VIOLENCE AND SOCIAL-CHANGE IN A BORDER ECONOMY - WAR IN THE MAPUTO HINTERLAND 1984-1992

This article contributes to the growing historiography of Mozambique's devastating recent war through a study of the borderlands of the Mapu to hinterland. I focus on the districts of Matutuine and Namaacha wher e the war was profoundly shaped by the dual influences of the internat ional borders and the capital city. Though the intensity of the govern ment's military response prevented rebel control of sizeable populatio ns inside the country, the borders allowed Rename to develop crucial i nternational networks of support in South Africa and Swaziland: this s trategy and the social networks upon which it relied meant that Rename 's relationship with civilians and alliances with chiefs were signific antly different from those described in the existing literature. I sho w Rename's social base in the so-called 'zones of destruction' to be m ore complex than hitherto understood, particularly in so far as the re bels were able to - or tried to - win a constituency other than youth. Stereotypes in the existing literature of a wartime social and spacia l polarisation between rural, traditionalist Rename communities living in isolation from the market and modem, urban society loyal to the go vernment are inadequate and misleading: not only were Rename soldiers and allied civilians deeply imbricated in the cross border economy, bu t soldiers of both sides had common interests in controlling movement and wartime trade. As the capital's fuel needs soared during the war, groups of young men left the capital and moved into the city's hinterl and to burn charcoal. Replacing local communities displaced by the war , these government controlled charcoal burning settlements were domina ted by uneducated male youth who cut to get quick profits, gained a re putation for violence, and brought about an increasingly predatory rel ationship between the capital city and its hinterland.