Abstract
Supported by urban socio-linguistics and by an anthropological approach to toponymic inscriptions, we here analyse the discursive functioning of formal and informal place naming in Maputo. Conceived as both linguistic and social practice, toponymic (in-)formality is examined in its actual context of production and use. The official place-naming system, both colonial and revolutionary-post-colonial, emerges as a lesson in history and geography. Here the street names relate to historical events, commemorate national and foreign heroes, and pay homage to other cities and countries of the world that are closely linked to the history of Mozambique. In the unofficial case, street names serve as a sort of atlas in which, aside from names of other cities and regional localities, names of districts and rivers of Mozambique are also recalled. It should be noted that toponymic informality does not seek to replace, and much less compete, with the official naming system. On the contrary, its simultaneous existence seeks to consolidate and highlight contemporary history, together with the everyday reality and spatiality of the city dwellers. The latter includes an autochthonous linguistic heritage, collective memory, and the cultures and traditions of Mozambique. This short chapter also exemplifies that informal place naming reflects Maputo’s urban multilingualism (Portuguese, English and indigenous languages). These toponymic characteristics neutralise the geographical and administrative boundaries of the urban sphere and deconstruct the centre-periphery dichotomy. This is, inter alia, through the original social functioning of transport and popular shops that exhibit place names all over the urban area, regardless of their actual socio-spatial location.
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Notes
- 1.
This chapter was translated from Portuguese into French and then into English by Carlos Mataruca, Universidade Pedagógica, Faculdade de Ciências da Linguagem, Comunicação e Artes, Maputo, Moçambique, and the Editor.
- 2.
Aniceto dos Muchangos, ‘Traços gerais da cidade de Maputo’, Boletim do Arquivo Histórico de Moçambique n°2, Outubro 1987, pp. 122–135; Maria Clara Mendes, Maputo Antes da Independência: Geografia de uma Cidade Colonial (Lisboa: Centro de Estudos Geográficos da Universidade de Lisboa, 1979).
- 3.
Dos Muchangos, ‘Traços gerais da cidade de Maputo’, p. 122.
- 4.
This is in terms of drinking water, sanitation, electricity and public lighting, garbage collection, public spaces and social services such as health centres, banks, markets, shops, police stations, leisure centres and adequate places of worship. See, for more: José Forjaz (et al.), Moçambique, Melhoramento dos Assentamentos Informais, Análise da Situação & Propostas de Estratégias de Intervenção (Maputo: Centro de desenvolvimento do Habitat (CEDH), 2006), p. 42.
- 5.
The lack of consensus among geographers is due to the heterogeneity of the variables considered in the categorisation of these neighborhoods. While some geographers tend to consider the socio-demographic variables, urban infrastructure and housing types, others use a multidimensional analysis of the diversity of habitation and land use categories, as were obtained in the 1997 census through information systems and remote sensing . In this case, aside from the city centre, Mozambican geographers identify four categories of residential space in Maputo, i.e., former suburban areas, and recent peri-urban, urban and rural margins. These fluctuations clearly show the difficulties of socio-spatial delineation of the city.
- 6.
Isabel Raposo, ‘Décentralisation et plans d’aménagement de quartiers péri-urbains à Maputo’, in Laurent Fourchard (ed.), Gouverner les villes d’Afrique: Etat, gouvernement local et acteurs privés (Paris: Karthala, 2007), pp. 53–68 (p. 55).
- 7.
Raposo, ‘Décentralisation et plans d’aménagement’, p. 55.
- 8.
Raposo, ‘Décentralisation et plans d’aménagement’, p. 55 (brackets added by author).
- 9.
Raposo, ‘Décentralisation et plans d’aménagement’, p. 55. Catherine Farvacque-Vitkovic, Lucien Godin, Hugues Leroux, Florence Verdet e Roberto Chávez, O endereçamento e a gestão das cidades (Washington: Banco Internacional para Reconstrução e Desenvolvimento/ Banco Mundial, 2005), p. 7.
- 10.
César Cumbe, ‘Maputo, là où parlent les murs et les voitures’, Actes du Colloque (conference proceedings) entitled ‘Cultures urbaines à la Réunion’, Saint-Denis, 13–14 avril 2011.
- 11.
Farvacque-Vitkovic (et al.), O endereçamento e a gestão das cidades, p. 7; Valdemir Zamparoni, ‘Monhés, Banianes, Chinas e Afro-maometanos: Colonialismo e racismo em Lourenço Marques, Moçambique, 1890-1940’, Lusotopie (2000), pp. 191–222; João Craveirinha, ‘Thomas Mapfumo’ in http://macua.blogs.com/moçambique_para todos/thomas_mpfumo.doc (visited 30 June 2015).
- 12.
Farvacque-Vitkovic (et al.), O endereçamento e a gestão das cidades, p. 7.
- 13.
See next sub-heading for an example for mobile signs.
- 14.
Private public transport in Maputo and Mozambique in general are called ‘Chapa 100.’ Initially, this designation referred to pick-up trucks fitted with benches and covered with zinc to protect passengers against the sun and rain, hence the name ‘chapa’ to indicate the zinc roof and ‘100’ to indicate the fare (100.00 meticals, the local currency). Gradually these vans have given way to the minibus (Toyota Hiace especially). But considering the current transport crisis, the pick-ups have come to rely on minibuses, this time without either bench or zinc roof. Passengers are shaken and have to stand, often close to each other like lovers, hence the new name ‘My Love’, very common for these minibuses, mainly in Maputo.
- 15.
Each minibus has four banners of the same colour showing the way. The colours are found, inter alia, red, yellow, blue and green. A certain colour is used to indicate the routes that are in the same direction or geographical area. Yellow, for instance, covers the following routes: Museu (city centre)-Malhazeine (periphery); Museu (city centre)-Albazine (periphery); Museu (city centre)-Hulene (periphery); Museu (city centre)-Laulane (periphery); Baixa (downtown) -Praça back Combatentes (periphery); Anjo Voador (city centre)-Praça back Combatentes (periphery). Note that the use of the same colour banners here is logical because the periphery includes neighbouring areas that follow one another in sequential order, e.g., Praça dos Combatentes, Laulane, Magoanine, Mlalhazine, Albazine.
- 16.
Giovanni Brino, ‘La signification urbaine: dichotomie entre centre ville et périphérie en Italie’, in Bernard Lamizet (ed.), Les langages de la ville (Paris: Éditions Parenthèses, 1997), p. 59. See also: Raposo, ‘Décentralisation et plans d’aménagement’, p. 55.
- 17.
Gilles Rabin, Luc Gwiazdzinski, Si la ville m’était contée (Paris: Eyrolles, 2005), p. 69.
- 18.
Today in Maputo, the classic restaurants offering their daily dishes are open towards the street. They are faced with competition from restaurant-cars operating at every corner of the busiest streets in the heart of the city, at lunch-time serving different take-away dishes at low cost.
- 19.
This expression is borrowed from the Chicago School and was born in the 1920s following a fascination with human behaviour in urban environment. Robert Park, Ernest Burgers, Roderick McKenzie and Louis Wirth, are among the pioneers who laid the foundation for an ecological approach to the city.
- 20.
Christian Topalov (ed.), Les divisions de la ville, collection ‘les mots de la ville’ (Paris: UNESCO & Maison des sciences de l’homme, 2002); Bernard Lamizet and Pascal Sanson (eds), Les langages de la ville (Marseille: Parenthèses, 1997).
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Cumbe, C. (2016). Formal and Informal Toponymic Inscriptions in Maputo: Towards Socio-Linguistics and Anthropology of Street Naming. In: Bigon, L. (eds) Place Names in Africa. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-32485-2_13
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-32485-2_13
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