From ‘Abaixo’ to ‘chiefs of production’: Agrarian change in Nampula province, mozambique, 1975–87

Abstract

This article reconstructs key aspects of the evolving relationship between state institutions and former regulos (Portuguese‐appointed chiefs), in Nampula Province, Mozambique during the first 12 years of independence. In doing so, it simultaneously draws on and critiques two opposing interpretations of revolution and counterrevolution which have dominated scholarly production on post‐independence Mozambique and have polarized Mozambican studies in recent years. Against both sets of literature, my study finds that state socialism did not always and everywhere bring major disruptions to grassroots structures of authority; rather, many families who had been recognized by the Portuguese as royals were able, through a variety of strategies, to maintain their grip on local power. Secondly, I argue that the provincial government's enlistment of former regulos to serve as ‘chiefs of production’ was but one aspect of an attempt on the part of officialdom to recreate the most salient aspects of the colonial cotton regime rather than a war‐induced genuflection by the Frelimo regime to Renamo on the question of chiefly rule, as has been claimed by what I call ‘revisionist’ scholarship. Frelimo's refusal to acknowledge the role of villagization in agricultural decline throughout the country, a point raised and highlighted by revisionist writing is, however, crucial to understanding the ideological practices that helped justify and legitimate the return to Portuguese precedent on matters relating to rural labour. The reasons why Nampula was the site of these initiatives are explored.