Mozambique - (War Against the People) by Hilary Andersson (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Mozambique: A War against the People examines the nature of the war that has been waged by the Renamo rebels in Mozambique since 1976, and the profound effects that it has had on, in particular, the country's human infrastructure. The toll of the war has been manifested most dramatically in the geographical dislocation of a large section of the population. Along with the Frelimo government's policy failures this has served to limit socialist development in the past. It now threatens potential for development along the capitalist and democratic road.

From the Back Cover

Mozambique: A War against the People investigates Mozambican politics past and present through an examination of the nature and effects of the war that has been waged there since 1976. The Renamo rebel movement's foreign origins and its development into a movement for which the pursuit of power has become paramount is traced, as are its operational tactics and its targets. The main targets and victims of the war are the rural civilians of Mozambique, who make up 84 per cent of the country's total population. The war has forced them to flee in every direction for fifteen years, so that today 3.3 million Mozambicans are refugees in their own or neighbouring countries. This has had a devastating effect, not just on the economies of the countries hosting the refugees, but on the refugees themselves psychologically and physically, and as a consequence, on Mozambique. The Frelimo government's past policy failures have caused it recently to turn its hopes for development to capitalism and democracy. The legacies of a war that has been waged against the people, however, threatens even the new route. All this comes in a country of great natural and human potential.