'Entering the Red Sands': The Corporality of Punishment and Imprisonment in Chimoio, Mozambique

This article probes the understandings and experiences of punishment and imprisonment in and around Chimoio, Manica Province, Mozambique. Focusing on two cases of imprisonment under severe conditions in the provincial agricultural prison of Chimoio, the article argues that corporal punishment is part of the punitive infrastructure of both the colonial and post-colonial state. Analysing the two contrasting cases, the article probes the significance of the metaphor for prison entry - 'entering the red sands' - to make the argument that carceral punishment is understood in terms of entry into a state space of potential death. The article recognises the importance of grounding perspectives on imprisonment and punishment beyond assumptions of universal regimes of imprisonment and punishment regimes. In doing so, it focuses on popular understandings and experiences of such practices and supports its argument by demonstrating, firstly, the long-term trajectory of corporal punishment in Mozambique and, secondly, by showing how imprisonment is perceived as challenging key tenets of sociality.