Sociocultural and cartographic representations of the railway industrial heritage of Moatize – Beira, Mozambique.

Abstract

Industrial heritage, due to its significance, contributes to cultural enjoyment and historical pleasure. In Mozambique, and especially in the railway town of Moatize, this type of cultural heritage is unknown; and, unaware of how representative it is in the sociocultural tissue. The Mozambican railway heritage constitutes in itself a historical-cultural heritage that emanates a historical and structuring memory of the organizational identity that will also help in understanding the culture of railway cities and towns. The aim of the article is to demonstrate and explain the values ​​and meanings that railway industrial technical objects have in the construction of collective cultural memory. Our reflection starts with the following question: what does the railway remains of the Moatize line represent and what meanings do they have for citizens? For the development of the theoretical thought that we emphasize, the approach was qualitative, explaining with argumentative categories the representational value of the railway industrial heritage. In a cross way, we use the cartographic method to illustrate the spaces and the territorial/surface distribution of the railway industrial heritage of Moatize and of the railway network of the central region of Mozambique. The documentary and bibliographical analysis on industrial archeology/industrial heritage was useful for us to understand its polysemy and useful significance for the culture and history of the societies that emerged by its effect and for science.