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Angola and Mozambique: Institutionalizing Social Revolution in Africa*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2009

Timothy W. Luke
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Extract

In this analysis I explore the key political and military events that led to the acquisition of state power by the Movimento Popular de Libertacao (MPLA) in Angola and the Frente de Libertacao de Mocambique (FRELIMO) in Mozambique during 1975–1976. At the same time, I discuss the decisive role played by the “guerrilla counterstate,” which the MPLA and FRELIMO movements constructed out of their national liberation party organizations, as a social formation to guide the cultural and political process of rapid social change. Indeed, I argue that one can point to the MPLA's and FRELIMO's divergent experiences with administering their counterstate institutions during the struggle for national liberation as a decisive variable in accounting for their respective successes and failures at institutionalizing social revolution after independence.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Review of Politics , Volume 44 , Issue 3 , July 1982 , pp. 413 - 436
Copyright
Copyright © University of Notre Dame 1982

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References

1 For a more elaborate discussion of the guerrilla counterstate, see Luke, Timothy W., “The MPLA Takeover in Angola,” Washington University Political Science Papers, no. 15 (St. Louis, 1978)Google Scholar.

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