The Financialization of the Margins of Maputo, Mozambique

Abstract

ABSTRACT With different contours than those of the Global North, financialization logic enters and consolidates itself progressively in the African Continent, namely in the sub-Saharan region, changing the relations of power and real estate property in the urban scenario. Following this recolonization process, this article aims, from a sociourbanistic point of view, to contribute to the knowledge of its specificities in the Mozambican context and, particularly, that of the capital city, Maputo. The analysis and critical reflection focus especially on the production and transformation of the urban margins, where the majority of the urban population lives, taking as a case study the neighborhood of Polana Caniço A, paradigmatic because of the interventions that have been occurring there over the last few decades. There, a new order, simultaneously local and global, erects symbolic and physical borders, reinforcing historical processes of exclusion and segregation, through a strong alliance between the state and new urban actors.