ID'ing Mozambique's Post-Independence Development and History from 1975 to 1993

The ID photograph played a central role in Mozambique's national development after its independence from Portugal in 1975, an observation that becomes critical to understanding the possibility that an independent African state like Mozambique was more organized than its colonial predecessor. From 1975 to 1992, Mozambique found itself at the center of two wars, one involved its internal economic and political development and the other was a struggle to end apartheid's reign in Southern Africa. This paper considers the role of passport-size photographs attached to a host of identification documents in how the Mozambican government located and represented its power in a time period that directly challenged the legitimacy of a post-independent African state.