Mozambican Civil War

=== Internal Mozambican tensions ===

==== FRELIMO dissidents ====

Soon after independence, FRELIMO begun Mozambique's transformation into a socialist one-party-state. This was accompanied by crackdowns on dissidents and the nationalisation of important economic facilities abandoned by fleeing Portuguese.<ref name="jpires.org"/> Numerous political parties sprung up virtually overnight and vied for power with FRELIMO. Many of these parties like [[COREMO]] and UNAR were made up of FRELIMO dissidents such as [[Uria Simango]] and Lazaro Nkavandame. Both men were arrested and convicted in a public trial before [[Samora Machel]] before being sent to re-education camps. Simango was reportedly later extrajudicially executed<ref>''Mozambique: the tortuous road to democracy'' by J. Cabrita, Macmillan, 2001. {{ISBN|9780333920015}}</ref> whilst Nkavandame reportedly died of natural causes.

Furthermore, the nationalisation of many formerly Portuguese-owned enterprises, fear of a retaliation against whites, and an ultimatum to either accept Mozambican citizenship or leave the country within 90 days, drove the majority of the 370,000 [[Portuguese Mozambicans|white Portuguese Mozambicans]] out of the country. As the Portuguese left some purposefully sabotaged the economy, stealing profits from factories, driving tractors into the sea and pouring cement into sewers.<ref name="ReferenceA"/> The Portuguese exodus resulted in economic chaos as only few Africans had received higher education or even primary education under Portuguese rule with over 95% of the population illiterate.<ref>Mario Mouzinho ''Literacy in Mozambique: education for all challenges'' UNESCO, 2006</ref><ref name="jpires.org"/>

==== Overturning of traditional hierarchies and re-education camps ====

As a revolutionary Marxist party, FRELIMO embarked on overturning traditional, tribal governance structures that grew extensively under the Portuguese colonial rule in an effort to counter regionalism and tribalism to build a single, national identity. Shortly after independence many local chiefs were ousted and removed from positions of power and many dissidents were imprisoned in re-education camps.<ref>Igreja 2007, p.128.</ref> Another source of conflict was the continuation of the aldeamento system that the Portuguese had introduced as a means of exerting control and inhibiting contact between the population and the rebels. It coerced thousands of peasants to move into communal villages and communal farms where they were given food, water and healthcare, but lacked adequate tools and money to farm effectively. FRELIMO hoped that this system would enable the fulfilment of its ambitious agricultural development goals, but the implementation often alienated parts of the rural population, whom FRELIMO had popular support from during the independence struggle. This was especially the case in central and northern Mozambique, where households are traditionally separated by considerable distances.<ref>The cultural dimension of war traumas in central Mozambique: The case of Gorongosa. http://priory.com/psych/traumacult.htm</ref>