Visitors to Mozambique in the late 1970s needed few reminders that they were in a newly independent country, whose new leaders celebrated it as a “people's republic,” a modernizing, nationalistic, and socialist state. Consciously crafted murals, brightly colored political posters, random graffiti, buttons, badges, and decals constantly informed even the most casual observers where the country had come from and where the new government wanted it to go. Sculptures depicted a valiant struggle against the colonial Portuguese and the triumphant victory by the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (Frelimo) in 1975. Striking images illustrated the defense and consolidation of national independence under the leadership of the Frelimo one-party state. Bold slogans drawn on street pavements in the newly named capital of Maputo proclaimed the end of feudalism, colonialism, and backwardness, or celebrated the equality of women, the arrival of justice, and the construction of socialism. Phrases etched on the factory walls of state companies from Zambezia in the north to Maputo in the south exhorted workers to improve production; while colorful, state-commissioned posters implored rural peoples to breastfeed their babies, vaccinate their animals, give blood, educate their offspring, and harvest more cashew and cotton.

Just two decades later, however, the walls proclaiming socialist victory were whitewashed, the factory slogans had faded, and the murals had deteriorated. Private investors, both domestic and foreign, were visible in every economic sector from finance to fishing.