Grupos dinamizadores e autoridades tradicionais: o caso de Moatize, 1975-1992

Abstract

The issue of Traditional Authorities and Facilitating Groups is part of the current debate raised not only at the level of the Ministry of State Administration, but also among some social scientists. This debate encompasses several spheres: if, on the one hand, the legitimacy of the Traditional Authority is questioned, on the other, concerns persist regarding the emergence and development of these two forms of political power. The present work intends to study the parallelism of powers between the Traditional Authority and the party authority. Within this perspective, I will analyze some factors that were at the origin of the relationship that was created between the Boosting Groups and the Traditional Authorities, from independence (1975) to the signing of the General Peace Agreement (1992). In the first chapter, I will introduce the conceptual and theoretical aspects of the issue of Traditional Authorities and Dynamized Groups, periodizing the political-administrative evolution of these two powers (Traditional and Party). In the second chapter, I will contextualize the Traditional Authorities, portraying their historical evolution, based on the different legislative provisions that emerged during the colonial period. I will emphasize the reforms of Adriano Moreira (1961), because they gave their own dynamics to the structure and activities of this political power. Since, in addition to the coal company (Carbomoc), the District of Moatize has another particularity, the colonial settlements, I will analyze the position of the Traditional Authorities in the settlements. Still related to the Traditional Authorities, I will deal particularly with Régulo Sipanela, given that he served as a link between the population of Vila de Moatize and Frelimo. This connection arose because this chief supported Frelimo during the colonial war, having been arrested by PIDE. Its activities served as an example to future generations, in relations with Frelimo, in the post-independence period. In the third chapter, I will talk about the emergence of the Dynamizing Groups and their history. In the fourth chapter, I will analyze the relationship between the two powers, evoking the "incoherence" of Frelimo discourses in practical reality. And as the work covers the period in which the civil war is taking place (between Frelimo and Renamo), I will deal with this relationship in light of the unfolding of the war.It should be noted that, at the same time that a Frelimo State was being built, a space for coexistence between the Traditional Authorities and the Dynamizing Groups was also created. In the chapter reserved for the final findings, I will highlight the dynamics, first of the Traditional Authority and then of the combination of these two forms of power, all based on the policies of both Frelimo and the Colonial Administration.