Surviving Cultural “Sanctuary”: Mozambican Intangible Cultural Heritage in South African Mines

This paper examines how intangible cultural heritage practices like ethnic performing arts endured from colonial times to the present in Southern Africa, using archival materials, fieldwork and interviews from Mozambican and South African practitioners. It challenges the notion that colonial rulers effectively used ethnic cultures for “divide and rule” tactics. Three key findings emerge from analyzing the Chopi timbila tradition. First, practitioners borrowed staging elements across ethnic boundaries while directing competitive consciousness toward orchestras within their own ethnic communities—demonstrating cultural agency (autonomous choices despite constraints) that differed from colonial intentions. Second, the mining compoundsunder apartheid regime in South Africa paradoxically sunctioned as cultural “sanctuaries” (protected spaces) where performing arts survived when restricted in Mozambique during colonial rule, civil war (1977-1992), and socialist policies. Third, these traditions persisted after apartheid’s end, indicating continuity stemmed from practitioners’ internal motivation rather than external domination, though inevitably shaped by complex power dynamics including ethnomusicologist Hugh Tracey’s influential documentation. By examining paradoxes of modernity/tradition and destruction/preservation, this study contributes to discussion on vanacular heritage concepts beyond Western frameworks. Future research should explore deeper significance and social structures within these preserved but changing cultural forms.