City Fragments and Displaced Plans in War Torn Mozambique

This article explores why a massive effort to promote peace, democratic governance, economic recovery, and poverty-reduction in Mozambique produced social, economic and spatial fragmentation in urban areas. Drawing on the experience of several Mozambican cities in the immediate post-war period, the article shows how international peace-building, economic transition, and decentralised governance had unintended consequences that fragmented and fractured urban areas. Interdictory spaces, distorted housing markets and widespread corruption are among the features of the urban landscape fostered by these post-war transitional processes. In contrast to the profound effects of wider forces on urban spatial, social and political relations, efforts to plan the cities have been strikingly ineffective. Possible causes for this failure are discussed and include the high levels of donor dependence, internal political struggles over the role of planning, the limited levels of political enfranchisement, and the conceptual basis of contemporary planning. The article concludes with discussion of the challenges to planning for urban settlements that better meet the needs of the Mozambican people.