«Governem-se vocês mesmos!» Democracia e carnificina no Norte de Moçambique

Abstract

The language of power spoken by the inhabitants of the Mueda plateau in the course of the neoliberal transformation of Mozambican political and economic life is substantially different to the language spoken by democratic reformers, despite the commonalities and internal variations in both languages. In the rift between the languages, the Muedans adopt a critical stance towards the current process of democratization, articulating their own vision of how power operates in their world. Equivalences which are at first sight paradoxical — such as equating democratic decentralization with abandonment by the state, individual freedom with the collective danger of witchcraft, and democracy with carnage — were ultimately democratic ways of evaluating and criticizing the changes taking place and the ways in which power is used in the new context of neoliberal capitalism.