Re-Conceptualising Hegemony in Southern Africa: Mozambique as a Hegemonic Stability Actor

This study’s proposition is to investigate three hegemony questions. Whilst each question seeks to answer a different question, they are interdependent and a piece of a broader thought. They critically examine the concept of hegemony in a quest to understand the actual power actors of the different African regions. This study aims to contextualise hegemony by interrogating African features and realities that makes a state hegemonically powerful. Due to the dominance of western interpretations, the westernization of African knowledge is also reflected in its international relations. Southern Africa’s hegemonic theory is identified as hegemonic stability theory. The study invokes the same theory to present a different perspective of contribution to stability. This results in a distortion of the realities of power and influence in the region and continent. Post colonialism is the framework used to interrogate the study, that comprises of Mozambique as the case study. Due to its conceptual and analytical nature, a qualitative study that included field work was the most suitable design. This allowed for enriched and triangulated data that was analysed using a combination of methods which were content analysis, grounded theory and case study to examine and explain a single case.