Book review of Mark Chingono, "Mozambique: The State, Violence and Development"

African Studies Review African Studies Review / Volume 41 / Issue 02 / September 1998, pp 195-197 Mark F. Chingono, The State, Violence and Development. The Political Economy of War in Mozambique, 1975-1992, Avebury (Aldershot, Brookfield USA, Hong Kong, Singapore, Sydney), 1996, 291p., foreword by Keith Hart, tables, appendix, selected bibliography, index, ISBN: 1-85972-077-3, £ 42.00 / $ 71.95 hardback The number of studies on war and civil conflicts has exploded in African studies over the last decade. Faced by a war up to 1992, Mozambique is no exception. The country has been a field for much research and it has seen quite a lively debate. The latter focused on the roots and nature of the war. More recently, as the war came to an end, it has dealt with the issue of terminating the armed confrontation and overcoming its consequences. Building on these two genres, Mark Chingono’s new study is an attempt to go beyond these kinds of studies. The author wants to look at the structural consequences of the war which, often un-intended, are in his view usually overlooked when in fact they constitute an “invisible revolution”. In contrast to the book’s title, one finds here no analysis of the “political-economy of war” nor even of the war as such. One rather reads about the socio-political impact of war in a town, Chimoio, surrounded by an armed conflict. It is indeed on the basis of a study of this town in Central Mozambique that Chingono tries to make an argument in favor of his theory of un-intended consequences. He did field work during 8 months allying participant observation to extensive interviewing. The end product of the research (originally a PhD thesis at Cambridge) is organized in seven chapters. The first is concerned with the origins of the war; the second with the consequences of war on the (informal) economy of Chimoio; the third with the consequences on the social and political spheres; the fourth with the impact on religion; and the fifth with women. The last chapter ties the argument together to present a renewed theory of war. Chingono’s opus is a real mine of information and ideas. The author has done significant field research and he has gathered first-hand information. His chapters on the informal economy, politics, religion and women are most fascinating about the state of Chimoio’s society in the early 1990s. They illustrate the changes which have taken place in Mozambique since independence under the influence of both revolution and counter-revolution. The account is particularly fascinating as the perspective is from below, that is primarily focused on individuals — something which is refreshing and cuts sharp from macro-economic studies and diplomatic histories so common (and easy) in times of war. At the level of ideas, Chingono’s book is similarly very rich. The author offers many new and challenging leads regarding the war and its impact on society. Juggling with Fanon, Marx, Giddens, Bayart and many other authors, Chingono may at time be overwhelming, but he surely never is boring nor short of ideas. For all their worth, Chingono’s book and thesis unfortunately also face serious limitations. First, the evidence produced does not clearly support the main thesis. Chingono claims as un-intended consequences of the war the rise of the informal economy, the explosion of religious revivalism and an increase in women’s political activism (among others). Yet it is quite clear from the author’s own account that the war was only one factor in most of these changes — and at times a minor one. In some cases, the changes don’t even seem to be related to the war. The rise of an informal economy in Chimoio is for example largely exaggerated. Smuggling, money dealing and poaching cannot be a novelty in a town so close to the border and to game reserves. Similarly, the explosion of religious revivalism has clearly little, if anything, to do with the war. It has (more) to do with the religious opening of Frelimo — something the author recognizes himself. Yet more, the argument that women’s political activism rose in the face of the war is not supported by the author’s own research. Only one demonstration of women is referred to when, a few pages earlier, Chingono was showing that Frelimo had raised much of women’s political conscience after independence. Chingono’s problems might be that he looked at, or presents, the wrong features of Chimoio’s society to back his argument — he could have put forward more convincingly the production of new social classes (which he mentions but never analyzes) or the specificities brought by the war to the informal economy and religious revivalism. But it may also be that Chingono ‘imagined’ a radically different pre-war Mozambique, hence mis-read some phenomena and causalities. Such impression springs from the bibliography and the footnotes of the book. Crucial references are missing while others are used without due care. For example Chingono utilizes uncritically Perry Anderson’s 1962 article on ‘ultra-colonialism’. More seriously, he relies heavily on David Hoile, an ultra-right wing political activist with no record of research in Mozambique. Yet more, on various occasions he generalizes to Mozambique the experiences of other countries — especially Zimbabwe and Kenya which were English colonies with quite a different economy and socio-political history. As we have just said, this may have led the author to imagine a radically different pre-conflict Mozambique and see wrong causalities. It further led him into factual errors. On page 31 for example he states that Radio Free Africa (a.k.a. ‘radio Quizumba’) was setup by the South Africans. On page 49 he argues that the Portuguese had a weak presence in the South of the country and that Protestants missionaries built a University. For all that has been said (and one could add a note about the poor edition of the book), the volume remains worthwhile and should be recommended. One will find in it many interesting, stimulating and innovative ideas. The book will be a good source of ideas for those interested in the field of war studies. For those interested in Mozambican history more specifically, the book will offer a fascinating case study of life in Chimoio at an interesting time (the ending of the war) and it will offer much information hard to come by otherwise. Eric Morier-Genoud Department of Sociology State University of New York Binghamton, NY 13908 emorier@compuserve.com