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  • Os Outros: Um historiador em Moçambique, 1994
  • Bonni Carryer
Michel Cahen . Os Outros: Um historiador em Moçambique, 1994. Basel: P. Schlettwein Publishing Switzerland, 2004. xxxii + 229 pp. Maps. Indexes. CHF 48. Paper.

Mozambique is not a country for the faint of heart, nor is this book. Michel Cahen sets out to record the first presidential and parliamentary elections in the country's history in 1994. Not by chance, he abandoned the original [End Page 176] 1994 French title (The Bandits) when publishing in Portuguese ten years later (now preferring The Others). It is in the company of those "Others" that Cahen makes his journey. Having paid little attention to RENAMO (Mozambique National Resistance) in his earlier publication (Mozambique. La Révolution implosée [Paris, 1987]), he now focuses on this "pro-South African rebel group," as he referred to it in 1987 (5). It is a courageous move: Besides confronting innumerable practical obstacles, he has suffered harsh criticism from his pro-FRELIMO friends and colleagues who considered his work a justification of RENAMO. One would wish—as Cahen himself certainly does—that he had had the leisure to rework his material, which undoubtedly would have given more coherence to both this and his previous book. Nevertheless, his introduction offers some interesting insights into the sociopolitical situation of Mozambique as it enters the twenty-first century with a heavy inheritance of division and unsatisfied needs. The book is based on a well-researched knowledge of both colonial and postindependence history, as the numerous and often fascinating footnotes reveal.

The text itself is essentially Cahen's travel journal, a blow-by-blow description of Afonso Dhlakama's intense, month-long election campaign, with a dash of local color. At times he highlights persistent local customs, such as fear of the casters of spells; at times he brings dramatically into focus the abject poverty in which much of the population continues to live. The campaign atmosphere, though often festive, becomes tense, with rumors of planned attacks that never materialize (with the exception of the occasional stones thrown at the delegation's car or helicopter). Amid excerpts from Dhlakama's speeches are interviews revealing the candidate's own thoughts as well as local opinion. Dhlakama's optimism grows, despite numerous counterdemonstrations and sometimes poor turnouts, especially in Maputo. Yet he insists that structures be created to guarantee the survival of the opposition, just in case. (In most African countries, the losing party and its members usually just "disappear.") Dhlakama even assumes credit for the very fact of elections, claiming that were it not for RENAMO's sixteen-year armed struggle, FRELIMO would never have accepted them. With typical campaign rhetoric, he implies that Chissano's government, besides being dictatorial and antidemocratic, is guilty of fraud and corruption.

Though most of the author's local contacts were rapid and superficial, his observations shed light on RENAMO's recruiting techniques, which exploited dissatisfaction over FRELIMO's failure to meet people's needs and to respect local traditions, languages, religions, and leaders. The frequent placing of officials from Maputo—instead of trained local personnel—in the provinces at all levels of responsibility created considerable resentment. According to interviewees, FRELIMO cadres, mostly from the south, treated with suspicion and intolerance many Mozambicans educated in local Catholic missions (run initially by the Portuguese) or abroad, discriminating [End Page 177] against them in various ways, including the withholding of salaries and professional or political advancement. This of course often paved the way for their subsequent recruitment by RENAMO to fulfill mainly civilian but sometimes also military functions in the areas under their control. People who had suffered frustrations, humiliation, "reeducation," or "vexations" at the hands of FRELIMO (such as "Operaçao Produçao" in 1984) were ready to help RENAMO. For those readers lacking the time or inclination to take in all the colorful details, there is a neat five-page summary of events (115–19).

The second part of the book begins with preelection tensions as the rumor of a RENAMO boycott rages, until the promise of an international investigation of fraud charges satisfies Dhlakama. As we await the final election results, which take several...

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