The State Against the Peasantry Rural Struggles in Colonial and Postcolonial Mozambique
- List Price: $65.00
- Binding: Hardcover
- Publisher: Univ of Virginia Pr
- Publish date: 05/01/2000
In contrast to accounts that blame the state, the elite, or the peasantry itself for the agricultural crisis in postcolonial Africa, Bowen argues that Mozambique's decline in production is rooted in policies established during colonialism and continued by Frelimo. By tracing shifts in policy over a longer period than previous studies and across changing regimes, Bowen provides solid evidence that the continuation of colonial policies under the Frelimo government alienated the peasantry and contributed to internal conflict.
Bowen refuses to treat the peasantry as a homogeneous mass. Drawing on oral data, archival research, and published accounts, she charts the rise and fall of a stratum of middle-class agricultural producers in southern Mozambique that she deems central to the problem of food production. Like those of the colonial government, Frelimo's antipeasantpolicies are rooted in a desire to prevent this middle class from becoming politically and economically independent and thereby acting as a counterweight to state power. To address the agricultural crisis, Bowen calls for a reconsideration of Mozambican and IMF policies to support rather than suppress capital accumulation within this rural middle class.
Through its careful consideration of the peasantry and the role of NGOs, The State against the Peasantry offers a nuanced understanding of the development process that has taken place in Mozambique and other southern African countries since independence.
Seller | Condition | Comments | Price |
|
Affordable Collectibles
Very Good
|
$45.00
|