Violent Becomings: State Formation, Sociality, and Power in Mozambique

by B.J. Bertelsen

Violent Becomings conceptualizes the Mozambican state not as the bureaucratically ordered polity of the nation-state, but as a continuously emergent and violently challenged mode of ordering. In doing so, this book addresses the question of why colonial and postcolonial state formation has involved violent articulations with so-called ‘traditional’ forms of sociality. The scope and dynamic nature of such violent becomings is explored through an array of contexts that include colonial regimes of forced labor and pacification, liberation war struggles and civil war, the social engineering of the post-independence state, and the popular appropriation of sovereign violence in riots and lynchings.

360 pages, Paperback

Published August 1, 2016

Reviews

[The Blaxpat · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has lots of great information about the social fabric of the country, especially through the lens of a periphery city (Chimoio) vice the capital AND the controlling elements/application of African spirituality vice the singular lens of Portuguese colonialism.