Maputo Emergente. Visualising an African Divided City

Rapid urbanisation is one of the most dramatic developments on the African continent. While urban areas account for an increasing part of the continents positive macro-economic development and represent opportunities for employment, education, health, lei sure and well-being, urban growth is also manifested in emerging conditions of inequality and poverty, rising environmental problems, situations of political instability and riots, as well as persistent high levels of urban crime and violence. This film project will map the way in which symbolic and material boundaries of various urban spaces are contested, negotiated and, ultimately, inscribed onto mental maps of the city. Moving between the central to suburban and peri-urban spaces, in a well- thought -out order, and adding to them the voices of inhabitants (through different social settings and contexts), will allow us to reinforce the existing contrasts and similarities experienced around and across the city. The Mozambican film studio ANIMA. Estúd io Criativo has a strong track record in innovative and concerned filmmaking. The film will be made in two different edits, one of about 45 minutes and one of approximately 15 minutes. The longer in-depth version is for film festivals, television, governm ent/donors and screenings for the population in Maputos urban neighbourhoods, and a shorter version will be shown in connection with lectures/presentations related to the research project "The Ethnography of a Divided City. Socio-politics, Poverty and Gen der in Maputo, Mozambique".