“Shake up the Councilors, Shake Well”: The Writings of Pancho Guedes in Late Colonial Mozambique

This paper explores two journal articles authored by the Portuguese architect Pancho Guedes during the late colonial period in Mozambique (1950s-1974). Through a sharp critique of the urban condition of the colonial capital Lourenço Marques (now Maputo), and more specifically, its emerging spontaneous suburbs, the two writings denounce the colonial regime's policies in their spatial counterpart. <br/><br/>The initial text, "The Sick City," serves as a political manifesto aimed at colonial administrators. Published in 1964 in the local newspaper A Tribuna and subsequently censored, Guedes enumerates urban issues of the time in the form of bullet points, proposing potential solutions. The second, "The Caniços of Mozambique" (1973), comprises a visual ethnography capturing the growth of spontaneous and illegal housing on the capital's outskirts. Guedes views these areas as vital contact points between indigenous and Portuguese realities of Western modernity, presenting annotated photographs documenting indigenous homemaking practices and celebrating the beauty and vitality of the "slum."<br/><br/>Viewing the texts in isolation from Guedes' broader practice, one might think of Guedes as an activist and militant architect, yet his eclectic, excessive, expensive works, irreverent toward the notion of style (the experimental Stiloguedes) made for part of his clientele – the wealthy Portuguese colonial bourgeoisie – could cast him as the archetypal settler.<br/><br/>Guedes embodies neither role nor both, existing as a "third way or space," as conceptualized by Bhabha. Pedro Gadanho characterizes Guedes as an "altermodern architect," showcasing another facet through his collaboration with the Swiss mission, not aligned with the regime and his friendships and support to emerging African intellectuals who would later rule postcolonial Mozambique.<br/><br/>Considering Guedes' persona and historical context, a nuanced reading of these texts unveils a more ethical than political stance – a Portuguese humanist with a self-proclaimed "conservative anarchist" identity. This challenges inappropriate classifications that depict his work either as a decolonial project from within or mere foreign aid. <br/><br/>These texts provide a historical-anthropological testimony through the voice of a multifaceted character – architect, artist, anthropologist, patron, and friend – participating in and observing late colonial Mozambique. Through his writings and works, Pancho Guedes contributes to rewriting the history, not solely architectural but also political, of the late Luso-African colonial reality, necessitating "a more refined chronology," as suggested by Claudia Castelo in 2012.