Landscapes of Belonging: Female Ex-Combatants Remembering the Liberation Struggle in Urban Maputo

Abstract

Mozambique's liberation struggle was mostly fought on the terrain of the northern provinces of Cabo Delgado, Niassa and Tete. Yet, though the rural landscapes of northern Mozambique are intrinsically tied to the country's national history, the public commemoration of the struggle in the present-day context is a state-led narrative more closely linked to the urban experience of the predominantly male political elite. In this article, I explore how female veterans living in the national capital, Maputo, in southern Mozambique, conceptualise national space and belonging, and construct its gendered meanings. Though significant numbers of girls and women were mobilised by the FRELIMO guerrilla army to fight in the struggle, to date little research exists on women's accounts of their experience. This article is based on life-history interviews conducted in Maputo with female war veterans in 2009 and 2011. On the one hand, I show how the abstract space of the nation is made sense of and personalised through the women's experience of the liberation struggle, and further juxtaposed with their current experience of the cityscape. On the other hand, I discuss how the capital city as the spatio- An earlier version of this paper was part of the Space and Place conference proceedings e-Book: D. Kılıçkıran, C. Alegria and C. Haddrell (eds), Space and Place: Exploring Critical Issues (Oxford, Inter-Disciplinary Press, 2013). My thanks to Isabel Maria Casimiro, Axel Fleisch, Tuija Saresma and the two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments. I sincerely thank the Centre of African Studies, Eduardo Mondlane University, for their support during my stay in Mozambique. Many thanks also to the Nordic Africa Institute and the Finnish Cultural Foundation for their financial support for this research.

Women, War and Political Violence

“…Further understanding of how female involvement occurs is provided by the strand of literature focusing on female fighters in other conflict contexts. A substantial number of studies of female non-state political violence have been published in the last few decades, including from a terrorism studies perspective Erez 2007a, 2007b;Bloom 2011;Cunningham 2003Cunningham , 2007Cunningham , 2008Cunningham , 2010Dalton and Asal 2011;Davis 2013Davis , 2017Dearing 2010;Eggert 2015;Gonzalez-Perez 2008;Taylor 2008, 2009;Speckhard 2008;Speckhard and Akhmedova 2008;Victor 2003;Von Knop 2007)-as well as by scholars working within conflict, war or rebel studies or other disciplinary frameworks (Alison 2003(Alison , 2009Bernal 2000Bernal , 2006Burgess 1989;Cohen 2013;Coulter 2008;Eager 2008;Gayer 2009;Gentry and Sjoberg 2015;Hamilton 2007;Henshaw 2016;Katto 2014;Magadla 2015;McKay 2007;Ortega 2012;Parashar 2009Parashar , 2014Parvati 2005;Reif 1986;Roy 2012;Sajjad 2004;Shayne 1999;Shekhawat 2012;Shikola 1998;…”

"A peaceful country": Refugees, masculinities and anti-radical national identity in early postcolonial Botswana

“…Instead, as exemplified by FRELIMO in Mozambique and the African National Congress in South Africa, they prioritised male-female bonds of comradeship rather than male violence against women. 18 We begin from this premise that masculinities are not a primordial, timeless and homogenous phenomenon. Rather, they are a fluid, social and historical construct which keeps recalibrating due to changing gender roles and expectations.…”

Hidden Veterans: A Review of the Literature on Women Veterans in Contemporary Society

“…As primary caregivers, women balance family and military life, despite increased stress (Katto, 2014; Lundberg, Taniguchi, McGovern, & Smith, 2016). Military commands are unable or unwilling to make concessions for mothers, as deployment overseas and prolonged absence, impact on both mothers and children (Dichter & True, 2015; Leslie & Koblinsky, 2017), contributing to premature discharge and women placing the needs of their family over the military and looking for new opportunities outside the military.…”