‘The Writing is on the Wall’ (Part 2): analysing artistic representations of war and liberation in Maputo’s Post-War and Post-Independence Mural Art

Abstract

Mother I have a gun of iron your own son He whom one day you saw chained (and wept as though the chains had bound and cut your own hands, your own feet) your son is free now, Mother, Your son has a gun of iron [... - A Militant’s Poem by Jorge Rebelo (1975)

On arrival by air in modern-day Maputo, one will likely find oneself taking the road from the airport which bypasses a large traffic circle honouring the fallen heroes of the Mozambican revolution, known as Heroes Plaza/ Praça dos Heróis. As Samuel Joina Ngale states: “In pursuit of the invention of the new nation, the Mozambique’s Liberation Front created sacred spaces, rituals, and symbols in chosen geographical locations in order to generate meaning and purpose for the new national myth of origin”. Heralding, in the Post-War era, the idea of a new Mozambican national identity – Moçambicanidade/ Mozambicanity.

Heroes Plaza was built following the National Independence Celebration Day in 1975. The central monument, in a five-point-star formation, acts as both mausoleum and memorial as it enshrines the coffins of martyred sons and leaders of the liberation movement from colonial rule. The Plaza is flanked by a 110m mural entitled The Great Wall (of Maputo) (1979) by the artist ‘Mphumo’ João Craveirinha Jr (alias Johnny Kraveirinya, nephew of the renowned Mozambican poet José Craveirinha). Central to the mural are the images of Machel and Mondlane in combat fatigues, the breaking of shackles and the use of the machine gun a symbol of how the liberation was won.

This paper will analyse the role mural art played in representing the creation of a new Mozambican identity in the Post-War and Post-Independent eras in Maputo. Particularly, by visually analysing the subject matter in the mural The Great Wall (of Maputo) as a case study. It will further investigate the employment of the artistic tools and genres of history/ narrative painting as a representation of wartime and thereafter as an expression of liberation. It will also demystify/ demythologize the concept of Mozambicanity and the imagined narrative tropes/ myths represented in these murals.

List of References:

Ngale, S.J. 2011. From Tsonga to Moçambicanidade: Civil Religious Dynamics in Mozambican Nationalism. Cape Town: University of Cape Town. (PhD Thesis) Rebelo, J. 1975. A Militant’s Poem/ Poem of a Militant. Africa Today. 22(3): 10.