A Cat-and-Mouse Game: Urban Street Vending in Maputo, Mozambique

Abstract

This paper discusses how street vendors in the city of Maputo have countervailed the municipal strategies and policies for pushing back their presence in public spaces and, in doing so, reclaimed public urban spaces. Based on ethnographic researchcarried out between 2015 and 2019 in the city of Maputo, four strategies have been identified: 1) adjustment of time-space routine; 2) spatial proximity; 3) compartmentalization of the merchandise and/or services; 4) symbiotic interaction. These strategies are not mutually exclusive, and they are deployed by street vendors to resist harassment and violence, and reclaim urban public spaces in the city of Maputo. Street vendors deploy these strategies consciously in opposition to the negative political discourse about them as promoters of urban disorder. In doing so, urban streetvending can be said to be a performative expression of an urban counterculture. This paper shed light on the nuances of street-vending performance as an example of how grassroots actors can shape civic conduct in the urban space.