AEGIS ECAS 2007 - View abstract

Panel	16. New ways of managing public administrations in Africa ?
Paper ID	307
Author(s)	Santos, Boaventura de Sousa; Meneses, Maria Paula
Paper	No paper submitted
Abstract	This paper – an ethnographic account of the recent municipal changes in Angoche, a municipality in Mozambique’s northern province of Nampula - can be read from different perspectives. Indeed, Angoche became, after the local elections of 2003, one of the few municipalities to be ruled by Renamo, the opposition party to Frelimo, the country’s ruling party. Based on our hypothesis of the heterogeneous character of the Mozambican state, this paper concentrates on the analysis of the role of the multiple “local authorities” (traditional authorities, community courts, etc.), all involved in community justice, and the impact on them resulting from the change of ruling party in control of the municipality. This discussion is particularly relevant since it sheds light over the multiple power instances present in the country, in the context of a broader politico-social transformations in Africa. For example, traditional authorities – reflecting longstanding political, cultural and historical conditions in a changing setting – are not formally taken into account in urban contexts. However, these institutions are not easily manipulated and the state dependence on them often limits the state power as much as facilitates it. Ideally this hypothesis will be further pursued by a comparison between a big city (Maputo) and a small town (Angoche). At a more general level we seek to understand how a hegemonic technology – democratic elections – is appropriated at local level: in this sense, the paper is about the local meanings of elections in a specific Southern African context. Moving beyond the emphasis on the state - operating as a preformed repository of power, spread progressively outward to “nonstate” spaces beyond its reach - this paper seeks to highlight, from a postcolonial perspective, the role of parties beyond “the state”, and the multiple meanings of power that are at play. Drawing from the authors’ research of the Mozambique law system, this article argues that indigenous dispute settlement structures in Mozambique do not represent miraculously preserved pre-colonial traditions or even a special sort of marginalization. Rather, they reflect the convergence of existing identity categories with shifting global structures of development and governance. Specifically, it reflects a combination of ‘cultural distinctiveness’ and effective strategies of extraversion in the context of economic and political liberalization. The paper questions whether the power disputes evident in the Angoche municipality – involving different political parties, and distinct forms of representations - constitutes an unfortunate retrograde step or whether institutional pluralism allows for political flexibility and stability and offers opportunities for the more effective extension of justice delivery to the city. This lens is used to interrogate the exercise of democratic consolidation and local governance in a context where elected politicians and local bureaucrats are obliged to coordinate their activities with traditional leaders, whose authority rests on other forms of legitimacy. This mutually transformative process illustrates the complexity of democratic consolidation, as well as the ability of the traditional authorities to adapt to changing political and social environments without sacrificing its unique claims to authority.

The Mozambican State and local democratization - who sets the agenda?