RESOCIALIZATION OF SOCIAL CONTROL AND REVERSAL OF VIOLENT MANIFESTATIONS IN MOZAMBIQUE

Abstract

This research studies the dynamics of violent demonstrations in Mozambique and the authorities’ response to this phenomenon. The study starts from the record of the first strike in 1993 until the explosion of hidden debts, the biggest financial scandal that shook the country in early 2016, generating intentions of popular revolts until the year 2022. The purpose is to understand how the violent demonstrations were managed by the authorities, changing over time and influencing their trajectory. To this end, a qualitative methodology and non-participant observation were used in peripheral neighborhoods with a history of intense protests in Maputo City. The aforementioned exercise allowed us to verify that after thefirst violent manifestations erupted, the authorities progressively created new mechanisms of social control to replace the mechanisms that had been dissolved by the strikes or had failed in the context. In this process, the cycle of social control that prevented violent manifestations against hidden debts, as well as the different forms of peaceful social demonstrations, was consolidated.