The story
Festival de Mafalala in Mafalala/Maputo
Festival de Mafalala centers on Mafalala, one of Maputo's oldest and most culturally storied bairros, a historically informal neighborhood outside the colonial-era cement city that produced figures including footballer Eusebio and poets Jose Craveirinha and Noemia de Sousa. The event draws on the neighborhood's multi-ethnic heritage of Macua, Ronga, and Indian Ocean trade communities living side by side.
Mafalala grew up on the sandy fringe of colonial Lourenco Marques, in the zone Portuguese administrators designated for the caniço, the reed-and-mud housing of the city's African and mixed-race residents who were barred from the formal cement city center.