Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Lourenço Marques, black or white, in the 1960s and early 1970s (Rita-Ferreira 1967;
Honwana 1988; Oliveira 1999; Frates 2002; Penvenne 2011). Antoinette Errante argues
that racial segregation was part of the “artificial homogenization” of the diverse white
population of Lourenço Marques (Errante 2003, 14). Establishing European superior-
ity meant masking the class differences among whites, and this, in turn, meant rescuing
poor, often illiterate Portuguese from comparison with Africans.
Segregation in Lourenço Marques was not achieved through overtly racial laws
(Frates 2002). The city wasn't governed by anything similar to the ruthless legal appar-
atus of apartheid South Africa, which eliminated “black spots” in areas officially des-
ignated for white habitation. Rather, early dislocations of blacks from the city to the
shantytowns were largely effected through the passage of new building codes, which
outlawed the construction of lower-quality housing within city limits (Rita-Ferreira
1967; Frates 2002). Thereafter the racialized job market ensured that even better paid
assimilados
usually couldn't afford to build or rent a home in the city, and the reforms
of the 1960s which opened up more opportunities for Africans did not at the same time
open the doors to the City of Cement (Penvenne 2011). The few blacks with sufficient
means were often blocked by the simple racism of landlords (or assumed they would
be). Against such bigotry, ever more rigid with the continuing influx of white immig-
rants, there was no real recourse (Castelo 2007; Penvenne 2011).
Inmanyrespects,Portuguesecolonialurbanismmirroredcitieselsewhereonthecon-
tinent. Whether ruled by France, Britain, Belgium, fascist Italy, or Portugal, cities in co-
lonial Africa were usually organized on the basis of racial classification (Abu-Lughod
1980; Winters 1982; Prochaska 1990; Wright 1991; Çelik 1997; Myers 2003; Coquery-
Vidrovitch2005;Fuller2007;Njoh2008;Myers2011).Thelogicofcolonialism,likeits
apartheid variant, demanded separation of the races, at least where whites were present
in any numbers. Without the notion of a hierarchy of peoples European control lacked a
convincingself-justification.Citiesmaintainedthissocialhierarchythroughspatialhier-
archy.
A typical settler-colonial city was consciously developed as the embodiment of what
modernity and European civilization were said to represent and what African societies
might eventually aspire to under European guidance: it was rationally planned, techno-
logically superior, hygienic according to the latest principles of medical science. Until
the1930s,a“sanitationsyndrome”guidedurbandevelopmentacrossthecontinent.Fear
of Africans as vectors of malaria and other disease justified the demolition of African
neighborhoods in city centers and the removal of their residents to undeveloped, unser-
viced, and usually low-lying land beyond the city's edge, often separated by a cordon
sanitaire of open space. As if to enhance the contrast, some colonial cities were, archi-
tecturally, more deliberately “European” than European cities themselves.
