Patterns currently (1980s) affecting the political economy of Mozambique took shape in the colonial era and were influenced by the peculiarities of Portugal’s position in Europe, and the all important shift in colonial policy in the 1960s locking Mozambique into the southern African orbit. In the newly independent government’s programme for reconstructing the national economy, a viable agricultural sector was seen as an essential element in the quest for socialism. State farms and communal villages were established as twin vehicles of rural development. However, performance in the agricultural sector has fallen short of Frelimo’s expectations. Frelimo made a mistake by investing in the large State farms without supporting the millions of family farmers. Frelimo also still has to determine how to generate internal capital accumulation to finance industrial development, especially since heavy industry was regarded, initially at least, as the driving force of an advanced economy. In international economic relations, Frelimo has charted a middle course between acquiescing to the situation it inherited from colonialism and rejecting established ties. The critical policy issue remains Maputo’s relationship with Pretoria. Friendship with the socialist world has not precluded cooperation with the West. In 1984 Mozambique joined the IMF in a move calculated to draw multiple sources of external capital. While Mozambique’s strategy of accumulation is highly egalitarian, the attempt to implement it under inauspicious circumstances has undermined Frelimo’s legitimacy. Ref.
