Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
One of the lessons to be learned from the case of Maputo (or rather, learned again)
is the significance of the relative durability of urbanism itself: how a built legacy can
convey the values of the past into the present, long after planners and builders are gone
from the scene. Much of the work on colonial-era architecture and urbanism in Africa
beginswithFoucaultasastartingpoint(whetherheisacknowledgedornot)withanem-
phasis on the intentions of colonial administrators and architects—the ideologies they
brought to the drawing board, and that were embedded in the finished product (Wright
1991;Çelik1997;Fuller2007).AstheworkofGarthMyers(2003)suggests,oneneeds
to examine, too, how people actually lived in colonial-era built environments over time,
and reconfigured them to their own needs. His approach shares something of the spirit
of Michel de Certeau (1984): ordinary people aren't the hapless victims of the spatial
isfying one, but in Maputo's City of Cement it finds an empirical test: there, even the
new regime could not make the built landscape conform to new priorities; demolition,
let alone construction, was a luxury. A converted movie theater served as the young na-
tion's popular assembly.
Ultimately, though, the issue was not that most Mozambicans were ill-suited to the
City of Cement, and the living arrangements it presupposed, but rather that the City of
Cement was fundamentally unsuitable for Mozambique—a constant reminder of colo-
nialism's colossally bad fit., The center of gravity of African life in Maputo has long
been located on the city's margins, whether during the colonial era or afterward. Today,
the “shantytown” designation is far less appropriate than it was before. Most houses are
builtofconcreteblock,andpeoplefromallwalksoflifeliveinthem.Housesinthe
sub-
úrbios
arestillunauthorizedforthemostpart,stillofficiallyillegal,buttheaspirationof
the people who live in these neighborhoods is not to move to an apartment in what was
once called the City of Cement. Rather, when most people in Maputo talk about their
future, they imagine building a house on a larger plot of land in the peri-urban areas of
Matola or Marracuene, even further from downtown, and that much closer to the coun-
tryside.
Acknowledgments
This chapter draws upon research that was generously supported by the Fundação Cal-
ouste Gulbenkian, the Fundação Luso-Americana, the University of Minnesota Office
of International Programs, and a Fulbright Program grant sponsored by the Bureau of
Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. Department of State and administered by
the Institute of International Education.
