Transitional justice interventions, particularly in Africa, have failed. In this context, there is a growing interest in tradition-based community-led practices for resolving justice. Yet little is known or understood about these practices on their own terms, and what role they play in transitional justice on the continent. This volume challenges some of the underlying assumptions of current responses to mass violence on the continent, including the way these are embedded in state-centricism and an international justice system that lacks relevance in relation to the day-to-day realities of rural African communities. Through the case studies of Zimbabwe, Burundi and Mozambique the volume explores some of the limitations and possibilities with regard to justice during transitions.
Cori Wielenga is a senior lecturer in the Department of Political Sciences and an associate of the Centre for the Study of Governance Innovation at the University of Pretoria. She holds a PhD in Conflict Resolution and Peace Studies from the University of KwaZulu Natal. Her research interest is in the intersection of legal and indigenous justice systems during transitions.
Chris Nshimbi joined GovInn as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in 2012 and is now a Department of Science and Technology-National Research Foundation (DST-NRF) Research Fellow and Deputy Director in the Centre. He holds a PhD from Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University (Japan) and his current research focuses on informal cross-border trade in eastern and southern Africa, regional (labour) migration, and the prospects of regional transitional justice and reconciliation policy in Africa.
CODESRIA 2023 ISBN 978 2 86978 755 1
This book presents the main results of a research project on the systems of justice in Mozambique, undertaken under the auspices of the country’s Supreme Court, in academic partnership with the Center for African Studies at Eduardo Mondlane University, Mozambique and the Centre for Social Studies at the School of Economics, Coimbra University, Portugal. It is dedicated to the memory of the internationally renowned Mozambican economist and Professor of Development Studies, José Guilherme Negrão. Although he died prematurely, Negrão collaborated in this project, and authored the final chapter dealing with the vexed question of land.
Until the onset of Portuguese colonisation towards the end of the nineteenth century, the peoples of Mozambique did not live under a single political entity. Rather, they existed as independent entities with various forms of political and social organisation. The twentieth century saw a consolidation of colonial rule, and important changes in the organisation of power. After independence, new Eurocentric political-legal cultures were added to the existing mix of legal orders. The distinctions between the colonial law and indigenous customary law became increasingly blurred, such that Mozambique now constitutes a heterogeneous state composed of a mosaic of legal hybrids, incorporating local/indigenous customary practices and religious law, as well as state civil law.
Departing from a broad understanding of law in Mozambique, this work analyses the complex network of judicial systems by interrogating the roles of the entities intervening in the system in colonial and postcolonial contexts. The main objective is to promote an empirically sound and dynamic understanding of the relationships between the multiple judicial entities present in the country within the context of cultural transformation in Africa. Overall, the book is intended as a contribution to current debates on the formation of the state in Mozambique from the nineteenth century.
The authors further considers the alternative mechanisms of conflict resolution taking place in the complexity of different legal rationalities: the remains of the Portuguese legal codes, socialist policies, customary law, religious systems and Western constitutionalism.
ISBN : 2-86978-191-1
CODESRIA 2006