Society: Maputo, a Case of Social Non-simultaneity? A City Repertoire of Issues

The aim of this article is to show the socio-historic complexity of Mozambique’s capital city. Maputo presents all the traits of heterogenetic urbanism. It is born as a colonial outpost destined for the exploitation of the country’s resources. It long remains a white city, which begins to transform only after the 1975 revolution. The growth in the successive decades is chaotic both from a demographic and spatial point on view, joining destiny with other African cities in not leading in any way to a cohesive and shared idea of a city. Maputo remains the fruit of a clash between the city and the countryside, between the colonial model of rationality and the one of the autochthonous populations. It is a realm of Non-Simultaneity, of an unresolved coexistence of different perceptions of time and views on urban life. In the meantime, the predominance of extraction capitalism multiplies its issues in social, organizational, and infrastructural terms, as informal settlements grow, and the near prospects predict a further rise in the number of inhabitants. This situation implies consequences that are difficult to evaluate under the profile of stability and structuralism of the extremely fragile equilibrium existing now and the possible re-ignition of conflicts that are far from subsided.