Motor travel in Mozambique in the late 1920s and conquering space: reading Rufino’s photographic albums

Abstract

ABSTRACT The rise of the automobile played a significant role in the transformation of how we see and experience landscapes. Likewise, motor cars were key to defining the shape of twentieth-century tourism. In colonial settings, cars can be understood as a technology of speed and power which helped to control people and space. Looking at early twentieth century Africa, this study analyses the arrival of the motor car in Mozambique and the role it played in shaping motorised landscapes and in tourism development. This article looks at a collection of photographic albums depicting the colony of Mozambique. Published in 1929, the volume contains more than 100 photographs that include cars. This article highlights three main narratives: (i) the illusion of ‘motoring landscapes’; (ii) the car’s contribution to the invention of the beach and scenic roads; and (iii) the role of the car in safaris and the domination of nature. These three narratives are aligned with wider official discourses and contribute to the idea of conquering African landscapes, critical both to colonialism as well as to tourism development.