Changing attitudes to land in the (expanding) urban area of Xilunguine / Louren

1
Changing attitudes to land in the (expanding)
urban area of Xilunguine / Lourenço Marques /
Maputo

• Paul Jenkins
• Professor of Architecture and Human Settlements
• Urban Studies, School of the Built Environment,
  Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh
• http//www.sbe.hw.ac.uk/staffprofiles/J/PaulJenkin
  s.htm
• Research Professor in Architecture
• Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape
  Architecture
• http//www.esala.ac.uk/people/academics/pjenkins.h
  tml

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Changing attitudes to land in the (expanding)
urban area of Xilunguine / Lourenço Marques /
Maputo

• Introduction
• Sources of information and nature of underlying
  research
• Urbanisation in Sub-Saharan Africa and Mozambique
• The scale, context and nature of urbanisation
• The concept of informality
• Maputo A brief historical overview of urban
  expansion and land occupation
• Political economic forces and socio-cultural
  values
• Maputo Recent trends and new ways of
  understanding the urban
• Hiding from or imitating the state
• Implications for urban development
• Challenging embedded concepts of order and
  disorder in urban space and form

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Changing attitudes to land in the (expanding)
urban area of Xilunguine / Lourenço Marques /
Maputo

• Sources of information and nature of underlying
  research
• Working professionally in Mozambique as city
  planner Maputo 1980-5 and then at central
  government level (including with international
  agencies) 1985-1993 latter period including
  social research
• Continued professional engagement in urban issues
  in Mozambique, including Maputo since on
  short-term basis
• ESRC funded project 2000-1 on emerging urban land
  markets in the city
• Current Danish Research Council funded project
  2009-11 on Home Space in African cities, based
  in Maputo
• Continued wider research into the history of the
  city as well as current trends
• Personal engagement in Mozambican society from
  early 1980s to present
• Sources of information are both formal
  (professional, academic) and informal
• Academic engagement includes architecture,
  planning, anthropology and urban history
  (physical and social)

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Changing attitudes to land in the (expanding)
urban area of Xilunguine / Lourenço Marques /
Maputo

• Urbanisation in Sub-Saharan Africa scale and
  economic context
• Sub-Saharan Africa is the last global
  macro-region to begin to urbanise, a process
  which is well underway
• In 1950 SSA had 33 million urban residents 4.5
  world population
• In 2005 it had some 330 million urban residents
  11 world population
• In 2030 it is estimated to have 730 million
  urban residents 15 world population
• This process is happening in quite unique context
  of high levels of general poverty
• High proportion of least developed countries
• Two decades of economic stagnation and structural
  marginalisation,
• Some recent changes e.g. Chinese/Brazilian
  investment
• For more see Chapters 1 9 in Jenkins, Smith
  Wang (2006) Housing and Planning in the Rapidly
  Urbanising World, Routledge

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Changing attitudes to land in the (expanding)
urban area of Xilunguine / Lourenço Marques /
Maputo

• Urbanisation in Sub-Saharan Africa nature
• Urban settlements of ancient origin, usually
  linked to exchange and trade
• Fixed urban settlement reinforced by European
  mercantilism (16th century on) and later
  colonisation (late 19th century)
• Colonial control over urban settlement removed at
  independence leading to rapid rise in urban
  population through rural-urban migration (post
  1950s)
• While in-migration still important, natural
  population growth in urban areas is generally now
  more significant
• Tendency to primacy in urban form, however recent
  trends in urbanisation leading to proportional
  growth in secondary and tertiary urban areas
• Increasing complexity of urban migratory trends,
  including international, circular and intra-urban
• Many not-urban, not-rural settlement forms and
  straddling survival mechanisms developing due
  to limited economic absorption in urban economies

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Changing attitudes to land in the (expanding)
urban area of Xilunguine / Lourenço Marques /
Maputo

• The concept of urban informality
• This is predicated on
• Limited (and often decreasing) forms of formal
  economic growth and lack of recognition of
  importance of urban-based economies in policy
  (including international organisations)
• Government decentralisation not being accompanied
  by resources in urban areas and limited
  government capacity to regulate the formal
• Informal settlements are now generally seen as
  slums is this a return of a puritanical
  attitude, or a different form of anti-urban bias?
• The majority of urban dwellers live and work in
  situations of so-called informality
• There is a need for a new attitude to the
  life-work conditions of the urban poor majority,
  one based on social legitimacy and not some form
  of idealised urban normality drawn from other
  places and other times

UN estimates SSA had 166 million slum dwellers
in 2001 (72 urban population) By 2015 this is
estimated to double to 332 million The 146
million new slum dwellers in SSA will far
outstrip UN goals (improve lives of 100 million
slum dwellers worldwide)
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Changing attitudes to land in the (expanding)
urban area of Xilunguine / Lourenço Marques /
Maputo

• Maputo A brief historical overview of urban
  expansion and land occupation a story of
  political economic forces and socio-cultural
  values

• Early colonial period 1850-1915
• Middle colonial period 1915-1955
• Late colonial period 1955-1975
• Early independent period 1975-1990
• More recent independent period 1990-2010

Jenkins (2009) African cities competing claims
on urban land, chapter in African cities
competing claims on urban spaces, Nugent
Locatelli (eds), Brill, Leiden
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Changing attitudes to land in the (expanding)
urban area of Xilunguine / Lourenço Marques /
Maputo
Maputo expansion Early colonial period 1850-1915

• Small permanent trading settlement consolidated
  with land leasing arrangements from Crown (1858).
  Large scale foreign land speculation in 1860s.
• Gold discovered in Transvaal 1870s, leading to
  rapid growth of port. Annexation of land to north
  with hut tax established 1882. Railway built from
  1886 - 1895. First land register established
  1886. Town raised to city status by Crown 1887.
• Indigenous land rights removed 1890, except in
  reserves . Partition of Africa at Berlin
  Conference 1894/5 required consolidation of area
  of military control, which was expanded to
  subordinate the indigenous (Nguni) Gaza state to
  north. Capital of colony moved to city 1895,
  first expansion plan 1896, state investment in
  major public works

Original European settlement 1876 plan, initial
expansion plan 1878, final expansion plan 1903
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Changing attitudes to land in the (expanding)
urban area of Xilunguine / Lourenço Marques /
Maputo
Maputo expansion Early colonial period 1850-1915

• Early 20th century. State bought back land
  holdings in northeast outside of previous
  boundary but some foreign speculators resisted
  legal disputes lasted until mid 20th century.
  Slow physical development of planned settlement
  until tram installed 1920s
• Urban area expanded informally to northwest with
  small colonial land concessions used for
  informal African housing from late 1920s -
  northeast development blocked by land speculators

Maputo 1915, showing wider area to come within
the land cadastre, incorporating previous areas
of indigenous settlement, informal development
and land speculation
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Changing attitudes to land in the (expanding)
urban area of Xilunguine / Lourenço Marques /
Maputo
Maputo expansion Middle colonial period 1915-1955

• Middle 20th century. Colonial settlement schemes
  and indigenous labour migration underpinned rapid
  urban expansion former in cement city with
  class and racial division, and latter in informal
  settlements, mostly renting land/housing from
  settler landowners (northwest). Housing scheme
  for assimilados built 1940s
• During late 1940s industrial production started
  and some new satellite settlements developed
  (e.g. Machava). New urban master plan prepared by
  1952 avoiding most northwest informal
  settlements but requiring expropriation or
  engagement with large foreign landowners to
  Northeast (to restrain new speculative
  development)

1925 cadastre plan showing informal area (NW)
1952 area of speculator blockage (NE) and 1952
urban plan
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Changing attitudes to land in the (expanding)
urban area of Xilunguine / Lourenço Marques /
Maputo
Maputo expansion Late colonial period 1955-1975

• Continued rapid demographic expansion with
  sponsored immigration and limited effective
  control of inward rural migration. Formal
  development pushed upwards due to informal
  settlement barriers northwest and slow resolution
  of northeast land disputes. Urban land registry
  area in Maputo extended significantly to north
  1965 - 88 of 770 Ha in private
  freehold/leasehold, 85 held by 11 landowners
• Change of legislation on foreign inward
  investment led to late industrial boom, generally
  settled in new town to west (Matola) leapfrogging
  informal areas and also due to land
  availability/cost. Associated sites and services
  areas developed for indigenous workforce and
  change of legislation allowed indigenous urban
  land holding.
• 1970s Belated attempt to control increasing
  informal settlements in Maputo with new Master
  Plan (1969-1972) and new Metropolitan Urban
  Planning Authority - including new sites and
  services developments and improving services to
  informal settlements.

1972 master plan
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Changing attitudes to land in the (expanding)
urban area of Xilunguine / Lourenço Marques /
Maputo
Maputo expansion Early independent period 1975-90

• widespread pent-up in-migration and limited
  action (reactive/proactive)
• 1975-6 start of sites and services in Maputo
• 1977-9 state action through UN supported expanded
  sites services (Machava), and informal
  upgrading (Maxaquene)
• City council basic urbanisation programme in
  urban periphery 1980-5 provides 10,400 new plots
  for lower income groups, but soon to collapse due
  to political clientelism
• 1989 Operacao Producao - failed to restrict
  urban in-migration, civil war has an increasing
  effect in southern region
• Massive in-migration in late 1980s, early 1990s
  due to war and collapse of rural economy

Land occupation maps based on aerial photography
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Changing attitudes to land in the (expanding)
urban area of Xilunguine / Lourenço Marques /
Maputo
Maputo expansion More recent independent period
1990-2010
Informal settlement continuing to north of Matola
within reach of road access (limited in
interior) Densification of formal land layouts
and Informal settlements in Matola Formal sector
speculation ties up all land around New motorway
to South Africa New aluminium factory (with
associated residential development) in province
increasingly attracting informal settlement Mix
of formal sector speculation and informal
settlement into province
Informal settlement continuing on escarpment into
neighbouring provincial district
Marracuene Formal sector speculative land
grabbing and some layouts along main north road,
informal settlements across municipal
boundaries Mix of formal layouts for middle class
and densifying informal settlement on coastal
plain Speculation at Catembe to south of the bay
and lobbying for bridge to realise land values
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Changing attitudes to land in the (expanding)
urban area of Xilunguine / Lourenço Marques /
Maputo

• Maputo Recent trends and new ways of
  understanding the urban

• 1997-8 construction of new motorway to
  Witwatersrand led to distant relocation of people
  to new housing area to northeast of city this
  led to wider engagement in illegal land market
• 2000 study identified emerging land markets as
  major way to access land despite continued
  nationalised status
• Floods of 2000 led to major donor assistance in
  re-housing people area available an extension
  of 1982 sites service area to north
• Heightened sense of land values led to extensive
  corrupt / non-regulated land access practices,
  which have now become the de facto norm for land
  development

As recent research has shown, a strong tendency
in this process is to imitate the state in
informal land development, as well as housing
(Nielson 2009, 2010 )
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Changing attitudes to land in the (expanding)
urban area of Xilunguine / Lourenço Marques /
Maputo
Informal continuation of planned land
development by traditional landholders, city
council officials and local administrators for
personal gain Core of the 2000-1 emergency
housing area 1982 sites service area, only
effectively occupied by early1990s 1990s ad-hoc
partially planned sites for teachers etc
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Changing attitudes to land in the (expanding)
urban area of Xilunguine / Lourenço Marques /
Maputo
The alternative strategy is more one of hiding
from the state Here traditional land holders
sell of land around their own home spaces in
areas less well accessed
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Changing attitudes to land in the (expanding)
urban area of Xilunguine / Lourenço Marques /
Maputo

• Maputo Recent trends and new ways of
  understanding the urban

• This current situation reflects both strong
  socio-cultural interests and political economic
  forces where the boundaries between the 'formal'
  and 'informal' are kept fuzzy
• In this 'grey area' a range of new attitudes and
  practices develop which are exploited by the poor
  as well as the rich, the weak as well as the
  powerful - albeit differentially
• the political and economic elite have been
  speculating in land since the late 1980s, using
  the lack of legislation to access land through
  state allocation, and later the new land
  legislation to consolidate their rights to this
  land they occupy the best locations and large
  areas
• the poor operate underneath the state as
  informally as possible, but aiming to avoid state
  interference by imitating the states norms, or
  hiding from these adapting socio-culture
  values to political and economic realities
• the emerging middle class has until recently been
  relatively excluded from this process, but is now
  acting under new planning legislation to
  strengthen their land access this potentially
  threatens lower-income informal access,
  especially where this is not planned which is
  the majority of the city area

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Changing attitudes to land in the (expanding)
urban area of Xilunguine / Lourenço Marques /
Maputo

• Implications for urban development 1
• Links between social order and physical order in
  space and form are historic but varied however
  these became dominant in Western thought from
  the Enlightenment and are deeply embedded within
  the discourse of urban planning
• These are largely based on positivist
  epistemologies that define abstract norms and
  apply these as a means of control this process
  being led by state-licenced expertise
• While this was to some extent possible in a world
  where urban space and form was largely driven by
  state-dominated political economies (whether
  capitalist or communist, colonial or
  post-colonial), it is proving impossible in the
  urban explosions of the most recent form of
  globalisation and demographic change
• The resources needed to continue to plan rapid
  urban growth in many parts of the world are not
  available in the current political economies and
  hence there is limited physical control by the
  state what does this mean for ordered urban
  development

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Changing attitudes to land in the (expanding)
urban area of Xilunguine / Lourenço Marques /
Maputo

• Implications for urban development 2
• In this context the binary of what is formal
  and informal often becomes a way of the
  powerful exploiting the majority
• As illustrated in Maputo, this produces various
  approaches by the poor majority to develop urban
  areas either hidden from, or reflecting, state
  activity as this is usually exploitative to the
  benefit of elites
• Any attempts to 'plan' the city here needs to
  understand the realpolitik of the political
  economy and emerging hybrid socio-cultural
  attitudes to urban land, and not necessarily
  attempt to implant some form of 'rational planned
  order
• Such an approach to what is valid as 'urban' in
  this context needs to be inductively assessed and
  not deductively based on imported norms and
  values of the urban
• To function, this form of planning thus needs
  to be grounded in de facto culturally embedded
  perceptions and socially constructed forms of
  interaction, challenging the states de jure
  dominance of land and environmental resource

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Changing attitudes to land in the (expanding)
urban area of Xilunguine / Lourenço Marques /
Maputo

• Key sources
• Costa (2007) O preco da sombra Sobrevivencia e
  reproducao social entre familias de Maputo
  Livros Horizonte, Lisbon
• Jenkins (2001) Emerging land markets for housing
  in Mozambique the impact on the poor and
  alternatives to improve land access and urban
  development - an action research project in
  peri-urban Maputo, Edinburgh College of
  Art/Heriot-Watt University, School of Planning
  Housing, Research Paper No. 75
• Jenkins (2004) Querying the concepts of formal
  and informal in land access in developing world -
  case of Maputo, chapter in The formal and
  informal city what happens at the interface,
  Vaa Hansen (eds), Nordic Africa Institute,
  Uppsala
• Jenkins (2006) The image of the city in
  Mozambique, chapter in African urban economies
  viability, vitality or vitiation of major cities
  in East and Southern Africa?, Bryceson Potts
  (eds), Palgrave, Basingstoke
• Jenkins (2009) African cities competing claims
  on urban land, chapter in African cities
  competing claims on urban spaces, Nugent
  Locatelli (eds), Brill, Leiden
• Jenkins, Smith Wang (2006) Housing and
  planning in the rapidly urbanising world,
  Routledge, Oxford
• Nielsen (2008) In the vicinity of the state
  House construction, personhood, and the state in
  Maputo, Mozambique, PhD Institute of
  Anthropology, University of Copenhagen
• Nielsen (2010 forthcoming) Regulating reciprocal
  distances House construction projects as inverse
  governmentality in Maputo, Mozambique, chapter
  in Markets for peace, Buur Rodgers (eds),
  Palgrave, Basingstoke