‘Makers of Bonds and Ties’: Transnational Socialisation and National Liberation in Mozambique ¹

¹‘Fazedor[es] de laços e teias’ – the expression is taken from B. de S. Santos, ʻAquino de Bragança: Criador de Futuros, Mestre de Heterodoxias, Pioneiro das Epistemologias do Sulʼ, in T. Cruz e Silva, J.P.B. Coelho and A.N. de Souto (eds), Como Fazer Ciências Sociais e Humanas em África: Questões Epistemológicas, Metodológicas, Teóricas e Políticas (Dakar, CODESRIA, 2012), p. 13. This and all other translations from Portuguese or German into English are by the author. Unless otherwise indicated, the interviews cited here were conducted by the author in Portuguese with a voice recorder, and later transcribed and translated by the author.

Abstract

This article provides an interpretation of the formation of the leadership of Frelimo through an analysis of its socialisation in transnational networks. It covers the period from the late 1940s to the early 1970s and tries to evaluate the ways in which and the extent to which such a transnational socialisation affected the national liberation struggle. The primary objective is to investigate the specific relation between domestic forms of resistance and informal transnational ties. This is done through the lens of secondary literature, biographical material and interviews with protagonists of the liberation movement in Mozambique. By drawing upon Pierre Bourdieu’s ideas of cultural and social capital, I demonstrate how leading figures integrated themselves into an international community of anti-colonial activists, how these networks shaped the identities and strategies of the national movement, how this enabled them to mobilise resources, and how it helped to create a collective identity that produced internal legitimacy as well as contestation.

Acknowledgements

Special thanks go to Teresa da Cruz e Silva, Janne Rantala, Jocelyn Alexander and the two anonymous JSAS reviewers for their invaluable comments and critique.

Notes

¹ ‘Fazedor[es] de laços e teias’ – the expression is taken from B. de S. Santos, ʻAquino de Bragança: Criador de Futuros, Mestre de Heterodoxias, Pioneiro das Epistemologias do Sulʼ, in T. Cruz e Silva, J.P.B. Coelho and A.N. de Souto (eds), Como Fazer Ciências Sociais e Humanas em África: Questões Epistemológicas, Metodológicas, Teóricas e Políticas (Dakar, CODESRIA, 2012), p. 13. This and all other translations from Portuguese or German into English are by the author. Unless otherwise indicated, the interviews cited here were conducted by the author in Portuguese with a voice recorder, and later transcribed and translated by the author.

¹ For wider historiographical discussion see, for example, C.B.T. Peixoto and M.P. Meneses, ʻDomingos Arouca. Um Percurso de Militância Nacionalista em Moçambiqueʼ, Topoi, 14, 26 (2013), pp. 86–104; J.P.B Coelho, ʻPolitics and Contemporary History in Mozambique. A Set of Epistemological Notesʼ, Kronos, 39, 1 (2013), pp. 10–19; A. de Bragança and J. Depelchin, ʻFrom the Idealization of Frelimo to the Understanding of Mozambique Recent Historyʼ, Review (Fernand Braudel Center), 11, 1 (1988), pp. 95–117.

² See S. Onslow, Cold War in Southern Africa: White Power, Black Liberation (London, Routledge, 2009), pp. 9–29.

³ See B. Munslow, Mozambique: The Revolution and its Origins (London, Longman, 1983); T.H. Henriksen, Revolution and Counterrevolution: Mozambique’s War of Independence, 1964–1974 (Westport, Greenwood Press, 1983).

⁴ See, for example, J. das N. Tembe (ed.), História da Luta de Libertação Nacional: Volume 1 (Maputo, Ministério dos Combatentes, Direcção Nacional de História, 2014); A.B. Mussanhane, Protagonistas da Luta de Libertação Nacional (Maputo, Marimbique, 2012); S. LeFanu, S is for Samora: A Lexical Biographyof Samora Machel and the Mozambican Dream (London, Hurst, 2012).

⁵ See, for example, J.M. Cabrita, Mozambique: The Tortuous Road to Democracy (New York, Palgrave, 2000).

⁶ See M.L. Bowen, The State Against the Peasantry: Rural Struggles in Colonial and Postcolonial Mozambique (Charlottesville, University Press of Virginia, 2000); L. Bonate, ʻMuslim Memories of the Liberation War in Cabo Delgadoʼ, Kronos, 39, 1 (2013), pp. 230–56; J. Katto, ʻLandscapes of Belonging: Female Ex-Combatants Remembering the Liberation Struggle in Urban Maputoʼ, Journal of Southern African Studies, 40, 3 (2014), pp. 539–57; P. Israel, ʻLingundumbwe: Feminist Masquerades and Women’s Liberation, Nangade, Mueda, Muidumbe, 1950s–2005ʼ, Kronos, 39, 1 (2013), pp. 204–29.

⁷ See also N. Telepneva, ʻOur Sacred Duty. The Soviet Union, the Liberation Movements in the Portuguese Colonies, and the Cold War, 1961–1975ʼ (PhD thesis, LSE, 2014); C.A. Williams, National Liberation in Postcolonial Southern Africa: An Historical Ethnography of SWAPO’s Exile Camps (New York, Cambridge University Press, 2015); M.G. Panzer, ʻA Nation in Name, a “State” in Exile: The FRELIMO Proto-State, Youth, Gender, and the Liberation of Mozambique 1962–1975ʼ (PhD thesis, State University of New York, 2013).

⁸ L. Pries, Transnationalisierung: Theorie und Empirie grenzüberschreitender Vergesellschaftung (Wiesbaden, VS, 2010), p. 153.

⁹ W. Reno, Warfare in Independent Africa (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2011), p. 31.

¹⁰ G. Derluguian, ʻThe Social Origins of Good and Bad Governance: Re-interpreting the 1968 Schism in Frelimoʼ, in É. Morier-Genoud (ed.), Sure road?: Nationalisms in Angola, Guinea-Bissau and Mozambique. (Leiden, Brill, 2012), p. 80.

¹¹ See ibid., p. 100.

¹² Bourdieu’s theorising clearly is more profound and related to ethnographic data elsewhere in his work. Nevertheless, as the concepts are intended to be used as heuristic frameworks rather than a consistent theory, I refer to the definitions as elaborated in P. Bourdieu, ʻThe Forms of Capitalʼ, in J.G. Richardson (ed.), Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education (New York, Greenwood Press, 1986), pp. 241–60.

¹³ See R. Adler-Nissen, Bourdieu in International Relations: Rethinking Key Concepts in IR (New York, Routledge, 2013), p. 9.

¹⁴ See L.E. Guarnizo, ʻThe Emergence of a Transnational Social Formation and the Mirage of Return Migration among Dominican Transmigrantsʼ, Identities, 4, 2 (1997), pp. 281–322.

¹⁵ See J. Steffek and S. Mau, ʻTransnationalismus und Transnationalisierung in der Soziologie und der IBʼ, in S. Stetter (ed.), Ordnung und Wandel in der Weltpolitik: Konturen einer Soziologie der Internationalen Beziehungen (Baden-Baden, Nomos, 2013), pp. 204–25.

¹⁶ Bourdieu, ʻThe Forms of Capitalʼ, p. 241.

¹⁷ Ibid., p. 243.

¹⁸ Ibid., p. 255.

¹⁹ Ibid., pp. 248ff.

²⁰ See J. Field, Social Capital (London, Routledge, 2009).

²¹ See N. Lin, ʻA Network Theory of Social Capitalʼ, in D. Castiglione, J.W. van Deth and G. Wolleb (eds), The Handbook of Social Capital (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2008), pp. 50–69.

²² Bourdieu, ʻThe Forms of Capitalʼ, p. 243.

²³ Ibid., p. 246.

²⁴ Ibid., p. 248.

²⁵ See R.D. Benford and D.A. Snow, ʻFraming Processes and Social Movements: An Overview and Assessmentʼ, Annual Review of Sociology, 26, 1 (2000), pp. 611–39.

²⁶ See A.F. Isaacman and B. Isaacman, Mozambique: From Colonialism to Revolution, 1900–1982 (Boulder, Westview Press, 1983), pp. 39–53; see also E. Mondlane, The Struggle for Mozambique (Baltimore, Penguin, 1969).

²⁷ See Tembe, História da Luta, pp. 15–20; see also A. Rocha, Associativismo e Nativismo em Moçambique: Contribuição para o Estudo das Origens do Nacionalismo Moçambicano (Maputo, Promedia, 2006); C. Castello, O. Ribeiro Thomaz, S. Nascimento and T. Cruz e Silva (eds), Os Outros da Colonização: Ensaios sobre o Colonialismo Tardio em Moçambique (Lisboa, ICS, 2012).

²⁸ See Munslow, Mozambique, p. 63; see also Mondlane, The Struggle for Mozambique, pp. 113ff. The politics of assimilation was a strategy developed by France and Portugal in the late 19th century to incorporate and ‘Europeanise’ privileged African elites in the colonies. In the Portuguese colonies, the distinction between indígenas and assimilados was officially introduced in 1921. The civil state of an assimilado was linked to certain conditions, such as a minimum age of 18, proof of fluent proficiency in Portuguese, a guaranteed income from formal trade or employment, possession of land, and military service.

²⁹ Referring to influential books in a similar way, Marcelino dos Santos also mentions the books of Jorge Armado, the Mexican Yuan Zamora, the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, the Cuban Nicolas Guillem, and, ‘naturally, for those who read French and English, they read the works of Marx, Engels and Lenin’. Quote from A. Mussanhane, ‘Interview with Marcelino dos Santos’, 2 July 2003, Maputo (unpublished ms.).

³⁰ Interview with Helder Martins, Maputo, 9 July 2014; see also H. Martins, Porquê Sakrani?: Memórias dum Médico duma Guerrilha Esquecida (Maputo, Terceiro Milenio, 2001), p. 17.

³¹ Interview with Helder Martins.

³² Derluguian, ‘Social Origins of Good and Bad Governance’, p. 86.

³³ See T. Cruz e Silva, ʻIdentity and Political Consciousness in Southern Mozambique, 1930–1974: Two Presbyterian Biographies Contextualisedʼ, Journal of Southern African Studies, 24, 1 (1998), pp. 223–36.

³⁴ See D.C. Mateus, A Luta pela Independência: A Formação das Elites Fundadoras da FRELIMO, MPLA e PAIGC (Mems Martin, Portugal, Inquerito, 1999), p. 65; Martins, Porquê Sakrani?, pp. 25–38. There was also some presence of these movements in Lourenço Marques at the time, for example through a local MUD youth organisation.

³⁵ See N. MacQueen, The Decolonization of Portuguese Africa: Metropolitan Revolution and the Dissolution of Empire (London, Longman, 1997), p. 19.

³⁶ Interview with Óscar Monteiro, Matola, 8 July 2014.

³⁷ Interview with Helder Martins.

³⁸ Ibid.

³⁹ Martins, Porquê Sakrani?, p. 54.

⁴⁰ Mussanhane, ‘Interview with Marcelino dos Santos’.

⁴¹ See Mateus, A Luta pela Independência, pp. 100ff.

⁴² Munslow, Mozambique, p. 65.

⁴³ Mussanhane, ‘Interview with Marcelino dos Santos’.

⁴⁴ See Tembe, História da Luta, p. 22.

⁴⁵ See J. Cossa, ‘Reviving the Memory of Eduardo Mondlane in Syracuse: Links between Syracuse and a Mozambican Liberation Leader’, Syracuse Peace Council Newsletter, New York, 2012.

⁴⁶ Santos, ʻAquino de Bragança’, p. 13.

⁴⁷ Ibid., p. 17.

⁴⁸ See ibid., p. 21.

⁴⁹ Ibid., p. 20.

⁵⁰ Derluguian, ‘Social Origins of Good and Bad Governance’, pp. 88f.

⁵¹ See Reno, Warfare in Independent Africa, pp. 5–7.

⁵² See Mussanhane, ‘Interview with Marcelino dos Santos’.

⁵³ See Ibid.

⁵⁴ See Mateus, A Luta pela Independência, pp. 109–14; Mondlane, The Struggle for Mozambique, pp. 212–14; Martins, Porquê Sakrani?, pp. 130–39; see also M. dos Santos, ʻDéclaration de Principe de la Conférence des Organisations Nationalistes des Colonies Portugaises (CONCP) adressé au Comité Spécial de l’ONU pour les Territoires Administrés par le Portugalʼ, Présence Africaine, 4, 2 (1962), pp. 214–17; M.P. de Andrade, Origens do Nacionalismo Africano (Lisboa, Dom Quixote, 1998).

⁵⁵ Interview with Óscar Monteiro.

⁵⁶ See, for example, V. Shubin, The Hot ‘Cold War’: The USSR in Southern Africa (London, Pluto Press, 2008); P. Gleijeses, Conflicting Missions: Havana, Washington, and Africa, 1959–1976 (Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina Press, 2002); for an overview, see Telepneva, ʻOur Sacred Duty’, pp. 14f.

⁵⁷ Telepneva, ‘Our Sacred Duty’, p. 19.

⁵⁸ Ibid., p. 102.

⁵⁹ See ibid., pp. 51ff.

⁶⁰ Ibid., p. 97.

⁶¹ See Mondlane, TheStruggle for Mozambique, p. 115; Mateus, A Luta pela Independência, pp. 109–14; Martins, Porquê Sakrani?, pp. 83–101.

⁶² CIMADE (Comité inter-mouvements auprès des évacués) was a French NGO founded at the beginning of the Second World War by French Protestant student groups, in particular the Christian activist and member of the French Resistance, Madeleine Barot.

⁶³ Interview with Joaquim Alberto Chissano, Maputo, 28 July 2014.

⁶⁴ See interview with Óscar Monteiro; interview with Sérgio Vieira, Maputo, 9 June 2014.

⁶⁵ Interview with Sérgio Vieira.

⁶⁶ Interview with Joaquim Alberto Chissano. On the political role of the Ford Foundation, see P.D. Bell, ʻThe Ford Foundation as a Transnational Actorʼ, International Organization, 25, 3 (1971), pp. 465–78.

⁶⁷ See, for example, T. Sellström, Sweden and National Liberation in Southern Africa, 2 vols. (Uppsala, Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, 1999); C. Saunders (ed.), Documenting Liberation Struggles in Southern Africa: Selected Papers from the Nordic Africa Documentation Project Workshop, 26–27 November 2009, Pretoria, South Africa (Uppsala, Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, 2010).

⁶⁸ Interview with Joaquim Alberto Chissano.

⁶⁹ Interview with Helder Martins.

⁷⁰ Telepneva, ʻOur Sacred Duty’, p. 150.

⁷¹ See Ibid., pp. 178–83.

⁷² See, for example, Munguambe’s article elsewhere in this issue for more details on ZANU–Frelimo relations.

⁷³ Interview with Joaquim Alberto Chissano.

⁷⁴ Bourdieu, ʻThe Forms of Capitalʼ, p. 245.

⁷⁵ Interview with Sérgio Vieira.

⁷⁶ M.G. Panzer, ʻThe Pedagogy of Revolution: Youth, Generational Conflict, and Education in the Development of Mozambican Nationalism and the State, 1962–1970ʼ, Journal of Southern African Studies, 35, 4 (2009), p. 803.

⁷⁷ See W.C. Opello, ʻPluralism and Elite Conflict in an Independence Movement: FRELIMO in the 1960sʼ, Journal of Southern African Studies, 2, 1 (1975), pp. 66–82.

⁷⁸ See Derluguian, ‘Social Origins of Good and Bad Governance’, p. 84.

⁷⁹ See M. Cahen, ʻAnticolonialism and Nationalism: Deconstructing Synonymy, Investigating Historical Processes. Notes on the Heterogeneity of Former African Colonial Portuguese Areas’, in Morier-Genoud (ed.), Sure Road?, pp. 1–30.

⁸⁰ Mondlane, in an interview by Aquino de Bragança, recorded in Algiers shortly after the Second Congress in 1968, quoted in A. de Bragança and I.M. Wallerstein (eds), The African Liberation Reader: Documents of the National Liberation Movements. Volume 2 – The National Liberation Movements (London, Zed Books, 1982), p. 121.

⁸¹ See Mondlane, The Struggle for Mozambique, pp. 128f; see also Munslow, Mozambique, pp. 83ff.

⁸² Interviewwith Óscar Monteiro.

⁸³ See Tembe, História da Luta.

⁸⁴ See V.A. Lourenço, Moçambique: Memórias Sociais de Ontem, Dilemas Políticos de Hoje (Lisbon, Gerpress, 2010), pp. 81ff; see also Reno, Warfare in Independent Africa; D. Birmingham, Frontline Nationalism in Angola and Mozambique (Trenton, Africa World Press, 1992), p. 53; Bragança and Wallerstein, African Liberation Reader. Volume 2, pp. 15–20.

⁸⁵ See Panzer, ʻThe Pedagogy of Revolution’.

⁸⁶ See Peixoto and Meneses, ʻDomingosArouca’, pp. 90f.

⁸⁷ See Ibid., p. 91; see also S. Kruks, ʻFrom Nationalism to Marxism: The Ideological History of Frelimo, 1962–1977ʼ, in I.L. Markovitz (ed.), Studies in Power and Class in Africa (New York, Oxford University Press, 1987), pp. 237–56.

⁸⁸ Derluguian, ‘Social Origins of Good and Bad Governance’, p. 80.

⁸⁹ Ibid., p. 84.