Jason Sumich*
O presente artigo analisa a importância, para a elite moçambicana politicamente dominante, de uma ideologia de modernidade unificadora. Argumento que esta ideologia de modernidade constitui uma categoria «nativa», sendo utilizada pelas elites para reivindicarem o seu poder social e legitimarem as suas posições de privilégio perante a sociedade em geral. Não se trata de uma ideologia estática, mas antes profundamente enraizada nos antecedentes sociais da elite durante o período colonial e que acompanhou as transformações resultantes da independência do país. Aquilo que foi em tempos um projecto autoritário, mas potencialmente emancipatório, de recriação da nação, está hoje firmemente confinado às próprias elites e a antiga base do nacionalismo tornou-se cada vez mais um indicador de estatuto e de diferença social.
Palavras-chave: elite; FRELIMO; poder; Moçambique e modernidade.
This paper examines the importance of a unifying ideology of modernity for a politically dominant Mozambican elite, in the capital, Maputo. I argue that this ideology of modernity forms a «native» category, which elites use as both a claim to social power and as an attempt to legitimise their positions of privilege to the wider society. This is not a static ideology, but one that is deeply intertwined with the social background of the elite in the colonial period and has transformed with thier changing through independence. What was once an authoritarian, but potentially emancipatory, project to recreate the nation is steadily being confined to elites themselves, and the former bedrock of nationalism has increasingly become an indicator of high status and social difference.
Keywords: elite; FRELIMO; power; Mozambique and modernity.
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* LSE, Crisis States Research Centre/Development Studies Institute.
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