FRELIMO’s Hegemony in Question: An Historical Perspective on Power, Development, and Democracy in Mozambique

Notwithstanding the formal consolidation of democratic practices in the country since its first multi-party elections in 1992, Mozambique experienced a number of internal political crises, which favoured increasing authoritarianism on the one side, and had erratic repercussions in the relationship between its political elite and the international community on the other side. The latest chapter in this path is being played out on the Cabo Delgado conflict and the launching of the industrial exploitation of the new gas resources. After considering a number of perspectives on democracy in Mozambique, based either on economics and international relations (aid dependence), politics (negative peace) and history (former liberation movement in power), this chapter looks at how wider trajectories of development paradigms and state making in sub-Saharan Africa interacted with the specific history of power relations and nation-building in Mozambique.