Segregationism and spatial transposition in Ungulani Ba Ka Khosa’s As mulheres do imperador

Abstract

The current capital of Mozambique, Maputo, was founded in the 16th century by two Portuguese explorers. Named after one of them, Lourenço Marques, acquired its current name in March 1976. In reality, over the centuries, the “city” was a simple trading post, only gaining importance in the second half of the 19th century and only replacing Ilha de Moçambique as the colony’s capital in 1898. It was therefore only after this period that it took on the form that characterizes it to this day. This article aims to study how the city is represented in the novel As mulheres do imperador (2017) by Ungulani Ba Ka Khosa. The approach is based on techniques of representation of urban and suburban space based on notions such as topography and pragmatography. However, by integrating the narratological category of space with others such as character, narration and focalization, the configuration of some of the novel’s characters in their relationship with spatial representation will also be analyzed.