From “Sin Street” to “Education Street”: Music, Politics and Transgression in Maputo’s Red-Light District, Mozambique (c.1960–86)

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article analyses the cultural practices developed within a particular street in Mozambique, Rua Araújo, once the symbol of colonial nightlife, transgression, pleasures and excesses, but renamed Rua do Bagamoyo after independence in 1975, signifying a shift towards FRELIMO’s education values. By focusing on “transgressive” expressive practices developed within a specific street, as a privileged locus to re-evaluate various aspects of Mozambique’s cultural history, this article differs from most studies focused on music and politics in Mozambique. Using the “ethnography of the past” as our primary methodological strategy, and drawing on interviews and documentary sources, this article includes three main sections: the first presents a brief historical contextualisation of the street; the second delves into the musical, expressive and performative dimensions that took place during the late colonial period; while the third focuses on the so-called “socialist experience”, namely Samora Machel’s term as the first president of the country (1975–86), when this street underwent a “purification process” that aimed to “purge” its so-called “maligned” cultural practices.