private/public government of communities

Maputo, mid-2000s. The feeling of the end of an era permeates the city and its public spaces, especially in the messages of the main media outlets—a couple of television channels and news shows, a few newspapers and leaflets distributed by fax—whose claims and predictions are echoed in myriad conversations amongst elites and others in the know. The last few years have brought a series of politico-economic transformations to the nation-state. Ten years following the end of the civil war the country continues on a path of national reconciliation, healing of social and communal wounds, economic and political liberalization, and the rebuilding of ruined infrastructure. While national elites still keep their grip on the direction and outcome of these processes, more than 60 percent of the national budget derives from various forms of foreign aid and international loans. Donors and financial institutions oversee the continuity of the peace process, the juridical reform of the state, and the reconstitution of the economy. In this context of reform of the party-state system and the deregulation of markets and political associations, “civil society” is a central concept or slogan that is constantly reiterated in the public sphere.