MOZAMBIQUE 118 - Open University



MOZAMBIQUE 126

FLOODS OVER

LYNCHINGS CONTINUE

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News reports & clippings no. 126 from Joseph Hanlon

4 March 2008 (j.hanlon@open.ac.uk)

This is an irregular service of news summaries, mainly based on recent AIM and Noticias reports.

To subscribe or unsubscribe, see note at end.

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There is an attached file with an article by Carlos Serra on the lynchings.

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Daily flood and rainfall reports and forecasts from the National Water Directorate (DNA, Direcçao Nacional de Aguas) were posted on



during February and March, but are no longer being updated.

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FLOODS OVER

The rainy season started early and now appears to be finishing early as well. Rainfall has declined across the region and rivers in Mozambique are now all below the alert level. On the Zambeze River, the management of the Cahora Bassa dam has sharply cut discharges as it now tries to build up sufficient reserves to ensure electricity generation continues throughout the dry season.

More than 100,000 people were driven from their homes in the centre of Mozambique by floods which were worse than last year, and almost as serious as in 2001. Weather forecasts were for heavier than usual rainfall, and this did happen in the centre and north. In the south there has been much less rain; the Corrumana dam, for example, is only 57% full.

18 DEAD IN

LYNCHINGS

THIS YEAR

At least 18 people have been killed by lynch mobs in Beira, Chimoio and Maputo so far this year. Most have been young men accused of theft and other crimes, but in Chimoio three women were killed, at least one of whom was accused of witchcraft. In all three cities the police have rescued other people from lynch mobs.

In Chimoio in the early hours of 23 February mobs killed five people and stormed the police station to try to kill a dozen other prisoners allegedly being held there. Police fired at the crowd, killing between one and four people, according to Maputo newsletters; 100 people were arrested. The police station was seriously damaged and 11 houses destroyed.

On Thursday 28 February, Noticias reported that just the previous day, a sixth person was killed in Chimoio, allegedly for stealing maize from a field, and police saved six people from lynching in Beira, Maputo and Chimoio.

Sociologist Carlos Serra has been studying the phenomenon and an article posted on his website oficinadesociologia. is attached. It is the best discussion so far of the issue. He notes that the lynchings have taken place in dense, poor outer neighbourhoods. People are poor and struggling for survival; a large number of young people have migrated to the cities and live by odd jobs and often illegal activities. People say their biggest problem is unemployment.

These neighbourhoods have no electricity and are very dark at night; gangs break into houses to steal money, TVs and stereos, and local residents are frightened at night. Police are distrusted and the government is seen as doing nothing to help these poor people; like the street lights on main streets far away, the government seems distant from daily life..

For Serra the lynchings reflect three very different things. First is the real distrust of people going around in the dark. Second, the victims are real scapegoats – for the residents burdened down with social problems and deprivations, attacking the victim is cathartic and the sins and burdens of the community are temporarily placed on the scapegoat. Third, Serra argues that the lychings are a message from the people to a government that does not reach them – namely that the community can organise its own life, has its own laws, and is capable of violence.

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