Paper short abstract:

In contrast to Western cultures, in the Mozambican context the responsibility for injustice is not an individual concern. This responsibility is a matter for the community as a whole. That is why the families of the perpetrators of violence ordered ritual ceremonies to appease the spirits.

Paper long abstract:

Since 1976, Mozambique was plagued by an internal war that would last for sixteen years.

Devastating and violent, it has spread to the whole territory and has also affected the population in an unequal general way, disintegrating Mozambican society in an unprecedented way.

Conflict resolution techniques applied to the Mozambican civil war have implemented programs for the reintegration of ex-combatants into society (DDR), involving children and young people too, who had been combatants in the civil war and also mechanisms of transitional justice, which in Mozambique resulted in a general amnesty.

The general amnesty would lead to some discomfort in Mozambican society by not allowing people to be confronted with the crimes they committed during the war. Traditional rituals involving ex-combatants (purification rituals [kuhlapsa] and exorcism rituals [kufemba]) have sought to address this problem at the host community level, as well as to solve the shortcomings of DDR programs.

Mozambique has shown that the reintegration of ex-combatants, especially the child soldiers, is an issue where peacebuilding can work side by side with informal justice techniques.

The cultural factor is at the heart of this intersection which shapes the attitudes of the parts in conflict and consequently can help them to overcome the trauma, enable social reconciliation, and prevent them from slipping sooner or later into armed criminality.

It is therefore in the interest of the DDR programs to include the involvement of local actors, who can help find creative and appropriate solutions for each case.