Former Guerrillas in Mozambique

Former Guerrillas in Mozambique PDF Author: Nikkie Wiegink
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 0812252055
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 276

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Book Description
A sensitive ethnography of former Mozambican National Resistance (RENAMO) combatants After sixteen years of civil war (1976—1992) between the Mozambican National Resistance (RENAMO) and the government of Mozambique, over 90,000 former combatants were disarmed and demobilized by a United Nations-led program. Former combatants were to find their ways as civilians again, assisted by community-based reintegration rituals. While the process was often presented as a success story of peace, renewed armed conflict involving RENAMO combatants in 2013 and onward suggests that the reintegration of former guerrillas was a far more complex story. In Former Guerrillas in Mozambique, Nikkie Wiegink describes the trajectories of former RENAMO combatants in Maringue, a rural district in central Mozambique. Rather than focus on violence, trauma, and the reacceptance of these ex-combatants by the community, Wiegink emphasizes the ways in which RENAMO veterans have navigated unstable and sometimes dangerous social and political environments during and after the war. She examines the experiences of both male and female war veterans and their attempts at securing a tolerable life. Based on fourteen months of fieldwork conducted long after the war ended, Former Guerrillas in Mozambique offers a critique of a notion of reintegration that assumes that the lives of former combatants are shaped first by a break with society when joining the armed group and later by a break with the past when demobilizing and a return to a status quo. Wiegink argues, instead, that former combatants' motivations, experiences, and interactions are not necessarily characterized by a rigid separation from their RENAMO past, but rather comprise a mixture of ruptures and continuities of relationships and networks, including families, the spiritual world, fellow former combatants, political parties, and the state.

Former Guerrillas in Mozambique

Former Guerrillas in Mozambique PDF Author: Nikkie Wiegink
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 0812252055
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 276

Get Book

Book Description
A sensitive ethnography of former Mozambican National Resistance (RENAMO) combatants After sixteen years of civil war (1976—1992) between the Mozambican National Resistance (RENAMO) and the government of Mozambique, over 90,000 former combatants were disarmed and demobilized by a United Nations-led program. Former combatants were to find their ways as civilians again, assisted by community-based reintegration rituals. While the process was often presented as a success story of peace, renewed armed conflict involving RENAMO combatants in 2013 and onward suggests that the reintegration of former guerrillas was a far more complex story. In Former Guerrillas in Mozambique, Nikkie Wiegink describes the trajectories of former RENAMO combatants in Maringue, a rural district in central Mozambique. Rather than focus on violence, trauma, and the reacceptance of these ex-combatants by the community, Wiegink emphasizes the ways in which RENAMO veterans have navigated unstable and sometimes dangerous social and political environments during and after the war. She examines the experiences of both male and female war veterans and their attempts at securing a tolerable life. Based on fourteen months of fieldwork conducted long after the war ended, Former Guerrillas in Mozambique offers a critique of a notion of reintegration that assumes that the lives of former combatants are shaped first by a break with society when joining the armed group and later by a break with the past when demobilizing and a return to a status quo. Wiegink argues, instead, that former combatants' motivations, experiences, and interactions are not necessarily characterized by a rigid separation from their RENAMO past, but rather comprise a mixture of ruptures and continuities of relationships and networks, including families, the spiritual world, fellow former combatants, political parties, and the state.

The Battle for Mozambique

The Battle for Mozambique PDF Author: Stephen A. Emerson
Publisher: Helion and Company
ISBN: 1909384925
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
The sixteen-year-long war in Mozambique between the Frelimo government and Renamo rebels remains one of the most overlooked and misunderstood of the conflicts that raged across Africa during the height of the Cold War. While usually viewed as mere sideshow to more high-profile wars in Angola, Rhodesia and within apartheid South Africa itself, it nonetheless is noteworthy in its complexity, duration and destructiveness. Before it was all over in 1992 at least one million Mozambicans would be dead, millions more homeless and the country lying in ruins. Ultimately Frelimo would get its victory not on the battlefield but rather at the polling booth in 1994. Based on more than a decade of meticulous research, a review of thousands of pages of military records and documents, and dozens of in-depth interviews with political leaders, diplomats, generals, and soldiers and sailors, this book tells the story of the war from the perspective of those who fought it and lived it. It follows Renamo's growth from its Rhodesian roots in 1977 as a weapon against Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwean nationalist guerrillas operating from Mozambique through South African patronage in the early 1980s to Renamo's evolution as a self-sufficient nationalist insurgency. In tracing the ebb and flow of the conflict from the rugged mountains and Savannah forests of central Mozambique across the hot, humid Zambezi River valley and down to the very outskirts of the Mozambican capital in the far south, it examines the operational strategy of Frelimo and Renamo commanders in the field, the battles they fought and the lives of their troops. In doing so it highlights personal struggles, each side's successes and failures, and the missed opportunities to decisively turn the tide of war. Accordingly, this book provides the first real comprehensive military history of a war too long neglected and under appreciated in the chronicles of modern African history.

Soldiers at Peace

Soldiers at Peace PDF Author: J. Schafer
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 0230605710
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 244

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Book Description
This is the first scholarly study of soldiers and guerrillas demobilized after the civil war in Mozambique (1979-1992). The book examines former soldiers' - from both sides - return to civilian life, and how their identity as veterans plays out in the political sphere.

The Origins of War in Mozambique

The Origins of War in Mozambique PDF Author: Sayaka Funada-Classen
Publisher: African Books Collective
ISBN: 1920489983
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 457

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Book Description
The independence of Mozambique in 1975 and its decolonisation process attracted worldwide attention as a successful example of ìnational unityî. Yet, the armed conflict that broke out between the government and the guerrilla force in 1977 lasted for sixteen years and resulted in over a million deaths and several million refugees, placing this concept of ìnational unityî into doubt. For nearly twenty years, Sayaka Funada-Classen interviewed people in rural communities in Mozambique. By examining their testimonies, historical documents, previous studies, international and regional politics, and the changes that various interventions under colonialism brought to the traditional social structure, this book demonstrates that the seeds of ìdivisionî had already been planted while the liberation movement was seeking ìunityî in the struggle years. Presenting a comprehensive history of contemporary Mozambique, this book is indispensable for Mozambican scholars. It promises to serve as a landmark study not only for historians and the scholars of African studies but also for those who give serious consideration to the problems of conflict and peace in the world.

Conspicuous Destruction

Conspicuous Destruction PDF Author: Human Rights Watch (Organization)
Publisher: Human Rights Watch
ISBN: 9781564320797
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 218

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Book Description
Addressing two sets of concerns, this report covers both the abuses relating to the seventeen years of war between the Mozambique Armed Forces and the rebel Mozambique National Resistance, as well as the reforms instigated by the ruling Mozambique Liberation Front under President Joachim Chissano. Africa Watch evaluates the progress made by the Liberation Front government toward a democratic system of government that respects civil and political rights. The 1990 Constitution and related legislation are the centerpiece of this transition, and represent the most wholehearted attempt to build an institutional and legal framework to guarantee respect for human rights so far attempted in the history of Mozambique. Major concerns remain, however, relating to the ability of the government to implement the promised changes.

Mozambique and the Future

Mozambique and the Future PDF Author: Kerry Swift
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Guerrillas
Languages : en
Pages : 216

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Book Description


A Short History of Mozambique

A Short History of Mozambique PDF Author: Malyn Newitt
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190911166
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 254

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Book Description
This comprehensive overview traces the evolution of modern Mozambique, from its early modern origins in the Indian Ocean trading system and the Portuguese maritime empire to the fifteen-year civil war that followed independence and its continued after-effects. Though peace was achieved in 1992 through international mediation, Mozambique's remarkable recovery has shown signs of stalling. Malyn Newitt explores the historical roots of Mozambican disunity and hampered development, beginning with the divisive effects of the slave trade, the drawing of colonial frontiers in the 1890s and the lasting particularities of the north, centre and south, inherited from the compartmentalized approach of concession companies. Following the nationalist guerrillas' victory against the Portuguese in 1975, these regional divisions resurfaced in a civil war pitting the south against the north and centre, over attempts at far-reaching socioeconomic change. The settlement of the early 1990s is now under threat from a revived insurgency, and the ghosts of the past remain. This book seeks to distill this complex history, and to understand why, twenty-five years after the Peace Accord, Mozambicans still remain among the poorest people in the world.

Renamo

Renamo PDF Author: Alex Vines
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN:
Category : Guerrillas
Languages : en
Pages : 200

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Book Description
"... this study will testify to the nature of Renamo's chaotic search for power as Mozambique moves from Afro-Marxist policies toward a more democratic multiparty state." —Choice "... an invaluable contribution to understanding why things are so bad and providing some glimmering of how a solution might be found... provides a uniquely useful light on Renamo's murky origins and the means by which it manages to sustain itself." —Africa Analysis "... Alex Vines has compiled the most comprehensive and balanced survey to date of the origins and evolution of the Mozambican counter-revolution." —Third World Quarterly "Vines' wide-ranging survey is still the first place to turn for well-documented details on both internal and external aspects of Renamo's war." —International Journal of African Historical Studies "... very informative... it is precisely 'everything you wanted to know about the MNR but were afraid to ask.' " —Terence Ranger Vines's encyclopedic book provides essential information about this successful rebel movement which continues to be dangerous for the Mozambican government, even though South Africa has disengaged from its day-to-day operations.

Portugal's Guerrilla Wars in Africa

Portugal's Guerrilla Wars in Africa PDF Author: Al J. Venter
Publisher: Helion
ISBN: 9781910294734
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Portugal's three wars in Africa in Angola, Mozambique and Portuguese Guinea (Guiné-Bissau today) lasted almost 13 years - longer than the United States Army fought in Vietnam. Yet they are among the most underreported conflicts of the modern era. Commonly referred to as Lisbon's Overseas War (Guerra do Ultramar) or in the former colonies, the War of Liberation (Guerra de Libertação), these struggles played a seminal role in ending white rule in Southern Africa. Though hardly on the scale of hostilities being fought in South East Asia, the casualty count by the time a military coup d'état took place in Lisbon in April 1974 was significant. It was certainly enough to cause Portugal to call a halt to violence and pull all its troops back to the Metropolis. Ultimately, Lisbon was to move out of Africa altogether, when hundreds of thousands of Portuguese nationals returned to Europe, the majority having left everything they owned behind. Independence for all the former colonies, including the Atlantic islands, followed soon afterwards. Lisbon ruled its African territories for more than five centuries, not always undisputed by its black and mestizo subjects, but effectively enough to create a lasting Lusitanian tradition. That imprint is indelible and remains engraved in language, social mores and cultural traditions that sometimes have more in common with Europe than with Africa. Today, most of the newspapers in Luanda, Maputo - formerly Lourenco Marques - and Bissau are in Portuguese, as is the language taught in their schools and used by their respective representatives in international bodies to which they all subscribe. Indeed, on a recent visit to Central Mozambique in 2013, a youthful member of the American Peace Corps told this author that despite having been embroiled in conflict with the Portuguese for many years in the 1960s and 1970s, he found the local people with whom he came into contact inordinately fond of their erstwhile 'colonial overlords'. As a foreign correspondent, Al Venter covered all three wars over more than a decade, spending lengthy periods in the territories while going on operations with the Portuguese army, marines and air force. In the process he wrote several books on these conflicts, including a report on the conflict in Portuguese Guinea for the Munger Africana Library of the California Institute of Technology. Portugal's Guerrilla Wars in Africa represents an amalgam of these efforts. At the same time, this book is not an official history, but rather a journalist's perspective of military events as viewed by somebody who has made a career of reporting on overseas wars, Africa's especially. Venter's camera was always at hand; most of the images used between these covers are his. His approach is both intrusive and personal and he would like to believe that he has managed to record for posterity a tiny but vital segment of African history.

A Complicated War

A Complicated War PDF Author: William Finnegan
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520342380
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 343

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Book Description
Powerful, instructive, and full of humanity, this book challenges the current understanding of the war that has turned Mozambique—a naturally rich country—into the world's poorest nation. Before going to Mozambique, William Finnegan saw the war, like so many foreign observers, through a South African lens, viewing the conflict as apartheid's "forward defense." This lens was shattered by what he witnessed and what he heard from Mozambicans, especially those who had lived with the bandidos armado, the "armed bandits" otherwise known as the Renamo rebels. The shifting, wrenching, ground-level stories that people told combine to form an account of the war more local and nuanced, more complex, more African—than anything that has been politically convenient to describe. A Complicated War combines frontline reporting, personal narrative, political analysis, and comparative scholarship to present a picture of a Mozambique harrowed by profound local conflicts—ethnic, religious, political and personal. Finnegan writes that South Africa's domination and destabilization are basic elements of Mozambique's plight, but he offers a subtle description and analysis that will allow us to see the post-apartheid region from a new, more realistic, if less comfortable, point of view.