Engaging, transcending and subverting dichotomies: Discursive dynamics of Maputo’s urban space

Abstract

Historically, while cities such as Mozambique’s capital Maputo have been analysed as divided into ‘formal ‘and ‘informal’ spaces, contemporary approaches tend to emphasise the heterogeneity and plasticity of African urbanities. Drawing upon original ethnographic material gathered from fieldwork in 2012/2013, we reframe the analysis of such cities through recognition of novel forms of urban imaginaries, emergent narratively, that may take the shape of dichotomies or trichotomies reconfiguring hegemonic notions such as formal–informal, centre–periphery or urban–suburban. In conclusion, it is suggested that this citywide ongoing process highlights the importance of appreciating dynamic discursive engagements with urban space, which not only are at odds with hegemonic definitions of the city but also, crucially, impinge on people’s own urban strategies – in Maputo as well as elsewhere.

“It’s all about money”: urban–rural spaces and relations in Maputo, Mozambique

“…People living in the city's informal settlements tend to perceive the city as more complex and as organized into a number of distinct yet overlapping spaces (Bertelsen, Tvedten, and Roque 2013;Roque et al 2016). The former split between the cidade de cimento (cement city) and the cidade de caniço (city of reeds) has been replaced by various broad distinctions, which include the formal affluent city, often denoted by the English word "town" to emphasize its modern and cosmopolitan aspects; the formal congested city (cidade), with high-rise buildings as the main signifier; the suburbio (informal suburbs), dominated by small brick houses and shacks, where the majority of the population lives; and the peri-urban "peripheral city, " which makes up the border with the cidade periférica (rural areas) (Ibid.…”

“…The differences in physical outline reflect different historical trajectories as well as differences in levels of employment, income, education, social organization, and crime. These are replicated in stark stereotypes in each of the two bairros about people in "the other bairro" in terms of such factors as employed/ unemployed, rich/poor, educated/non-educated, and order/disorder (Bertelsen, Tvedten, and Roque 2013). Neither rurality nor tradition are used to signify "the other" in terms of socio-cultural position and forms of interaction as argued by, for example, Gugler (2002) and De Boeck (2011).…”

“…This study is part of a lager research project entitled "The Ethnography of a Divided City: Space, Poverty and Gender in Maputo, Mozambique, " funded by the Norwegian Research Council (2012)(2013)(2014)(2015)(2016). This particular sub-study draws on fieldwork that took place in the bairros of 25 de Junho A and B, and in Inhagoia A and B in the District of KaMubukwana in February/March 2015, but also draws on fieldwork from bairros in the districts of KaMaxaquene and Nlhamankula in other projects (Paulo, Rosário, and Tvedten 2011;Bertelsen, Tvedten, and Roque 2013). 3.…”

“…This also reflects recent population movements, with overcrowding and "slumification" of the formal congested city, followed by a gentrification of former peripheral bairros such as Khongolote and Zimpeto as people move out to avoid the city center. This entails an ensuing de facto ejection of the recent migrant/semi-rural population who can no longer find space, or afford, to live there (Bertelsen, Tvedten and Roque 2013;Paulo, Rosário, and Tvedten 2011). 9.…”

Effervescence and Ephemerality: Popular Urban Uprisings in Mozambique

“…or withdrawal of the state to monopolise the coercive use of force' (see also Buur et al 2006). Moreover, the dramatic events such as those of 2008 and 2010 feed into and sustain urban imaginaries of dividedness, exclusion and abjection that are experienced by urban inhabitants who occupy the spaces adjoining these wealthy and well-securitised areas (Bertelsen et al 2013).…”