Street Authorities: Community Policing in Mozambique and Swaziland

Abstract

Abstract This article explores the politics produced by civilian community policing groups in the urban margins of Mozambique and Swaziland. By taking over those streets that no one else could control, young unemployed men established themselves as alternative police forces and vectors of power in the neighborhoods. This made them politically significant to local leaders, politicians, and state police officers who both saw them as competitors and enrolled them in their own political agendas. By expanding upon the concept of “street politics,” I argue that the community policing groups developed into what I conceptualize as “street authorities.” Street authority involves a style of politics that relies on the capacity for swift, direct actions, often through violent means, to order the streets, but it is also characterized by momentariness that prevents the formation of stable organizations. Such politics emerge in urban contexts where poor urban citizens mistrust the state and where there is a preference for immediate outcomes because livelihood uncertainties are high, security is low, and it is difficult to express grievances through official political channels.