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Pão nosso de cada noite: Our Nightly Bread. By Ricardo Rangel. Maputo, Moz.: Marimbique, 2004. [Texts by Calane da Silva; José Craveirinha, José Luís Cabaço, Luís Bernando Honwana; Nelson Saute and Rui Nogar.] Pp. 142.
Photos: Women from Finland and Mozambique (Fotos: Mulheres de Moçambique e da Finlândia.) By Magi Viljanen and Rui Assubuji. Maputo, Moz.: Libris Oyi, 2005. Pp. 150.
Historians have developed increasingly sophisticated perspectives on historical images beyond the printed word. As V.Y. Mudimbe and Bogumil Jewsiewicki famously observed, "Africans tell, sing, produce (through dance, recitation, marionette puppets), sculpt and paint their history."1 E.S. Atieno-Odhiambo's recent overview essay on African historiographies in Africa Zamani included a section on "scopic" representation, focusing on Belgian Congo genre paintings from the 1920s as an example of "vernacular history."2 The continent's people have also photographed their history. Their photographs, like their paintings and sculpture, can provide a window into the past.
Historians have long been interested in photographic images of Africa and Africans, but their early efforts often emerged from research in colonial and mission archives. Such archival photographs often featured the colonizers' gaze upon the colonized and the colonizers' photographic portraits of themselves and each other.3 Photographs taken by Africans of Africans, such as the photographic portraits Mozambican Sebastão Langa took of weddings, christenings, and family gatherings in Mozambique from the forties through the sixties, were less apt to show up in colonial and mission archives, but have also captured historians' attention.4 Photographic production along these lines might not always or best be described as "vernacular history," but the range of work is certainly of interest.
Mozambique's published and archival photographic collections include the notable set of fifteen photographic albums published in 1929, with the colonial government's support, by photographer José dos Santos Rufino. Aside from the requisite portraits of the appropriate political leaders, Santos Rufino's volumes, entitled Albuns Fotográficos e Descritivos de Moçambique,5 were consistently stronger on buildings, infrastructure, and broad vistas than on people. Later photographic collections published during the New State regime, from the 1930s to 1974, followed suit, but made increasing use of aerial vistas. João Loureiro's book, Memórias de Lourenço Marques: Uma Visão do Passado da Cidade de Maputo (Lisbon, 2003), follows very much in this tradition. Both views of...