Abstract
Soon aft er independence in Mozambique (1975), the country s toponymy changed with the aim of decolonizing the past. Th e article consists of a chapter of an ongoing thesis entitled "Th e infl uence of ethnicities in political confl icts in African states: the case study of Mozambique (1976-2019)".
Th e article aims to analyse the use of anthropological places in a context of political confl ict. Th ree research ques-tions were raised: How does the name of a place shape the behaviour of people living or visiting that place? How does the name transform a space into an anthropological place with a sacral meaning? How does political power use anthropological places? Preliminary results show that, during transformation of anthropological places, the new names have a meaning of local events and fi gures; there are some names with national impact.
Th erefore, Anthropological places cannot be seen as a potential for confl ict emerging. However, the way politics uses public spaces is more propagandistic.
Th erefore, it creates an environment of political parties' divisions leading to political confl icts, in addition to other factors. Methodologically, the chapter is a result of a literature review. Th e study is important because it approaches confl ict beyond armed or political ones, but anthropologically.