Journalist and academic Joseph Hanlon stated on Thursday, in Maputo, that Mozambique is facing “a new form of colonization,” led by large international corporations and national “oligarchs” linked to political power, whom he holds responsible for poverty and inequality in the country.
“The colonizers now are the big international companies — from the mines, and other sectors like gas,” Hanlon said during a podcast hosted by the Mozambican civil society organization Centro de Integridade Pública (CIP), about his new book Mozambique Recolonized Through Corruption.
Hanlon, who has been following Mozambican affairs since 1978, added: “But the administrators of the system are the Mozambican oligarchs.”
According to the researcher, this “new economic colonization” stems from an alliance between local political elites and international financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, along with the “resource curse,” in this case linked to natural gas.
“In Mozambique, there is a cooperative operation between the oligarchs, the IMF, the World Bank, and foreign companies,” he said, arguing that a “new independence” is needed in the country.
Hanlon emphasized that Mozambique is one of the main heroin corridors in southern Africa — a phenomenon that, according to him, reflects entrenched power networks and corruption within state structures, facilitating drug trafficking and money laundering.
Joseph Hanlon, born in the United States in 1941, is a journalist and senior lecturer in Development Policy and Practice at the Open University in the United Kingdom. Having lived in Mozambique for long periods, he is regarded as one of the most prominent foreign scholars on the country’s history and politics.
He has written several works on Mozambique’s economy and conflicts and explained that his latest book examines the relationship between the economic programs of the IMF and the World Bank and the major corruption scandals and political assassinations in the country — including those of journalist Carlos Cardoso and economist Siba-Siba Macuácua.
“Mozambique needs to have an internal discussion,” Hanlon concluded.
Source: Lusa
