Corpos de violência, linguagens de resistência: As complexas teias de conhecimentos no Moçambique contemporâneo

This article aims to analyse the deep-seated roots and valid reasons for reconfiguring ‘traditional’ methods of conflict resolution in Mozambique, by means of a perspective of State development, both in colonial and post-colonial contexts. Taking as its starting point the continual references to acts of witchcraft, the article seeks to analyse these charges as part of a wider cultural context where multiple cultural realities intersect in a complex web of competition for power. In this context, the epistemological privilege conferred upon modern law continues to act as a tool for suppressing other forms of legality and, at the same time, subordinate social groups whose social practices were based on such forms. Thus, an analysis of witchcraft charges paves the way for a debate, wider in scope and more localised, on the diversity of the ‘epistemologies of the South’.

Abstract licence: CC BY

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