Mozambique: “Bread Riots” Reflections · Global Voices
Janet Gunter

Two days of violence on September 1-2 in Maputo, resulting in between 13 and 18 civilian deaths, were followed by days of tension and rumor. Then on September 7, a state holiday called “Victory Day”, the Government of Mozambique announced a series of measures [pt, en] designed to curtail price increases of food, water and electricity in response to the popular protest. This announcement made waves around the world.
Photo by Flickr user Shanissinha_ on CC license
International affairs blog Global Dashboard responded to the  government's “back down” on bread prices, saying that it would be “pretty horrendous for Mozambique's treasury”. Blogger Alex Evans believes that a “social  protection” approach, instead of market intervention, would have been  wiser over the long term.
In his post “Why you should be skeptical about food riots”, development policy blogger Chris Blattman responded to the Maputo unrest, sharing that he hypothesizes that “external shocks are not the real cause of violence, but at best a trigger”. He also observes that poor policing often contributes to riots. He writes
The punchline: Are bread prices the  proximate cause of the [Maputo] riots? Probably. Are they the root cause?  Unlikely. Are global grain markets to blame? Unclear. How about bad  domestic policy? Almost certainly. How about shallow and alarmist  journalism about those poor, violent, unwashed nations? There are some  things you can bet your life on.
Food analyst Raj Patel, on his blog, featured the Mozambican Farmers Union's (UNAC) statement on the Maputo protests, in which the social movement stated “there's something rotten in the kingdom of globalization”. UNAC focuses on the need to concentrate on internal food production and marketing, in what it refers to as “food sovereignty” approach, making the links between the fields and the city
Acontecimentos como os da  semana passada em Moçambique corroboram com a nossa perspectiva de  luta: os alimentos não são uma mercadoria qualquer. É inaceitável que uma  população, na sua maioria pobre, fique à mercê dos mercados  mundiais para comer ou  não comer, quando um País como Moçambique possui terras e recursos  naturais mais que suficientes para assegurar alimentos, tanto para o  campo como para as cidades.
The Liga dos Direitos Humanos [League of Human Rights, pt], and later UNAC, were of the few “civil society” actors who spoke out during or after the unrest. Blogger Carlos Serra called “more official” civil society “noisy in its silence”.
Edson da Luz, known by his artistic name Azagaia, wrote on his blog Os Gestos das Palavras [The Gestures of Words, pt]
Acredito que se não  tivéssemos sindicatos moribundos (que ao que parece, “comem” com os  chefes para evitarem greves), e estes sindicatos assumissem o seu papel  social, esta manifestação teria sido mais ordeira e objectiva. Com  exigências concretas. E poupar-se-iam vidas humanas.
Other Mozambican commentators focused on the social dynamics behind the protests, including Serra, who cites undergraduate sociology student Clemente  A. Intsamuele
[…] no espaço público, como  no privado, oiço perguntas do género: Como é  que simples mensagens geraram a ocorrência daquele vulcão social? Nos  termos marxistas, como foi possível a revolução violenta? Caros  leitores, todo o processo que tornou aquele vulcão social numa realidade  pode ser compreendido e explicado à luz de um teorema que é um  princípio fundamental da sociologia, formulado por William Isaac Thomas,  que explica a situação que pode acontecer com alguns bancos em períodos  de crise. Passo a citar: “Se os indivíduos definem as situações como  reais, são reais em suas consequências”.
Ma-schamba blog featured a number of compelling posts on the urban dynamics behind the violence, including one where blogger JPT attempts to describe the form of self-organisation behind the protests, citing French philosopher Deleuze. He later blogged about the social divisions apparent in the city of Maputo during the protests
Em suma, e sem qualquer  ironia fácil, parece-me que à “oposição” Maputo-cimento/Maputo-caniço se  sucedeu, inopinadamente, uma oposição Maputo-contrato/Maputo-crédito.  Uma bem diversa topologia social, a exigir quem a pense. […] Mas sempre ela, tal como a  anterior, com os défices das dicotomias. Défices que são males para quem  as pensa. Mas ainda maiores para quem as produz.
JPT was referring to the government-ordered suspension of SMS services on pre-paid mobile phone users, on the afternoon of September 6, which continued for a few days. Global Voices has special reporting on this interference in communications in Mozambique: Government interference in SMS service on Global Voices Advocacy.