Violent Resistance
Militia Formation and Civil War in Mozambique

Using original fieldwork, Violent Resistance explains when, where, and how communities form militias to defend themselves in civil wars.

Corinna Jentzsch (Author)

9781108837453, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 13 January 2022

300 pages
23.5 x 15.8 x 2 cm, 0.52 kg

'Jentzsch's work distinguishes between two types of militia in Mozambique: community initiated and state-initiated … This book contributes also to deepening our understanding of how civilians during the civil war sought 'third-way' strategies, not fully endorsing either of the two key belligerents, Frelimo and Renamo.' Alex Vines, Journal of Southern African Studies

Why do communities form militias to defend themselves against violence during civil war? Using original interviews with former combatants and civilians and archival material from extensive fieldwork in Mozambique, Corinna Jentzsch's Violent Resistance explains the timing, location and process through which communities form militias. Jentzsch shows that local military stalemates characterized by ongoing violence allow civilians to form militias that fight alongside the government against rebels. Militias spread only to communities in which elites are relatively unified, preventing elites from coopting militias for private gains. Crucially, militias that build on preexisting social conventions are able to resonate with the people and empower them to regain agency over their lives. Jentzsch's innovative study brings conceptual clarity to the militia phenomenon and helps us understand how wartime civilian agency, violent resistance, and the rise of third actors beyond governments and rebels affect the dynamics of civil war, on the African continent and beyond.

1. Introduction: militias in civil wars
2. Third actors and civilian agency: moving beyond a dichotomous understanding of civil wars
3. Intervention, autonomy, and power in polarized societies: challenges and opportunities of historical fieldwork
4. A war over people: an analysis of Mozambique's civil war
5. People tired of war: the timing of community-initiated militia formation
6. The diffusion of repertoires of collective action: the location of community-initiated militia formation
7. The power of a vaccine: the process of community-initiated militia formation
8. Conclusion: violence and civilian agency in civil wars
Appendix: data collection and analysis
References
Index.

Subject Areas: International relations [JPS], Comparative politics [JPB], Politics & government [JP]