Filtering Histories: The Photographic Bureaucracy in Mozambique, 1960 to Recent Times

Thompson, Drew A.

doi:doi:10.3998/mpub.11476976

Filtering Histories: The Photographic Bureaucracy in Mozambique, 1960 to Recent Times

Drew A. Thompson

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Photographers and their images were critical to the making of Mozambique, first as a colony of Portugal and then as independent nation at war with apartheid in South Africa. When the Mozambique Liberation Front came to power, it invested substantial human and financial resources in institutional structures involving photography, and used them to insert the nation into global debates over photography's use. The materiality of the photographs created had effects that neither the colonial nor postcolonial state could have imagined.

Filtering Histories: The Photographic Bureaucracy in Mozambique, 1960 to Recent Times tells a history of photography alongside state formation to understand the process of decolonization and state development after colonial rule. At the center of analysis are an array of photographic and illustrated materials from Mozambique, South Africa, Portugal, and Italy. Thompson recreates through oral histories and archival research the procedures and regulations that engulfed the practice and circulation of photography. If photographers and media bureaucracy were proactive in placing images of Mozambique in international news, Mozambicans were agents of self-representation, especially when it came to appearing or disappearing before the camera lens. Drawing attention to the multiple images that one published photograph may conceal, Filtering Histories introduces the popular and material formations of portraiture and photojournalism that informed photography's production, circulation, and archiving in a place like Mozambique. The book reveals how the use of photography by the colonial state and the liberation movement overlapped, and the role that photography played in the transition of power from colonialism to independence.

Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
Contents
List of Abbreviations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1. Portugal’s Photographic Play
Chapter 2. Paper Diplomacy
Chapter 3. The Photographer as Bureaucrat, the Bureaucrat as Photographer
Chapter 4. ID’ing the Past
Chapter 5. Naming Mozambique’s Dead Photographs
Epilogue
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Citable Link

Published: 2021

Publisher: University of Michigan Press

ISBN(s)

978-0-472-05464-0 (paper)
978-0-472-07464-8 (hardcover)
978-0-472-12718-4 (ebook)

Series

African Perspectives

Subject

African Studies

Resources

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Fig. 41. Reporting in the daily newspaper Noticias that includes photographs of the release of Mozambican prisoners detained by Portugal’s secret police.

"Todos eles acreditam no futuro desta terra" ("They all believe in the future of this land")

From Chapter 4

Figure 41. “Todos eles acreditam no futuro desta terra” (“They all believe in the future of this land”). Notícias, 3 Maio 1974, 1, Biblioteca Nacional de Moçambique, Maputo, Mozambique.

Fig. 42. Reporting in Tanzania’s Daily News on how Frelimo officials named and publicly displayed its enemies at the end of the war. Part of the coverage included individual portraits of Frelimo’s enemies.

"Frelimo militants expose traitors"

From Chapter 4

Figure 42. Marcelino Komba, “Frelimo Militants Expose Traitors.” Daily News (Tanzania), March 30, 1975, Centros Estudos Africanos, Universidade Eduardo Mondlane, Maputo, Mozambique, accessed through interlibrary loan at Bard College.

Fig. 43. Newspaper reporting in Noticias on Operação Produção including a photograph of local officials inside an the house of an unidentified family as part of state efforts to verify people’s identification.

"An aspect of the verification of houses in the barrio of Alto Maé"

From Chapter 4

Figure 43. “Aspecto da verifição de uma das casas no Bairro do Alto Maé” (“An aspect of the verification of houses in the barrio of Alto Maé”). Notícias, 2 Agosto 1983, accessed through Mozambique History Net and Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York, New York.

Fig. 44. Coverage of Operação Produção printed in Tempo, including an almost full-page black-and-white halftone that shows relocated populations lined up in front of state officials.

Untitled photo by Danilo Guimarães

From Chapter 4

Figure 44. Danilo Guimarães, 1983, “‘Operação Produção’: Nampula em tempo de acertos” (“‘Operation Production’: Nampula in the Time of Success”). Tempo, No. 673, 4 Setembro 1983, 22, accessed through Mozambique History Net and interlibrary loan at Bard College.

Fig. 45. Coverage of Operação Produção printed in Tempo. In order to show state officials and relocated populations in the same frame, press photographers sometimes had to literally position themselves on the side of the state. In this particular instance, the photographer Danilo Guimarães stands behind the state officials, who, as the caption notes, are listening to the experiences of relocated populations.

"To hear the opinion and the preoccupations of each evacuee was the preoccupation of the brigade of the Central Operation Command"

From Chapter 4

Figure 45. Danilo Guimarães, 1983, “Ouvir a opinião e as preocupações de cada evacuado foi a preocupação da brigade do Comando Central Operativo” (“To hear the opinion and the preoccupations of each evacuee was the preoccupation of the brigade from the Central Command Operation”). Tempo, No. 673, 4 Setembro 1983, 26, accessed through Mozambique History Net and interlibrary loan at Bard College.

Fig. 46. A halftone of a photograph showing a person using his suitcase to block the view of a photographer. Based on the image, the photographer appears to be trying to document people, who state officials had identified for relocation as part of Operação Produção, boarding an airplane.

"The deputies of the Assembly of the City of Maputo analyzed 'Operação Produção' since the phase of voluntary inscription of the unproductives"

From Chapter 4

Figure 46. Francisco Munia, “Os deputados à Assembleia da Cidade de Maputo, analisaram a ‘Operação Produção’ desde a fase de inscrição voluntária de improdutivos” (“The deputies of the Assembly of the City of Maputo, analyzed ‘Operation Production’ since the phase of voluntary registration of the unproductives”). Tempo, No. 672, 28 Agosto 1983, 22, accessed through Biblioteca Nacional de Moçambique, Maputo, Mozambique and interlibrary loan at Bard College.

Fig. 47. An unidentified woman poses with her identity documents, an act that exposes the irregularities of bureaucratic protocols associated with Operação Produção and how state officials misidentified populations.

"There were cases of people that were stopped at the evacuation centers, possessing workers cards."

From Chapter 4

Figure 47. Danilo Guimarães, “Houve casos de pessoas que foram parar aos centros de evacuação, possuindo cartão de trabalho. Foram soltas” (“There were cases of people who were stopped at the evacuation centers, possessing the worker’s cards. They were released”). Tempo, No. 667, 24 Julho 1983, 18, accessed through Biblioteca Nacional de Moçambique, Maputo, Mozambique and interlibrary loan at Bard College.

Fig. 48. The official portrait of Mozambique’s president, Samora Machel, published in the weekly magazine Tempo.

Untitled photo by unknown photographer, July 11, 1976

From Chapter 4

Figure 48. Photographer unknown, untitled. Tempo, No. 301, 11 Julho 1976, accessed through the Instituto Nacional de Cinema, Maputo, Mozambique, and courtesy of interlibrary loan at Bard College.

Fig. 49. An article on the historical importance of photography in the independence moment. The article includes a photograph of Mozambique’s president, Samora Machel, when he was a soldier in Frelimo’s military posing with the movement’s first president, Eduardo Mondlane.

"A propósito de fotografia: A nossa história pela imagem" ("A photographic proposition: Our history through images")

From Chapter 4

Figure 49. Willy Waddington, “Comentário: A propósito de fotografia: A nossa história pela imagem” (“A photographic proposition: Our history through images”). Notícias, 27 Decembro 1980, accessed through Mozambique History and courtesy of Colin Darch and Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York, New York.

Fig. 50. Photograph by José Cabral of the people who lined Maputo’s streets to watch the funerial procession of Mozambique’s president Samora Machel after his death in a suspicious plane crash. People hold posters, which included Machel’s official portrait.

Untitled, Maputo, Mozambique

From Chapter 4

Figure 50. José Cabral, 28 Outubro 1986, untitled. Caixa: Deslocados/Refugiados, Centro de Documentação e Formação Fotografica, Maputo, Mozambique.

Fig. 51. A standalone photo printed in Noticias showing Machel’s successor, Joaquim Chissano, and the newly-appointed Frelimo government standing below Machel’s official portrait on the steps of City Hall.

"Foto Histórico" ("Historic Photo)

From Chapter 4

Figure 51. Photographer unknown, “Foto histórica” (“Historic photo”). Notícias, 5 Novembro 1986, Biblioteca Nacional de Moçambique, Maputo, Mozambique, accessed through Mozambique History Net and courtesy of Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York, New York.

Fig. 52. A photograph by the acclaimed South African photographer Guy Tillim of Frelimo officials, dressed in military and civilian clothing, carrying the casket of Mozambique’s president, Samora Machel.

Untitled photo by Guy Tillim

From Chapter 4

Figure 52. Guy Tillim, October 19, 1986, untitled. Series: Samora Machel Funeral, Identifier: islandora:8174, accessed through University of Cape Town Library and courtesy of University of Cape Town and Guy Tillim.

Fig. 53. Photograph that shows the Mozambican photographer Ricardo Rangel and the Italian photographer Gin Angri taking the official portrait of the Mozambican president, Joaquim Chissano, two years after being appointed.

"Retrato official do Presidente Joaquim A. Chissano. Ricardo Rangel e Gin Angri" ("Official portrait of President Joaqum A. Chissano. Ricardo Rangel and Gin Angri."

From Chapter 4

Figure 53. José Cabral, 1988, “Retrato official do Presidente Joaquim A. Chissano. Ricardo Rangel e Gin Angri” (“Official portrait of President Joaquim A. Chissano. Ricardo Rangel and Gin Angri”). In Espelhos Quebrados: Fotografias por José Cabral (Maputo, 2012) and courtesy of Jose Cabral and Alexandre Pomar.

Fig. 54. Frelimo troops registering and handing over their military gear as part of the demobilization that Frelimo agreed to as part of its peace agreement with the internal opposition Resistância Nacional de Moçambique (Renamo).

"Desmobilização de Tropas/Massingir 1994" ("Troop demobilization/Massingir 1994")

From Chapter 4

Figure 54. Sérgio Benzane, 1994, “Desmobilização de tropas/Massingir 1994” (“The demobilization of troops/Massingir 1994”). Caixa: Demobilização, Centro de Documentação e Formação Fotográfica, Maputo, Mozambique.

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Filtering Histories: The Photographic Bureaucracy in Mozambique, 1960 to Recent Times

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"Todos eles acreditam no futuro desta terra" ("They all believe in the future of this land")

"Frelimo militants expose traitors"

"An aspect of the verification of houses in the barrio of Alto Maé"

Untitled photo by Danilo Guimarães

"To hear the opinion and the preoccupations of each evacuee was the preoccupation of the brigade of the Central Operation Command"

"The deputies of the Assembly of the City of Maputo analyzed 'Operação Produção' since the phase of voluntary inscription of the unproductives"

"There were cases of people that were stopped at the evacuation centers, possessing workers cards."

Untitled photo by unknown photographer, July 11, 1976

"A propósito de fotografia: A nossa história pela imagem" ("A photographic proposition: Our history through images")

Untitled, Maputo, Mozambique

"Foto Histórico" ("Historic Photo)

Untitled photo by Guy Tillim

"Retrato official do Presidente Joaquim A. Chissano. Ricardo Rangel e Gin Angri" ("Official portrait of President Joaqum A. Chissano. Ricardo Rangel and Gin Angri."

"Desmobilização de Tropas/Massingir 1994" ("Troop demobilization/Massingir 1994")

Filtering Histories: The Photographic Bureaucracy in Mozambique, 1960 to Recent Times

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