Introduction

Abstract

There are over a hundred thousand veterans of the civil war that devastated 1 Mozambique between 1977 and 1992. For much of the fourteen-year period since the end of war, their social and political influence has been perceptible only minimally to the outside observer. In 2000, however, they made their most dramatic postwar impact during a series of protests in which many people—veterans, civilians, and, to a lesser extent, police officers—were wounded, killed, or incarcerated as a result of both violent and nonviolent demonstrations.2 In neighboring Zimbabwe, fifteen years after the official end of the liberation war in 1980, veterans of the guerrilla armies burst onto the national political stage with riots and demands for political inclusion, resource entitlements, and indemnities for their war service. Since then, war veterans have become an increasingly powerful force in Zimbabwean politics, often in collusion with the government, police, and armed forces.3 They have also been involved in the land reform agenda and have “emerged in some rural areas as a new kind of ‘traditional’ player, alongside spirit mediums, chiefs, and other actors.”4 Will Mozambique’s veterans go the same way as Zimbabwe’s, expanding their political power and influence, or will their force peter out and their distinct identity as veterans be rendered harmless? Why were they quiet for so long, and why did they take action when they did?KeywordsArmed ConflictPostwar PeriodAfrican National CongressPostwar ReconstructionManica ProvinceThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.