Diversity, Sustainability, and Transformation South-Central Mozambique

Archaeology, heritage and local bio-cultural practices is a means of peacebuilding and of forging a new identity not built on colonial or nationalistic tendencies but on the wide diversity of cultures, heritages and ecologies in Mozambique. The project combines several subprojects and actors, building both on collaborative, individual projects and regional and thematic case studies. This project focus on diversity in its broadest sense fusing the study of landscape ecology, human practices and heritage practices today.  We have a strategy for co-production of knowledge were local community participate in excavations and research, making joint inventories of key resources and heritage sites. The project is based on a number of case studies, each with different subprojects.

The Lebombo Range

The Lebombo range offers a diverse landscape, rich in perennial water sources coming from the Eswatini highlands, with plenty of rock-shelters offering protection to humans and animals. The longevity of occupation has resulted in deep cultural layers and deposits of material culture stemming from Middle Stone Age 300 000 to 40 000) until historic times. These deposits offer unique possibilities to reconstruct past lifeways and human-nature relationships. Some of the these rockshelters are also used for rainmaking ceremonies from local communities.

In an attempt to provide a more nuanced understanding of the prehistory, and biocultural heritage this project aims to better reconstruct the environmental setting of the Lebombo mountain range. This will provide a better understanding of the early habitants of the southern east tip of Africa and how the physical setting and landscape has shaped the history of the area, specifically in relation to human adaptation and transformation in the last 3000 years. The project combines analyses of material culture (stone tools, ceramics, faunal remains, etc), DNA studies and archaeobotanical studies.

The project also seek to understand the contemporary rural communities who have managed this environment for many centuries – from the preservation of tangible and intangible aspects of past human activities to specific techniques in land use and management. Collaborating with with local communities in the research process allows for the combination of knowledge of present-day management approaches and collaborative interpretations of prehistoric and historic data to understand and for perspectives on past and present landscape management. Excavations is ongoing in Daimane Rockshelter II since 2021.

The project is led by Decio Muianga (Lecturer at the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology at Eduardo Mondlane University (UEM) and also PhD student at the Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, Uppsala University). Hear Decio explain the project here.

 

Project leader Décio Muianga (Eduardo Mondlane University, Mozambique and Uppsala University) The Hybrid Landscape: Materiality, Connectivity and Mobility of the last 4000 years of Hunter-Gatherers in the Southwest Maputo Province, Mozambique 

The Alto Limpopo

The 2025 Limpopo Life (Routledge) project focuses on the upper Limpopo area corresponding to what today is Limpopo National Park (PNL). The 11,000 km2 land stretches from the border of Kruger National Park to the Limpopo River in the east and is limited by the Massingir Dam and the Elephant River in the south, an area that was proclaimed as a National Park in 2002.  The project uses oral history, archaeology, anthropology and palaeoecology to analyse the long-term socio-natural dynamics in PNL.

Rodrigues Maluleke, traditional leader of Chicumbane  (14/7 2015), relates the lineage history of the Malulekes and their neighbours. 

The project Landscape transformations and Socio-ecological management in Limpopo National Park, Mozambique was funded by the Swedish Research Council (2012-2015), with work ongoing until 2025. Over the years of fieldwork, and in response to local concerns, much of our time has shifted to documenting village history, oral traditions, and the heritage places and stories around them.  See popularised summaries of some of these stories in the following posters.

See the poster A landscape of stories

Or the Google Earth Story map

 

Heritage Forest

Locally protected forest patches in Mozambique have been safe-guarded over centuries through customary rules of protection as attested in the PhD thesis of Pascoal Gota Heritage Forests in Inhambane: Negotiating History, Landscape and Environment. Typically, these are burial places or are seen as heritage places that combine heritage and biodiversity values. These are ecologically sensitive areas occurring as dispersed patches in the landscape.  A better understanding of the long-term historical ecology of these forest patches will help to foster good collaborative conservation practices in the present. Licensed and illegal logging is a continuous threat to these forest patches, and traditional leaders and village communities are now struggling to protect their heritage areas.

Satellite image analyses of locally protected forest patches shows relatively stable boundaries over time, pollensampling by Pascoal Gota together with the traditional leader of Luido village; Some example of the diversity of species found in the forest; Illegal and legal logging from Inhambane is the greatest threat against heritage protection. 

See Pascoal Gota’s project presentation at the Royal Anthropological Institute, which held a conference on Anthropology and Conservation, 25-29 October 2021 and list of pulications here

Chongene Archaeological and Biocultural Heritage Park

The Chongene area has a living maritime heritage and is rich in archaeological sites (mainly shellmidden sites) which are threatened by tourism development and extractive industries. The Chongene Archaeological and Biocultural Heritage Park is a collaborative project which will reserve parts of the Chongene area. The park will include outdoor signed trails showcasing the rich archaeology of the region and the maritime heritage. A heritage visitor center will be constructed which will combine archaeology, oral history and biodiversity education.

Example of signs which will are found in the Chonguene park

The project will include a community run-cultural market, an opportunity to strengthen local marine cultural heritage and artisanal fisheries, and ecological management through the linked training in business and ecology. The center will promote cultural industries and creative economy through local coastal art and craft production and innovation.

Project coordinator: Dr Solange Macamo; Collaborators: Professor Paul Lane Cambridge University, Dr Zacarias Ombe, Eusébio Napasso, MA, Énio Tembe, Sidónio Matusse, Pedro Moiane, Hamido Atuia, Ercídio Nhatule; Funders: Gerda Henkel Foundation; Rising from the depths project.

The Maritime Connection

“5-10 years from now we will have a cohesive group which will be doing the management and protection of the subaquatic and maritime protection in Mozambique” (Cézar Mahumane 2021)”

Mozambique has a sprawling diverse coastline with a living artisanal fishery community. At the same time, the scale and intensity of both anthropogenic and natural threats to marine habitats and resources are increasing. Mozambique is considered particularly vulnerable to anticipated rise sea level rise. The coastline is also threatened by resource exploitation, in particular of clandestine and legal industrial fisheries which threatens both biodiversity and livelihoods. The Mozambique coastline, c. 2470 km long, is also a record of past maritime resource use and connections and a rich living and historic heritage. Ilha du Mozambique, now a UNESCO world heritage played a key role in intercontinental trade and is an example of the fusion of African, Swahili, Arab and Portuguese culture, important also for understanding the slave trade.

Coastal erosion is now threatening this and other coastal heritages and methods and practices are now built up to document and mitigate damages. Treasure hunting has caused additional damages to shipwrecks which now must be mitigated.  These efforts are coordinated through Centro de Arqueologia, Investigação e Recursos da Ilha de Moçambique (CAIRIM), collaborating also with the Rising from the depths project and the slave wrecks project.

A number of smaller projects within the Sida funded Biocultural Heritage and developing new industries, Mozambique inspired by the concept of ‘maritime historical ecology’  integrates evidence for adaptive human responses to maritime change based on reconstructions of settlement, zooarchaeological, palaeobotanical and geoarchaeological data. Current and anticipated threats to coastal and marine habitats and existing heritage resources will be documented and assessed, with the goal of envisioning coastal management plans based on an integrated understanding of Mozambique’s maritime biocultural heritage and its seascapes.

Collaborators: Ricardo Duarte (CAIRIM), Yolanda Teixeira Duarte (CAIRIM), Jan Boshoff (Iziko Museums of South Africa); Paul Lane (Cambridge University), Tim Hoffman (Pretoria University),

Subprojects

Cézar Mahumane, PhD project at Pretoria University (funded by SIDA (Biocultural Heritage and developing new industries, Mozambique) and in collaboration with UEM)

Shipwrecks, are key sources for understanding communication, contracts and movement of  trade goods but also for perspectives and personalised stories of the slave trade. A shipwreck goes beyond a structure, it is a space of social, economic and cultural diversity traceable through cultural material. In 2014, the Mozambican Government cancelled treasure hunter permits, opening up opportunities to develop proper methodologies for research on this heritage that will contribute to its management and protection. Importantly, the focus is on building capacity and developing policies and institutions concerned with underwater heritage management. Mahumanes Ma thesis explores the factors impacting the deterioration of underwater cultural heritage at Mozambique Island, with a particular emphasis on the wreck Nossa Senhora da Consolação (IDM-003), lost in 1608 during a Dutch siege of the island. The operations carried out by treasure hunters on this wreck are discussed and these underpin my research on the deterioration of the site and its current preservation status. Mahumane  analyse the material and discuss the origin of the ship and the associated material culture in order to reinterpret and contextualize its history. The consideration of the material culture additionally contributes to identifying the gaps in the collection left by the treasure hunters. Second, the Ma dissertation assesses environmental factors affecting the site and formulates interventions and a range of in situ preservation, mitigation and monitoring methodologies. The Masters project is now being expanded into a PhD project at Pretoria University to shape a policy and framework for underwater heritage protection and monitoring.

Celso Zefanias Simbine, PhD project at Pretoria University (funded by SIDA (Biocultural Heritage and developing new industries, Mozambique) and in collaboration with UEM)

Celso explores the maritime landscape of Mozambique island – combining knowledge and management of the terrestrial and marine heritage in collaboration with local residents. What can we learnt from the long term knowledge and exchange of knowledges in terms of a sustainable management of resources on Mozambique Island and other parts of the coast today and in the future.

Celso monitoring underater heritage in Mozambique Island and training of local community guides by CAIRIM (images courtesy to the slave wrecks project) and overview of Mozambique Island.

In the first part of this project Celso in his Ma dissertation documented and analysed the archaeological sequences of Mozambique Island in relation to historic maps, surveys and excavations. This contributes to, and builds upon previous archaeological work that has made a start on describing and dating the ceramic sequence and its linkages to resources use,  linking it to the history of the south East African coast over the last 2000 years. In particular material culture from of a Muslim house, the Abdurrazaque Juma compound located within Macuti-town, and south of the urban stone town to the north, in the tribunal courtyard of the Convent of São Domingos. I used a multidimensional analysis to classify the ceramics. The ceramics from the muslim house are dominated by coarse earthenware vessels, and in particular by carinated open bowls. The bulk of this assemblage dates to the early 19th century AD and can be linked to a kitchen ware. The dominance of carinated bowls functionally indicates rice preparation and consumption and discussion of these ceramics focuses on the domestic context of the household and the work of servants, and possibly slaves. Ceramics from the second excavation provide comparative material that elaborates the ceramic sequence for the Island. This is particularly so for the carinated open bowls that through comparison with other sites along the east African coast, are frequently found in historical contexts dating between the ends of 16th to 20th centuries AD. As a proxy for rice agriculture, the ceramics reported on here contribute to this agricultural sequence and an association with enslaved African populations and elite foodways along East African Coast. This work is now being being expanded into a PhD project at Pretoria University to look more broadly at resource utilisation shifts and new avenues for collaborative management of the rich heritage of Mozambique Island and to build new oppurtunities for local livelihoods.

Heritage and Development

The cultural sector creates employment opportunities that generate economic benefits and, consequently, reduce poverty through the promotion of cultural industries when adequate policy management is applied. This chain of values and services places the cultural sector at the core of social cohesion, sustainable development, and the promotion of peace and security as Omar Madime writes in his PhD thesis Integrated Heritage Management as an Avenue for Sustainability: The Example of Rescue Archaeology in Mozambique. The thesis discusses systems for rescue archaeology activities and for archaeological data management in Mozambique, which are of acute relevance amid growing infrastructural investments and large-scale natural resource extraction. Mapping, monitoring, and forms for community engagement are now ongoing under the MAESaM project, with Mozambique as part of it.

Project leader Omar Madime (Eduardo Mondlane University, Mozambique and Uppsala University). Collaborators: Hilario Madiquida (Eduardo Mondlane University),Paul Lane (Cambridge University).