Mining megaprojects and the drama of local communities in Northern Mozambique: the case of Nacala-a-Velha District, Nampula

Abstract

This study analyzes the socio-territorial impacts of mining megaprojects on local communities in Mozambique, with an emphasis on the district of Nacala-a-Velha, in the Nampula Province. In this district, the multinational mining company Vale implemented a rail-port terminal and built a 912-km railway that links the districts of Moatize, in the province of Tete, and Nacala-a-Velha, for the transport and export of mineral coal. Data was collected through focus-group meetings with four communities resettled by Vale in Nacala-a-Velha and interviews with four stakeholders in the Nampula province. Using a critical theoretical framework, we carried out a historical-dialectical analysis of power and conflict relations involved in the geopolitical strategies of appropriation of mining territories and the consequent expropriation of communities in Mozambique. The results of our study indicate that local communities in Nacala-a-Velha impacted by the Vale project are forcibly losing land tenure and control, and hence their territories. As a corollary, a pauperization process affecting the communities’ material and immaterial living conditions has been unfolding, in favor of the so-called capitalist development.