Italy and Mozambique: Science, Economy & Society within a History of an Anomalous Cooperation

Abstract

In this article the authors aim at showing how an "anomalous" international and very intense cooperation between Italy and Mozambique was born. In fact, Italy has not a strong colonial tradition, especially in Mozambique, so it seems interesting to try to understand the reason why this former Portuguese colony has become the Italian most important partner in its cooperation activity. This analysis is based on the main hypothesis related to the birth of international bilateral cooperation: they have been seriously considered in order to explain the origin of this strange relationship, but they cannot completely clarify this particular case. According to the Italian social and political recent history, the privileged relationship with Mozambique is due more to a "bottom up" process than to geo-strategic or economic reasons. The fact that Mozambique had belonged to a weak Western power such as Portugal certainly gave Italy the opportunity to penetrate more easily in this country than in the ones which had been under the strong dominion of France or England. One of the most important results of this "anomalous" cooperation has to be found in the scientific fields (such as geology, architecture, biotechnologies) and in its impact on the development of Mozambique.

Space, state-building and the hydraulic mission: Crafting the Mozambican state

“…Investments focused on the Pequenos Libombos (1986) and Corumana Dam (1989). The Pequenos Libombos, the main source of water for Maputo and agriculture, was constructed without its planned power generation plant (Bussotti and De Mutti, 2013). The Corumana dam (1989), the second large-scale water infrastructure constructed in this era, secured water for sugar cane production and export, albeit with limited capacity since it lacks the spillway gates that would have doubled its storage capacity (DNA official, 2013, personal communication).…”

“…(Former high-level DNA official, 2013) The construction of water infrastructure to materially represent and reify FRELIMO's Mozambican state project in the territory liberated from the Portuguese colonial rule only partially materialised. In 1982, the Italian bank Mediocredito disbursed a US $13 billion loan to Banco de Moc¸ambique for the construction of Corumana Dam and the construction contract was awarded to the consortium Co.bo.co (Condotte d'Acqua, Bonifica-IRI, Lega delle Cooperative) (Bussotti and De Mutti, 2013). A second loan of US$110 million concerned the construction of the smaller and cheaper Pequenos Libombos dam, awarded to another Italian Consortium, the Consorzio Strade-Italstrade and Calzoni Company, for which a second agreement was signed with Mediocredito (Bussotti and De Mutti, 2013).…”

“…In 1982, the Italian bank Mediocredito disbursed a US $13 billion loan to Banco de Moc¸ambique for the construction of Corumana Dam and the construction contract was awarded to the consortium Co.bo.co (Condotte d'Acqua, Bonifica-IRI, Lega delle Cooperative) (Bussotti and De Mutti, 2013). A second loan of US$110 million concerned the construction of the smaller and cheaper Pequenos Libombos dam, awarded to another Italian Consortium, the Consorzio Strade-Italstrade and Calzoni Company, for which a second agreement was signed with Mediocredito (Bussotti and De Mutti, 2013). However, these projects were truncated by the civil war (1977)(1978)(1979)(1980)(1981)(1982)(1983)(1984)(1985)(1986)(1987)(1988)(1989)(1990)(1991)(1992).…”

Italian cooperation with Mozambique: explaining the emergence and consolidation of a normative power

“…In 1989, Sant'Egidio launched the initiative of mediation in the Mozambican conflict. In the same year, the Italian enterprise Aquater (ENI group) supported a program for geological and mining research of the National Institute of Geology (De Muti, 2014), a focal sector of university cooperation between Italy and Mozambique since 1977 (Bussotti and De Muti, 2012).…”

“…The response of the Italian government to the OECD Peer Review was that of concentrating aid flows primarily on sub-Saharan African countries and, more specifically, on those on post-conflict situations. In this category, the Italian government classified countries in two different priority levels and assigned Mozambique to priority level 1 (Bussotti and De Muti, 2012).…”