Architecture of (De)Colonization - Heritage, Identity and Amnesia in an African City: Maputo' s "City of Cement"

Abstract

Throughout the bloody and protracted Colonial War/War of Liberation in Mozambique (1964–1974), the European built environments of Lourenço Marques (presently Maputo) and Beira (the colony’s second city) came to embody what current scholarship on twentieth-century architecture in Africa misleadingly tends to identify as “Modern Diaspora”, failing to articulate the historiographical challenges of specific material translations with a complex interplay of actors and the colonial agenda. On the one hand, this text examines the strong urban developments and the “policy for built heritage” followed by the colonial administration between the decades of 1950–1970 in Lourenço Marques, which were challenged in the aftermath of Independence (June 25, 1975) with the implementation of socialist development policies; on the other hand, it reflects on the loss of architectural heritage of Portuguese influence in Maputo, sanctioned by recent urbanization plans and urban developments. Therefore, the text contributes to a realization of the fragile condition of modern heritage inherited by post-colonial societies, especially in cities where strong real estate speculation, limited state capacity, fast urbanization and the lack of acknowledgement, by tenants, of the values attached to the built environment are dominant aspects of the urban setting. The article benefits from fieldwork and archival research carried out in recent years, arguing that Maputo’s locally dubbed cidade de cimento (city of cement, built for settlers following European standards) presents neglected potential for negotiating and building (trans)- national identity and memory, as well as sustainable economic alternatives (in areas like tourism and heritage conservation).