Why
might anyone want to read a book describing contemporary politics and
international relations some thirty years after its publication? Surely a more
recent history or overview would be preferable. Memoirs can always evoke
recollections of the writer or the context in which the memorabilia were
created. Overviews and analyses do retain their relevance, if sometimes not
their accuracy when revisited some decades on from the events they describe.
But a work of on-going contemporary commentary of a specific political issue,
whose particularities perhaps no longer even apply to our times - why should
anyone now read such a book?
It’s
a question that was worth asking at the start of Joseph Hanlon’s 1984 work,
Mozambique: The Revolution Under Fire. Written less than a decade after Frelimo
had assumed power as the colonial Portuguese fled the country, this book is
very much a snapshot of where Mozambique found itself in the early 1980s. At
the time, most issues still remained unresolved. Most challenges facing the
Frelimo government had still not been addressed, let alone overcome. As a
consequence, events were moving fast and the regional situation remained fluid,
to say the least. Thus it might be argued that such a work as Joseph Hanlon’s
book barely retained its relevance on the day of its original publication, let
alone some thirty years hence. But now it is the contemporary snapshots the
book presents that make it all the more worthwhile a read.
Joseph
Hanlon’s text summarises the history of Frelimo’s rise to power. He considers
progress made or, indeed, not made in the nation’s healthcare, agriculture,
education and general political restructuring. He considers Mozambique’s
relations with its neighbours and its position in international politics and
trade.
And
it is here that we find real interest in Mozambique: The Revolution Under Fire.
First, the book is couched firmly within the Cold War paradigm that was simply
inescapable at the time. In the twenty-first century it is easy to forget that
in the second half of the twentieth century it was impossible to write anything
about international relations without framing it in the East versus West,
Communism versus Capitalism struggle. Mozambique, of course, because of its
professedly left-wing government was perceived to be in the Communist camp, but
Joseph Hanlon regularly reminds us that, though this was inevitable, given the
ideological leanings of Frelimo, in practice this did not necessarily mean that
socialist policies were followed, or that assistance from the Soviet Union was
received. It did mean that the country’s economy and its society was
destabilised by external forces, ultimately backed by the United States. At the
time, it was not the only nation in poverty whose internal privation was
exacerbated by external aggression.
Secondly,
reading Mozambique: The Revolution Under Fire, we are reminded of just how much
change has been effected in the last thirty years. At time of writing, Zimbabwe
was newly independent, while South Africa remained a determinedly apartheid
state. The South African Development Coordination Conference was in only
fledgling state, and still driven by the optimism that greeted its brief to
promote economic integration amongst those nations primarily dependent on South
Africa.
Thirdly,
and perhaps paradoxically, the book reminds us of how little even revolutionary
governments often manage to change via their own policies and actions. Nowhere
is ever inherited as a blank slate, and existing practices, interests and
structures inevitably have to be considered and accommodated. They can also be
challenged, but again Joseph Hanlon’s book illustrates how difficult a task
this always proves to be.
Fourthly,
the book’s quite stunning appendix serves to illustrate just how complicated
apparently simple problems can be. At a time when crops had failed as a result
of drought and other had withered as a consequence of the disruption caused by
war, Mozambique could not feed itself. Joseph Hanlon offers the intriguing
analysis that under the conditions that pertained at the time, promoting
agricultural development might have been both more costly and less effective
that merely buying food in the open market.
So,
rather than being a text which is relevant only to its own time, Joseph
Hanlon’s Mozambique: The Revolution Under Fire now presents ideas and
descriptions which challenge us to reinterpret the region as we now see it. The
book reminds us that what we today assume to be the dominant paradigm through
which we must interpret current events may be utterly inappropriate in a decade
or two. Joseph Hanlon’s book was written to describe a quickly changing
scenario in the 1980s, but it now reminds us that no matter how permanent some
ideas may appear, they in fact represent no more than merely transient
assumptions.