Street art in Luanda and Maputo: Creativity and resistance

Introduction: The term urban art refers to a wide variety of art forms that are grouped together by the fact that they are created in urban areas, depict life in the city or make a statement about urban issues. Street Art emerged as spontaneous or strategic cultural manifestations in African cities to fight the marginalisation of disadvantaged communities and show resistance to institutional powers as is the case in Luanda (Angola) and Maputo (Mozambique).
Goals and methods: The research question aims to prove that cultural manifestations in African cities contribute to fight the marginalisation of disadvantaged communities and show resistance to institutional powers. Qualitative methods are used to develop the proposal, identifying the necessary sources and using the documentary research to carry out content analysis so as to identify patterns in informal or commissioned street art to confirm the aforementioned aim.
Results: Street art has evolved since its inception: from informal and illegal spontaneous interventions in which spaces were used without authorisation to express informal creativity, to being projected, promoted and encouraged in a legitimate and “commercial” process with the artification of these visual expressions, contributing to the construction and/or development of the city’s image. This study concluded that spontaneous art in the streets promoted by community-oriented projects in peri-urban neighbourhoods contributes to promote inclusion, and community identity, keeping young people away from the city and from situations that can lead to delinquency.
Conclusions: The creative processes of organised and informal visual expressions such as art in the street, street art, muralism or urban graffiti are now part of urban and peri-urban regeneration projects, reinventing problematic neighbourhoods or spaces as public art galleries as can be seen in the chosen African cities – Luanda and Maputo.