Explaining Debt in Gorongosa, Mozambique: Processes of socio-economic transformation at the grassroots

This paper explores the complex and gendered processes of change that have occurred at the grassroots level, using the debt cases reported to the traditional tribunal of a rural community in Gorongosa in Mozambique as a point of departure. It explores how male farmers have implemented an informal credit system among themselves using their own financial resources to provide what agricultural policies have failed to provide under the liberal peace. The main reasons for the increase of debt cases are first examined. Then, the study considers the growing monetization of social relations and how such change can be tied to wider socio-economic processes in rural Mozambique. Finally, the impacts of different type of debts, their inter-relations and impacts on the community and on gender relations in particular, are considered.