Lat: -18.403885989289000, Long: 36.104411000995000

Prazos of Zambezi, with Luabo

Zambézia, Sofala, Manica, Mozambique

Historical Background and Urbanism

In terms of definition and chronological boundaries, the prazos (time-limited land concessions) of the crown emerged in the colony of Mozambique within the context of a system of land grants for three generations with the mandatory succession in the female line. This policy, effective in Mozambique from the 16th to the 18th centuries, was conceived by Afonso de Albuquerque (1453-1515), while governor of the Estado da India (1509-1515). It was aimed at forcing the Portuguese colonists to settle on the African land. This land belonged to women of African roots, being inherited by her first-born daughter and by her granddaughter. Embodied mainly by the “donas” in Zambezia, this regime of land grant was in force for a long period, resulting ultimately in the syncretism of several cultures: Portuguese, Asian and African, which, intertwined into a single culture, gave rise to a new and powerful civilization, which can be labelled as Creole. It is the work of the sons of the land. It flourished in the mid-seventeenth century at the centre of the colony. It survives today as a certain way of being and lifestyle, in a substratum of the collective consciousness of Zambezian people in the post-independence era of Mozambique. We can identify three main moments in the evolution of the prazos of the crown. The first corresponds to its creation in 1530, with the Portuguese penetration into the valley of Zambezi; the second is centred on the peak of the process, throughout the 17th century; the third coincides with the decay of the prazos, in the 18th century, which would lead to total abolition in 1832 by Mouzinho da Silveira (1780-1849) and to its official end in 1930, by the government of António de Oliveira Salazar (1889-1970). The prazos were set along the wide Valley of the Zambezi, stretching from Quelimane, on the coast, to Zumbo, on the west border with Rhodesia (present day Zimbabwe). Lobato interpreted this occupation as having been carried out in a spontaneous manner by agents of the kingdom that, legally or not, plunged into the interior of Mozambique in search of gold. The first legislation on them came into force under the Philippine dynasty. On the 12th March 1618, under the rule of Filipe II of Portugal (1598-1621), the first royal diploma created the regime of land grant in Zambezia, but the first grants had been made before, in 1590, under the rule of Filipe I (1581- 1598). Continuing Newitt’s analysis, the prazos are a system of land ownership, enabled by the instability that affected the African political communities in the region of the Zambezi Valley. The prazos have sparked controversy among the historians that addressed the subject. For example, Oliveira Martins considered that the system had Arabic roots, whereas Papagno and Lobato were more inclined to Indian influence. José Capela defended Portuguese origin as “an emphyteusis contract, as was commonly used in Portugal”. The controversy between Capela and Isaacman is interesting. Emphasizing the inner dynamics, Isaacman analysed this kind of grant as a functional institution operating within the African milieu. In his opinion the achieved success was due to the fact that the system was affiliated to the culture of the Macua people, of matrilineal and typically rural nature. Capela, nonetheless, mentions analogous contracts in Portugal, on the Atlantic islands, in Brazil, in India, as well as in the African colonies, including Mozambique, therefore as a Portuguese phenomenon. In a different approach, Carlos Serra interpreted the prazos from the point of view of the dominant production system, which he labelled colonial proslavery. Attempting to discover the reasons behind the creation of the system by the Portuguese crown, he reached the conclusion that its aims were at controling and settle soldiers and traders, avoiding their participation in endless wars. To this end the crown decided to convert a significant part of its possessions into estates, subject to an annual gold rent, granted to an European family; the right to the use and produce of the land lasted three generations, and only women were entitled to it. At the end of the three generations, the prazo would be restored to crown ownership or the grant would be renewed. Serra mentions the power of the prazeiro (prazo-holder), through the force of his large armies of slaves, the achicunda. He also mentions the fact that the authority of the local chief was preserved through a policy of marriage alliances between the prazeiros and the African chiefs, which led to the increase of their power and the establishment of stability in a region of intestine fights. This system was also studied by Ishemo, who identifies the Sir, prazeiro, Mrs (Dona) and the muzungo, their mixed-blood descendents in the prazo society. At the bottom of the hierarchy were the families of farmers, the colonists who had to pay the mussoco or mutsonko: “in the pre-capitalist societies of Zambezia this had been a common tribute (rent in victuals) paid by the farmer to aristocracy or lineage chiefs” (Ishemo, 1989, pp. 109-158). This tax evolved into a rent in work and money, but the victual payment was preserved. This led to a worsening of the conditions of the farm families and the migration of labour force, that represented the main instrument of colonial accumulation of capital for those who received them.
In 1730, under the rule of King João V (1706-1750), the majority of the larger prazos was in a state of decay or had been abandoned. Among the causes for their decline were: the structural weakness of the institution, for the lack of traditional legitimacy of the prazeiro; the low level of agricultural production and the high needs of consumption, as the owner of the prazo considered mussoco the collection enough; the obligatory internal trade of all the products produced in the prazo and imported goods; the dispute among prazeiros and neighbouring people; the lack of a competent military force and Portuguese public administration; the participation of prazo-holders in the slave trade in the late 18th and 19th centuries when the colonists living in the prazos started to be enslaved; the increase of nonattendance by the prazo-holders; seasons of drought and hunger; invasions, for example, that of the Nguni (1815- 1840), with the formation of the Gaza kingdom and its expansion. Alluding to the decree of adaptation of the prazos, by António Enes, in 1890, Amélia Souto draws attention to the fact that this was the first legal diploma “that refused land owner ship to indigenous peoples”. According to Enes, the prazos “should be adapted to the tenets of civilization and to the needs and aims of Portuguese rule”. Interpreting the second regime of this kind of concession, Rita-Ferreira showed how they went into the hands of major agricultural and agro-industrial and commercial companies from 1890 onwards. Therefore, the occupation of great part of the territory of the Colony of Mozambique in the rich region of Zambezia was entrusted to major agricultural and agro-industrial companies, forming private enterprises, using mainly foreign capital, as was the case, for example, of the Boror Company.
The existence over centuries of agricultural facilities which, with their support equipment, houses a varied collection of other buildings used in the exploration of prazo lands has resulted in numerous material traces of historical and heritage value, scattered across the Zambezi Valley. Later, when most of the “feudal” prazos went into the hands of the companies of agro-industrial exploration, in the transition from the 19th to 20th century, new facilities and even pre-urban and urban structures emerged, as a result of the prior structures, which were used and/or enlarged. Within this context, the varied rural settlements evolved into villages (or agro-industrial facilities), with at least a pre-urban character. In 1921, in the whole district of Quelimane, among the 23 existing prazos, 20 had moved into the hands of those companies (non majestic, but lessees).
There are examples of different typologies of remains, specific in several cases, many of which still have a recognizable toponymy in the vast region of the Zambezi. The prazos defined “stations”, or places which organized production, usually with a central house and facilities for support and housing of workers, surrounding it in a wide quadrangle, with the agricultural plantations arranged around it. These structures might have been the basis for later developments of spaces with more constructions, eventually creating towns. Some of them are mentioned in documents from the last quarter of the 19th century: Nhandôa (in the province of Tete, on the left bank of the Zambezi and Aroenha rivers; and/or, in the Quelimane region, the “station” of the Prazo Marral); Marral/Campo, “station” of the municipality of Mopeia (Quelimane), on the left bank of the Lualua River; the following town was created by directive no. 1.974 of the 27th May 1933, as the seat of the administrative post of Campo (presently about 50 km to the west of Quelimane); Guengue, on the bank of the Zambezi, province of Tete, forming a prazo and a fortified town with an aringa of 210 x 82 metres; Maindo/Mahindo, a prazo on the coast, bordering that of Marral and of Luabo on the west, it had around 7,800 inhabitants in the 1920s; Luabo, to the southwest of Quelimane, a town possibly created from the agro-rural facilities of the former Luão, in very fertile lands in the 17th century, but abandoned in the 18th century; it was the headquarters of the Sena Sugar Estates/Sena Sugar Factory from 1911; the town came to serve as an administrative post, through directive no. 15.156, of 8th July 1961, in the municipality of Chinde. In 1921, many places in the region of the Zambezi (from Quelimane to Tete), were mentioned as having been the seats of prazos (or neighbouring and connected towns), which were incorporated into the several companies, such as Maindo/Mahindo (owned by the Société du Madal since 1904); Luabo and Marral, owned by the Sena Sugar Estates, formerly Company of Luabo, from 1911. Nowadays there are still a series of towns that may be identified, such as Milange (from the Company of Lugela, in a region of tea production since 1906), or Inhassunge (southward of Quelimane), owned by the Societé du Madal, since 1916.

Housing

Buildings