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Paper short abstract:

Urban plans, regulations, state and formal private sector investments continue to address idealized notions of what urban planning, urban living, heritage conservation, and cities, "should be", unable to empathize with new urbanities in the areas where the majorities of city dwellers live.

Paper long abstract:

This paper addresses the urbanization, urbanism, and urbanity in contemporary Maputo, with an emphasis on built heritage issues. The research aimed to provide background for understanding the urban development of the so-called "cidade de cimento" ("formal city") and the role of the colonial administration relative to informal processes of urban expansion in the suburban area (the location for lower-income, indigenous and "assimilated" groups), which led to the consolidation of a dual planning regime during the second half of the 20th century. Like other Sub-Saharan cities of colonial genesis, the city built by the colonial masters is now only a small part of the city, as the vast (i)n(f)ormal areas house up to 80% of the urban population. Formal and informal city, formal and informal strategies of survival, constitutes entangled and dependent realities. Urban plans, regulations, state and formal private sector investments, however, continue to address (Western) idealized notions of what urban planning, urban living, heritage conservation, and cities, "should be", eluding the conditions for implementation of such visions, and unable to empathize with new urbanities in the areas where the majorities of city dwellers live. The maintenance of this coloniality of space and power, we argue, stems not only from structural difficulties, but also from the (mis)understandings of "development" conveyed by the national elites. This raises the questions that underlie the research: How do these cities manage their strong modern heritage today? How do they bridge conflicts between the protection of urban ensembles, urban development and contemporary urban aspirations?