New Sites of Citizenship: Recognition of Traditional Authority and Group-based Citizenship in Mozambique

Abstract

Since the General Peace Accord of 1992, Mozambique has embarked on a protracted process of democratic decentralisation. The Municipal Law 2 of 1997 made provision for elected local governments in 33 urban municipalities, but not in rural areas. Instead, in the latter a little over 4,000 ‘community authorities’ have been recognised since 2002 following the passing of Decree 15 of 2000. This article examines the implementation and consequences for rural citizenship of this Decree of official recognition to traditional authorities, ‘secretários de bairro’ and other local leaders. Focusing particularly on traditional authorities, we argue that the Decree's community approach to representation both establishes new sites for the production of citizens and institutes a kind of group-based citizenship. It does this by incorporating the rural population into the nation state, not on the basis of the individual membership in the polis, but of membership in a territory-based community. Contrary to recent scholarly celebration of group-based citizenship as representing the accommodation of claims by marginalised groups from ‘below’, the Mozambican case provides an example of group-based citizenship as a ‘top-down’ strategy of the state to regulate and control rural territories and populations. We explore the political implications of this strategy and critically assess how the promise of increased participation of rural communities is being accompanied by a specific Frelimo-state version of the ideal moral citizen community. Criteria of inclusion and exclusion draw on war rhetoric from the 1980s, which presents the governing Frelimo party as pro-development and the opposition party, Renamo, and its supporters as aiming to destroy the positive gains achieved since the end of the civil war.

Notes

^*For comments on an earlier draft of this article we are thankful to Finn Stepputat from the Danish Institute for International Studies, Copenhagen, referees of this journal and participants in the conference on Traditional Accountability and Modern Governance in Africa, St Mary' College, University of Durham (UK), 5–7 July 2004, and the Nordic Africa Days conference, Nordic Africa Institute, Uppsala, 1–3 October 2003. We are also grateful to Annie Holmes for her thorough language editing of this article.

 1 In February 2004, sixteen secretários de bairro were recognised in Sussundenga District. This was widely seen as part of Frelimo's mobilisation of its constituencies before the elections of December 2004.

 2 Republica de Moçambique, ‘Diploma Ministerial no. 107-a/2000’, 27 August 2000; Republica de Moçambique, ‘Decreto no. 15/2000’, 20 June 2000. For a detailed description of Decree 15/2000 and its regulation, see L. Buur and H.M. Kyed, ‘State Recognition of Traditional Authority in Mozambique: The Nexus of Community Representation and State Assistance’, Discussion paper 28 (Nordic Africa Institute, Uppsala, Sweden, 2005), pp. 13–16.

 3 On the concept of ‘sites of governance’ see F. Stepputat, ‘Urbanizing the Countryside: Armed Conflict, State Formation, and the Politics of Place in Contemporary Guatemala’, in T.B. Hansen and F. Stepputat (eds), States of Imagination: Ethnographic Explorations of the Postcolonial State (Durham, NC and London, Duke University Press, 2001), pp. 284–312.

 4 E.F Isin and B. Turner, Handbook of Citizenship Studies (London, Sage Publications, 2002); E.F. Isin and P.K. Wood, Citizenship and Identity (London, Sage Publications, 1999); for Africa see C.R.D. Halisi, P.J. Kaiser and S.N. Ndegwa (eds), ‘Rethinking Citizenship in Africa’, Special Issue, Africa Today, 45, 3/4 (1998); B. von Lieres, ‘Review Article: New Perspectives on Citizenship in Africa’, Journal of Southern African Studies (JSAS), 25, 1 (1999), pp. 139–48; P. Geschiere and J. Gugler, ‘The Urban-Rural Connection: Changing Issues of Belonging and Identification’, Africa, 68, 3 (1998), pp. 309–19; E. Wilmsen, ‘Mutable Identities: Moving beyond Ethnicity in Botswana’, JSAS, 28, 4 (December 2002), pp. 825–41.

 5 C. Boone, Political Topographies of the African State: Territorial Authority and Institutional Choice (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2003); J. Ferguson, The Anti-Politics Machine: ‘Development’, Depoliticization, and Bureaucratic Power in Lesotho (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1991); C. Lund, ‘Precarious Democratisation and Local Dynamics in Niger: Cases of Local Politics in Zinder’, Development and Change, 32, 5 (2001), pp. 845–69.

 6 Isin and Turner, Handbook, p. 3; I. Young, ‘Polity and Group Difference: A Critique of the Ideal of Universal Citizenship’, Ethics, 99 (January 1989), pp. 250–74; C. Mouffe, ‘Democratic Politics and the Question of Identity’, in J. Rachman (ed.), The Identity in Question (New York, Routledge, 1995), pp. 33–46; C. Mouffe, ‘Radical Democracy or Liberal Democracy?’, in D. Trend (ed.), Radical Democracy: Identity, Citizenship and the State (London, Routledge, 1996) pp. 19–26.

 7 See C.R.C. Halisi, P.J. Kaiser and S.N. Ndegwa, ‘Guest Editors’ Introduction: The Multiple Meanings of Citizenship – Rights, Identity, and Social Justice in Africa', Special Issue, Africa Today, 45, 3–4 (1998), pp. 337–50; R. Werbner, ‘Introduction: Challenging Minorities, Difference and Tribal Citizenship in Botswana’, JSAS, 28, 4 (December, 2002), pp. 671–84; Wilmsen, ‘Mutable Identities’.

 8 Isin and Wood, Citizenship and Identity, pp. 1–2.

 9 See Halisi, Kaiser and Ndegwa, ‘Guest Editors’ Introduction'.

 10 Isin and Turner, Handbook, p. 3; Young, ‘Polity and Group Difference’.

 11 Isin and Wood, Citizenship and Identity, pp. 19–21.

 12 Isin and Wood, Citizenship and Identity, pp. 19–21, pp. 4–13.

 13 J. Comaroff and J. Comaroff, ‘Criminal Justice, Cultural Justice: The Limits of Liberalism and the Pragmatics of Difference in the New South Africa’ (unpublished paper presented at Roskilde University Centre, March, 2002); Werbner, ‘Introduction’, JSAS, 28, 4 (December2002), pp. 671–84; Wilmsen, ‘Mutable Identities’; F. Nyamjoh, ‘Local Attitudes towards Citizenship and Foreigners in Botswana: An Appraisal of Recent Press Stories’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 28, 4 (December 2002), pp. 755–75.

 14 For the liberal perspective, see J. Littleton, Clash of Identities: Essays on Media, Manipulation and Politics of the Self (Englewood Cliffs, NJ, Prentice Hall, 1996), pp. 1–10; J. Rawls, Political Liberalism (New York, Columbia University Press, 1993); R. Dahl, Democracy, Liberty and Equality (Oslo, Norwegian University Press, 1986); T.S. Marshall, Class, Citizenship and Social Development (Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1964).

 15 Isin and Wood, Citizenship and Identity, pp. 3–22.

 16 See, for example, Young, ‘Polity and Group Difference’.

 17 Isin and Turner, Handbook, p. 2; S. Sassen, ‘Towards Post-National and Denationalized Citizenship’, in Isin and Turner (eds), Handbook, pp. 277–92; I. Ong, Flexible Citizenship: The Cultural Logics of Transnationality (Durham, NC and London, Duke University Press, 1999); W. Kymlicka, Multicultural Citizenship: A Liberal Theory of Minority Rights (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1995).

 18 Isin and Wood, Citizenship and Identity, pp. 22–45.

 19 Halisi, Kaiser and Ndegwa, ‘Guest Editors’ Introduction'. A critical discussion of group-based rights as a vital alternative to the lack of recognition of difference is provided in a recent collection edited by Englund and Nyamjoh. The authors question whether the recognition of group rights and cultural difference can challenge neo-liberal reforms, proposing that communitarian concerns might just as easily be brought to bear on defending liberal democracies. H. Englund and F.B. Nyamjoh, Rights and the Politics of Recognition in Africa (London and New York, Zed Books, 2004), pp. 8–9.

 20 R.K. Hitchcock, ‘“We are the First People”: Land, Natural Resources and Identity in the Central Kalahari, Botswana’, JSAS, 28, 4 (December 2002), pp. 797–824; Werbner, ‘Introduction’, JSAS, 28, 4 (December, 2002), pp. 671–84; Wilmsen, ‘Mutable Identities’.

 21 M. Mamdani, Citizen and Subject: Contemporary Africa and the Legacy of Late Colonialism (Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1996).

 22 On the modernist perspective, see, for example, S. Adejumobi, ‘Citizenship, Rights and the Problem of Conflicts and Civil Wars in Africa’, Human Rights Quarterly, 23, 1 (2001), pp. 148–70.

 23 For an example of the communitarian perspective in Mozambique, see F.P. Kulipossa, ‘Sociedade civil, ONG's e boa governação no processo de reformas das relações estado-sociedade em Moçambique’, in J. Guambe and B. Weimer (eds), Texto de Discussão No. 2, Ministério de Administração Estatal, Programa de Reforma dos Órgãos Locais (Maputo, Ministry of State Administration (MAE), 1997); I.B. Lundin, ‘Traditional Authority in Mozambique’, in A.M. Silva (ed.), Decentralisation and Municipal Administration. Descriptions and Development of Ideas on some African and European Models (Maputo, Mozambique, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, 1998), pp. 33–42.

 24 Halisi, Kaiser and Ndegwa, ‘Guest Editors’ Introduction', pp. 3–4; von Lieres, ‘Review Article: New Perspectives on Citizenship in Africa’; Wilmsen, ‘Mutable Identities’; Hitchcock, ‘We are the First People’.

 25 Isin and Wood, Citizenship and Identity, p. 19.

 26 Régulos (‘little kings’ in Portuguese) or mambos (‘chiefs’ in Shona dialects) and regulados (‘chieftaincy’ in Portuguese) are referred to interchangeably in Sussundenga District.

 27 For a comprehensive overview, see M. Newitt, A History of Mozambique (London, Hurst & Co., 1995).

 28 The concept regedoria can be translated to chieftaincy. Grupos de povoações means population groups.

 29 J.P.C.B. Coelho, ‘Protected Villages and Communal Villages in the Mozambican Province of Tete 1968–1982’ (Ph.D. thesis, University of Bradford, 1993), pp. 99–110; B. O'Laughlin, ‘Class and the Customary: The Ambiguous Legacy of the Indigenato in Mozambique’, African Affairs, 99 (2000), pp. 5–42.

 30 In pre-colonial Mozambique, residence was dispersed. As is also the case in many places today, including Sussundenga District, people lived in separate household clusters rather than in villages. The boundaries of the political community were defined by traditions of co-residence and land use by allied groups. O'Laughlin, ‘Class and the Customary’, pp. 19–21.

 31 Coelho, ‘Protected Villages’, pp. 151–58.

 32 J. Alexander, ‘The Local State in Post-War Mozambique: Political Practices and Ideas About Authority’, Africa, 67, 1 (1997), pp. 1–26.

 33 O'Laughlin, ‘Class and the Customary’, pp. 26–30.

 34 D.R. Artur and B. Weimer, ‘Decentralisation and Democratisation in Post-War Mozambique: What Role for Traditional African Authority in Local Government Reform?’ (unpublished paper, presented at 14th Congress of the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences, Williamsburg, Virginia, USA, 25 July–1 August 1998), p. 4; Alexander, ‘The Local State in Post-war Mozambique’, p. 2.

 35 H. West and S. Kloeck-Jenson, ‘Betwixt and Between: “Traditional Authority” and Democratic Decentralization in Post-War Mozambique’, African Affairs, 98 (1999), pp. 455–84; for Sussundenga see Alexander, ‘The Local State in Post-War Mozambique’, pp. 2–8.

 36 West and Kloeck-Jenson, ‘Betwixt and Between’, p. 458.

 37 O'Laughlin, ‘Class and the Customary’, pp. 28–35; Alexander, ‘The Local State in Post-War Mozambique’, p. 2; M. Hall and T. Young, Confronting Leviathan: Mozambique Since Independence (London, Hurst & Company, 1997).

 38 The majority of chiefs in Sussundenga District fled their homes during the war, leading Renamo to collaborate with substitute chiefs in various areas. Renamo therefore failed to introduce a full continuation of pre-colonial or colonial chieftaincy.

 39 C. Geffray, A Causa das Armas: Antropologia da Guerra Contemporânea em Moçambique (Porto, Edições Afrontamento, 1990).

 40 For an overview of Frelimo positions and discursive changes, see West and Kloeck-Jenson, ‘Betwixt and Between’.

 41 Artur and Weimer, ‘Decentralisation and Democratisation in Post-war Mozambique’, pp. 17–18.

 42 A. Blom, ‘Beyond Despotism. An Analysis of the Constitution of Chiefs’ Authority Through Land Dispute Processes in Angónia District, Central Mozambique' (PhD dissertation, International Development Studies, Roskilde University, 2002), p. 211.

 43 Alexander, ‘The Local State in Post-War Mozambique’, p. 13.

 44 For a discussion of the donor community's increasing influence over the Mozambican government, see J. Hanlon, Mozambique: Who Calls the Shots? (London, James Currey, 1991).

 45 West and Kloeck-Jenson, ‘Betwixt and Between’, p. 461, ff.18.

 46 Artur and Weimer, ‘Decentralisation and Democratisation in Post-war Mozambique’, p. 5.

 47 West and Kloeck-Jenson, ‘Betwixt and Between’, p. 463.

 48 Ministério da Administração Estatal, Autoridade e Poder Tradicional, Vol. I e II (Maputo, CEGRAF, 1995).

 49 Ministério da Administração Estatal, Autoridade e Poder Tradicional, Vol. I e II (Maputo, CEGRAF, 1995), p. 151; see also Ministério da Administração Estatal: Autoridade Tradicional em Moçambique: Autoridade Tradicional Brochura 1 (Maputo, Ministério da Administração Estatal, 1996), p. 24.

 50 Artur and Weimer, ‘Decentralisation and Democratisation in Post-War Mozambique’, p. 19.

 51 Lundin, quoted in West and Kloeck-Jenson, ‘Betwixt and Between’, p. 473; see also Lundin, ‘Traditional Authority in Mozambique’, in Silva (ed.), Decentralisation and Municipal Administration, pp. 33–9.

 52 Ministério da Administração Estatal, Autoridade Tradicional em Moçambique, p. 11.

 54 Interview, I.B. Lundin, Maputo, 13 June 2002.

 53 West and Kloeck-Jenson, ‘Betwixt and Between’, pp. 473–4.

 55 West and Kloeck-Jenson, ‘Betwixt and Between’, p. 457.

 56 Artur and Weimer, ‘Decentralisation and Democratisation in Post-War Mozambique’, p. 23.

 57 L. Bornstein, ‘Politics and District Development Planning in Mozambique’, Journal of Contemporary African Studies, 18, 2 (2000), pp. 243–64.

 58 Local state organs cover the three-tier hierarchy of district, administrative post and localidade.

 59 In October 2003, a new version of consultative forums (Instituições de Participação e Consulta Comunitária) was launched with the regulation of the law of local organs of the state. These were only implemented outside the district capital of Sussundenga from the beginning of 2005.

 60 Alexander, ‘The Local State in Post-War Mozambique’, pp. 17–19.

 61 Interview, Chefe do Posto, Dombe, September 2002.

 62 Newitt, A History of Mozambique; D.R. Artur, Cidade de Chimoio (Chimoio, Arquivo do Patrimonio Cultural (ARPAC), 1999).

 63 XieXie's name was in the colonial register and his status seemed undisputed. Two weeks later he was recognised as régulo, with both Ganda and Buapua as his sub-chiefs.

 64 J. Scott, Seeing Like A State (New Haven, CN and London, Yale University Press, 1998); M. van Beek, ‘Beyond Identity Fetishism: “Communal” Conflicts in Ladakh and the Limits of Autonomy’, Cultural Anthropology, 15, 4 (November 2000), pp. 525–69.

 65 Van Beek, ‘Beyond Identity Fetishism’, p. 168.

 66 Republica de Moçambique, ‘Diploma Ministerial no. 107-a/2000’, Chapter 1, Article 1.

 67 Republica de Moçambique, ‘Diploma Ministerial no. 107-a/2000’, Chapter 1, Article 8; P. Bourdieu, ‘What Makes a Social Class? On the Theoretical and Practical Existence of Groups’, Berkeley Journal of Sociology, 32, 1 (1987), pp. 1–18.

 68 Bourdieu, ‘What Makes a Social Class?’.

 69 Interview, District Administrator, Sussundenga, August 2002.

 70 We have based this on census material collected in 2001 by the Dombe Administrative Post.

 71 West and Kloeck-Jenson, ‘Betwixt and Between’, p. 480.

 72 Alexander, ‘The Local State in Post-War Mozambique’, p. 11.

 73 West and Kloeck-Jenson, ‘Betwixt and Between’, p. 479.

 74 For recent, promising analytical perspectives on the relationship between transparency and conspiracy, see T. Sanders and H.G. West, ‘Power Revealed and Concealed in the New World Order’, in H.G. West and T. Sanders (eds), Transparency and Conspiracy: Ethnographies of Suspicion in the New World Order (Durham, NC and London, Duke University Press, 2003), pp. 1–37. For an intriguing analysis of the artefacts of electoral bureaucracies and secrecy in Mozambique, see H.G. West, ‘“Who Rules Us Now?” Identity Tokens, Sorcery, and Other Metaphors in the 1994 Mozambican Elections’, in West and Sanders (eds), Transparency and Conspiracy, pp. 92–124.

 75 Isin and Wood, Citizenship and Identity; P. Bourdieu, Language and Symbolic Power (London, Polity Press, 1991).

 76 Bourdieu, Language and Symbolic Power, pp. 220–8.

 77 I. Chipkin, ‘“Functional” and “Dysfunctional” Communities: The Making of National Citizens’, JSAS, 29, 1 (2003), pp. 63, 82 (emphasis in original).