stat created through colonialisation.
4 In order to achieve the proposed goals there was a need to a combination
5 of methods, according the circumstances, starting with bibliographic method.
6 In this stage were explored the main and recent books dealing with political
7 conflict in Mozambique.
8 The next step was an empirical method. According to Sayer (2010:119),
9 the empirical method is a bridge to jump from theory to practice. Through the
10 empirical method was taken a research field based on questionnaire and
11 interviews as the key instruments.
12
13 Techniques of Data Procession
14
15 The data were gathered through questionnaires and interviews and
16 processed by means of statistical method. This method consisted on tabulation
17 of data, converting qualitative information into numbers to be analysed trough
18 averages and percentages and illustrated by means of charts.
19
20 Sample
21
22 The study cover all the adult population from Mozambique, counted as
23 about 28 million people according to INE (2017).
24 The sample targeted 100 adult people identified as voters during the work,
25 from three different regions of Mozambique, that is, south, centre and north.
26 This sample is labelled as random by availability because there was no
27 predefined method to select them.
28 Due to political context in centre and north, was an unbalanced number
29 from the regions being 40 voters in south, 40 in centre and 20 in north of
30 Mozambique. This sample is considered as representative, not in number but
31 regarding to the location of each group.
32 Apart from the 100 voters, 6 public managers were interviewed to better
33 understand their opinion about politicization of ethnic groups.
34
35
36 Discussion of Finding
37
38 Politicization of Ethnic Groups
39
40 According to the Foreign Policy Failed States Index of 2007, twelve of the
41 twenty critical states in the world, are in Africa.
42 As a result of this status, Gebrewold (2008), mentions a combination of
43 various factors, such as corruption, concentration of power in presidency,
44 authoritarianism, monopolisation of power, to quote some. Apart from the
45 above reasons, he points out ethnic or religious divisions.
122021-4148-AJSS – 15 MAR 2021
1 Gebrewold argues that bad governance in Africa is at least partially caused
2 by ethnicized political culture, that is, political culture based on ethnic
3 alliances.
4 According to the data collected within 100 voters, from three different
5 regions of Mozambique, 63% of people vote the candidate by ethnic alliances,
6 such as the chart illustrates.
7
8
9 Source: Elaborated by the author based on questionnaire data, 2021
10
11 The chart shows the responses of the question: "Why did you vote in that
12 candidate?" addressed to 100 voters. Unfortunately, only 26 people vote based
13 on political governance agenda. High percentage of 63% decides on whom to
14 vote in, based on ethnic alliances (regionalism, kinship, localism).
15 Indeed, in addition to the 63 people we have plus 10 who addressed their
16 vote expecting to see local community development. That is, 73% of people are
17 wondering on where the candidate comes from and what will be the local
18 return from their vote.
19 In practice the political leaders pay special attention to his origin ethnic
20 group during the exercise of power.
21 Apart from the kinship relation, people have belied that each candidate has
22 the obligation to closely benefit the region of his strong support. This mentality
23 supports the theory of Patron-clientelism, according to which, people vote in a
24 certain candidate with the expectance to be compensate with goods and quality
25 services, that is, it is a win-win game.
26 To evaluate this thought, the sample of 100 voters were asked "What do
27 you think that should be the causes of these regional development
28 inequalities?". The flowing chart presents the obtained results.
29
30
132021-4148-AJSS – 15 MAR 2021
1 Chart 2. Causes of Regional Inequality Development
2
3 Source: Elaborated by the author based on questionnaire data, 2021.
4
5 From the chart, higher percentage of 51% of voters think that inequality
6 development in Mozambique rises and maintains from long time because,
7 "Politicians put too much emphasis on their origin zone where they have a
8 strong support".
9 This position is in line with Berman, quoted by Francis (2008:158), in his
10 analysis of the theory of patron-client. He says that the theory of patron-client
11 involves the ethnic relations and politics, but it is not quite the same thing as
12 corruption.
13 For instance, Nelson Mandela (South Africa) was from Xhosa Ethnic
14 group from a small village of Mvezo and he transformed it into a town of
15 Eastern Cape. Samora Machel (Mozambique) transformed the country-side
16 into a Village of Chilembene, where he was born and the basis of ethnic group
17 Changana.
18 According to the data, in contrary to what should be, people do not think
19 the location of mineral resources causes regional inequality development. As
20 Macuti8 (2021CP), explains:
21
22 The location of mineral resources does not contribute to regional inequality
23 development at all. The incomes from mineral resources feed in large scale to the
24 GDP and later on converted into General State Budget to be allocated between
25 the Provinces. The amount varies according the specificity of each province.
26 Regarding the mineral resources, what cause inequalities are its bad management,
27 and not necessarily its location.
28
8
Macuti (2020PC) is a fictitious name to protect the name of a Public manager working in the
Govern of Province of Manica, interviewed on November 17, 2020, at his Office. 2020PC-
stands for Personal Communication in 2020.
142021-4148-AJSS – 15 MAR 2021
1 Indeed, the disparities in regional development cannot be justified solely
2 based in mineral resources. It, for sure, plays an important role but the attention
3 devoted by the politicians based on ethnicity in each region has been seen as a
4 direct retribution of their popular support.
5 From one side, people look at the ethnic group as a tool to boost popularity
6 and political support. From the other side, the politicization of ethnic groups
7 causes political conflicts.
8 It is well known that the political conflict in Mozambique is a result of
9 various causes intertwined each other. The same sample of 100 voters was
10 asked the question: What do you think that have a heave weight in the causes of
11 conflict?
12 The answers tend to point ethnicities, according to the following chart.
13
14
15 Source: Elaborated by the author based on questionnaire data, 2021.
16
17 Within the causes of political conflicts in Mozambique, in an
18 anthropological approach, the question of ethnicity plays an important role.
19 From the chart, the ethnic cause weighs 62%. That is, people are involved in
20 the political conflicts because they want to see their ethnicity in power, they
21 claim ethnic sympathy to the politicians in power.
22 Based on these data we can call this as a ethnic conflict, however, it is not
23 enough to declare this conflict as ethnic because apart from the ethnicities there
24 are another reasons such as inequality distribution of wealth and bad
25 governance which jointly sum 38%.
26 This is another way of politicization of ethnicities.
27 Summing up, the politicization of ethnic groups in this case study was
28 consisted in alliance of a certain political candidate based on his ethnic origin.
29 As a way to compensate, the politicians fill themselves owing to pay special
30 attention to the ethnic origin group who strongly supported to win and exercise
31 the power.
152021-4148-AJSS – 15 MAR 2021
1 This relation of politicians and ethnic group frequently is not regarding the
2 political agenda but ethnic alliances.
3 The claiming about the concentration of power in a certain ethnic group,
4 namely machanga from south, is another way of politicization which desires a
5 special attention when dealing with Mozambican conflict.
6
7
8 Conclusion and Remarks
9
10 The ethnicities seem to be with no importance in politics in a general view.
11 This anthropological analysis proved its weight in political issues. Indeed, there
12 is a strong tend to a politicization of ethnicities in Mozambique.
13 Trough this approach became clear that within various causes of political
14 conflict the ethnic orientation weighs strongly with 62%. Unfortunately, the
15 ethnicities have been neglected during peace negotiation.
16 The politicization of ethnicities has a reciprocity argument. The members
17 of ethnic groups lean on a certain candidate based on his ethnic origin. During
18 the exercise of his power, this candidate must pay a special attention to the
19 group that supported his turnout, through goods and services, as a way to
20 compensate them. This relation, known as client-patron, perpetrates politicization
21 of ethnicities in a vicious cycle.
22 The research proved the initial hypothesis that - the politicization of ethnic
23 groups contributes in a large scale to increase political conflicts in
24 Mozambique.
25 The study is important to integrate cultural elements in a search of
26 peacekeeping.
27 The lack of financial support and political situation were under the
28 limitations to target a large number of sample as well as to move to countryside
29 of all the eleven provinces. Hence in the coming opportunities a deep study
30 about politicization of ethnicities is necessary.
31
32
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