Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
rivals to the city, some had been peasants in the Portuguese countryside who came and
worked in cantinas or as day laborers, and some were young professionals or military
men with their families, sent from Lisbon to work as government administrators (Caste-
lo 2007). Others were second-and third-generation laurentinos who had never seen Por-
tugal,andwhoworkedinmid-andlow-level jobsinthecivil service orasshop-keepers
or as railroad workers.
Since at least the early nineteenth century,cities all along Africa's Indian Ocean coast
possessed significant Indian populations, and Lourenço Marques—with 6,565 Indians
in 1960—was no exception. As elsewhere on the coast, many were involved in retail
and other forms of trade, particularly in businesses with an African clientele, and occu-
pied a kind of middle ground in colonial society: able to exercise great mobility in the
economic sphere, though often marginalized as outsiders in civic and political affairs
(PereiraBastos2005).ThecensusalsoregisteredasmallpopulationofChinese,likeIn-
dians largely involved in retail trade.
Figure 10.2
ThecityofLourençoMarquesin1929,showingthecurvingstreet,latercalledAven-
ida Caldas Xavier, that divided the formalized city from its shantytowns. The shantytowns are
represented in the map by blank spaces. (Credit: Morais 2001)
ForalongtimePortugueseimmigrantstoMozambiquewerepredominatelymen,and
there were a number of people descended from the unions of these men and African
women (Castelo 2007). In 1960, there were 7,440 residents of mixed race living in
