Financialisation, narrow specialisation of production and capital accumulation in Mozambique

ABSTRACT The article argues that the historical conditions under which national capitalism developed in post-independence Mozambique pushed the economy towards growing financialisation and narrower specialisation of production around increasingly basic and simple activities. In post-independence Mozambique, national capitalism rose from the ashes of state-centred accumulation built around the dominant social structures of production inherited from colonialism, under the impulse of neoliberal economic reforms and heavy dependency on inflows of private international finance. The speculative dynamics of accumulation prevented diversification and more complex industrialisation which, in turn, reinforced the role of financialisation as a means to and form of accumulation of capital. The paper argues that changing these dynamics of accumulation requires conscious industrial strategies focused on diversification and articulation of production, which cannot be achieved without challenging the extractive mode of accumulation and the power relationships associated with it.