Building walls to tame time: Enclaves and the enduring power of failure

Abstract

In this paper, I explore the ways in which the construction of enclaves became central to utopian attempts of social engineering and how their legacies shape contemporary society despite the failures of these projects. By focusing on the role of enclaving, in Maputo, the capital of Mozambique, I demonstrate how it derives its power as a walled remnant of the resuscitation of past utopian goals and simultaneously, by being presented as a solution to current festering urban problems, often themselves the result of previous attempts of enclaving. Rather than solely acting as an outgrowth of the most exclusionary aspects of contemporary capitalism, I argue that enclaving is a highly malleable strategy of enacting power despite its enduring failure.