Peoples' Spaces and State Spaces

Book excerpt: Based on the detailed examination of the history of four Mozambican rural communities and on the experience of nine years working in the country, Galli shows the capacity of the rural societies to govern the land they occupy, to control the basic aspects of their communal life and to transform their livelihoods in reponse to market opportunities across the last several hundred years and contrasts this with the attempts of those who grabbed the land, displaced its people, and then sought to remedy the consequences through centralized planning. Part Two of the book casts light upon post civil war efforts to bring governmental and rurla society into a more harmonious relationship and offers its own strategy for reanimating local life.