Kalashnikovs no longer call the shots in Maputo

As night falls on the terrace of the Piri-Piri bar and restaurant on 24th of July Street, patrons order another round of Laurentina, Maputo’s excellent draught beer, and boys with winning smiles measure out little mounds of roasted peanuts on napkins.

Hawkers gather at the edge of the terrace and unroll their batiks and Chinese-made “African” print textiles.

Behind them on an island in the middle of the busy street stand piles of wooden masks and regiments of carved figures.

Suddenly a man sprints past carrying four large, stretched canvases on his back.

Later that evening, he appears outside the Restaurant Monte Alentejano around the corner on Julius Nyerere Avenue.

He rests the canvases against a tree, then parades each one the length of the restaurant windows.

Inside, the people eating steamed clams with garlic and fresh coriander and drinking more Laurentina don’t look up at the paintings moving by.

After a while, the man gathers the canvases, hoists them on his back, and trots off into the night.

Not all artists in the lovely, tree-lined, laid-back capital of Mozambique have to go through such acrobatics to find a home for their work; several like Malagatana Valente Ngwenya, Naguib Elias Abdula, Estevao Mucavele, Gemuce (Pompilio Hilario), Jorge Dias, and Goncalo Mabunda have gained international reputations and clients.

Titos Mabota’s wire and cloth sculptures and the India ink drawings on shiny paper of Adelino Vasco Mendonca have been selected for Jean Pigozzi’s trend-setting Geneva-based Collection of Contemporary African Art.

But even Mabunda, who has earned international recognition for his sculptures made from discarded weapons as well as a slot in the acclaimed Africa Re-Mix travelling exhibition, said it is difficult for artists to find places to show and sell their work in Maputo.

So, on March 28, he opened his house on 1834 Karl Marx Avenue to the public to show his chair-thrones and figures made from AK-47s and spent mortar shells.

Also on display were the works of photographer Mauro Pinto, ceramic sculptor Reinata Sadimba and the multifaceted Idasse (Antonio Manuel Tembe), as well as those of several foreign artists living in the city.

“There are really no galleries here where artists can show, so we said, let’s try opening our house to shorten the distance between the viewer and the artists,” said Tina Lorizzo, an Italian artist and Mabunda’s girlfriend.

As is the case in many African countries, the cultural centres of several diplomatic missions in Mozambique serve as focal points for the plastic as well as the performing and musical arts.