Cooperativas agrícolas em Moçambique, no pós-lndependência: o caso da Cooperativa 25 de Setembro em Boane

Abstract

This dissertation analyzes agricultural cooperativization in Mozambique in the post-independence period. The analysis is carried out through a case study that serves as a window for agricultural cooperativization in Mozambique. This is the case of the Cooperativa 25 de Setembro in Boane, in Maputo province. The study focuses on two of the actors involved in cooperativization, namely: the State and the cooperativists themselves. It is fundamentally about the impact of the policies of the first actor on the latter. In Chapter -1, I present the dissertation and the research techniques used in the research process that led to its elaboration. The historiography of cooperativism and cooperatives in Mozambique presents a wide spectrum of areas and approaches that are grouped in this chapter. The dissertation seeks to discuss the sustainability of the studied cooperative in light of the political, economic and social changes that have taken place in the past 22 years since National Independence. It also seeks to present the agricultural cooperative as a viable institution, as long as its conception reflects the wishes of the beneficiary peasants – key to a self-sustained development. In Chapter 2, I look at cooperatives in Mozambique, particularly concepts, theories and evolution. I present the cooperative as an institution that is not restricted to socialist or developing countries and that is recommended by several supranational institutions. I discuss the concept of cooperative that Makoto Sato proposes for Mozambique, in the period after independence, Cooperative as an “organization of economically dependent people” - an ideologized definition of Cooperative. Chapter 3 deals with agricultural cooperativization in post-independence Mozambique, with references to cooperativization in the colonial period, and also focuses on the continuity and discontinuity of cooperativization policies and strategies in Mozambique. Chapter 4 is reserved for the case study. I present the different experiences of the cooperative movement in the post-independence period, seen through the Cooperative 25 de Setembro: its functioning, history of its members, their social composition, their internal organization, conflicts and the reasons behind survival and the current functioning of the cooperative. Finally, in Chapter 5 I present the studied cooperative as a mirror in which all agricultural cooperativization in Mozambique in the period under study is reflected. The phases of cooperativization and forms of production in collective molds in Mozambique are the same as those of Cooperativa 25 de Setembro. The problems are the same. The Cooperative 25 de Setembro is the real Cooperative of Mozambique in post-independence (TRADUÇÃO NOSSA)