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AEGIS European Conference on African Studies
11 - 14 July 2007
African Studies Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands
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Strong Party, Collapsing State?: Frelimo and ‘State’ Survival Through the Mozambican Civil War
| Panel |
10. Theorizing African State Trajectories
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| Paper ID | 647 |
| Author(s) |
Sumich, Jason
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| Paper |
No paper submitted
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| Abstract | Much of the research on post-colonial Africa locates the state as a central player in - or cause of - many of the crises that have affected the continent since independence. The state has been described variously as hard and soft, authoritarian and underdeveloped, corrupt and neo-patrimonial or the engine of development. While some decry the dangers of an overly interventionist state, others warn of the dangers of “failed” states or state collapse. Yet despite the differing interpretations, the state, although often in conjunction with equally nebulous concepts such as civil society, is frequently the centre of analysis for the political culture of the continent as a whole. This paper calls into question what we mean by the term ‘state’ and asks whether can we separate it from leaders or ruling parties in specific instances and during specific moments of time. I base my analysis on Mozambique and argue that in most senses, apart from the symbolic, the state collapsed during the civil war (1977-1992). By maintaining internal unity and controlling the symbolic aspects of the state, such as the capital, a flag and foreign embassies, it was the Frelimo party that showed resilience and adaptability and it survived the civil war even though it had lost control of most of the country outside of the major cities. Therefore, in this instance, analysis should be focused on the Frelimo party, on what ‘party’ means in this case and on those who contest Frelimo’s ongoing attempts to construct a state in their changing image and its implications, and not on a typology of the African state.
Keyword Mozambique, Frelimo, the State, the Party, State-Building
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