“It's not Just a Wall”: Malangatana's Zimpeto Mural and Peacebuilding in Mozambique

This study investigates the late Mozambican artist Malangatana Valente Ngwenya's mural in Zimpeto as an art object that contributed to peacebuilding in Mozambique during the devastating internal conflict known as the Sixteen Years War (1976–1992). The article draws on an interview with Malangatana Valente Ngwenya recorded while shooting the BBC TV film Homeland, the raw footage used as ethnographic material and recent interviews with the artist's sons, Mutxhini and Manguiza Ngwenya. Our sources show that the mural was more than a mere conveyor of meaning but an agent with a social biography. As such, it carried a powerful message of peacebuilding in war-torn Mozambique. We argue that Malangatana's construction of the mural was a tomada de posição (taking of position) about peace further afield than Zimpeto because of its communitarian approach, which challenges top-down, neoliberal framings of cultural activity and peacebuilding both in Mozambique and worldwide. The article opens perspectives on works that might not be art objects according to Western conventions but are embedded in complex peacebuilding activity in conflict-torn locations.