Vampires, Jihadists and Structural Violence in Mozambique: Reflections on Violent Manifestations of Local Discontent and their Implications for Peacebuilding

This essay seeks to explain, in a historical perspective, recent violent attacks on local institutions and representatives of the Mozambican state. Case studies are taken from three Mozambican Provinces, to which historical cases are added showing similar patterns and targets of armed attacks. Based on desk research , interviews and the review of anthropological and political economy literature, the main causes of local conflicts – all of which with their specific contexts and narratives – are identified as being threefold: Firstly, the historically entrenched political economy dominated by Frelimo deals with discontent and dissent in an authoritariina and often violent way, or, in the words of the anthropologist Bjørn Bertelsen, with ‘warfare as governance’. Secondly, the Limited Access Order firmly established in Mozambique produces socioeconomic exclusion of local social, economic and political stakeholders and interests, notably when it is linked to the extraction of natural resources. A third factor is a ‘now future’ perspective of Mozambican youth, the demographic majority. Caught in ‘waithood’ (Alcinda Honwana), it is alienated from their local communities and cultures, but not absorbed by the society and economy. This makes particlulary male youth vulnerable to global influences, and promises of peers, sometimes associated with radical religious thought and crime networks. The essay further examines the extent to which N-E part of Mozambique with its enormous investments in a Liquified Natural Gas industry is vulnerable to the influence of militant Islam. The study concludes with suggestions to address the local conflicts, emerging at a time, when the long standing ‘warfare’ between the Frelimo Government and Renamo is being negotiated towards a political settlement.