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talkpoliticsHere's the story of an African city, the place where my family comes from. Actually two cities, or rather, the two faces of the same country.
White silver sands sprawling all along the coast, dotted with small hotels and picturesque old restaurants. It's a misty early Sunday morning, and the tourists still haven't started flocking to the beach. Only a few groups of the cheerful, drunken party-goers from the previous evening are crawling back to their motel rooms. Beach vendors are just beginning to open their small kiosks, others are hanging their goods right on the branches of the trees, or arranging it on wooden grilles on the ground: fresh bananas, pineapples, coconuts, and traditional African garments in all the warm colors of earth and tree. The low tide has revealed a large part of the shore, and topless kids are collecting small sea creatures stuck in the sand, others are riding bikes or just jogging. The sun has risen over the sea, and it's time the city woke up, at long last.
Everyone who has been to Maputo, or who has at least watched a travel documentary about Mozambique, would instantly recognize the romantic side of this country. At the opposite end of the city, long before sunrise, the local people have left their homes and headed to the local bazaars. They carry their stuff on their heads - the women, mostly. Large, heavy bags, and baskets. They say the weight doesn't matter, what matters more is keeping the perfect balance.
Mozambique is among the poorest countries in the world. Nearly half of its 10 million people live on less than a dollar a day. The romantic sunrises and sunsets do exist, but they're a luxury that's accessible only for a few. Until 1975 Mozambique was a Portuguese colony. After the liberation, the first government pursued the so called "24-20 policy", meaning that the Portuguese population had 24 hours to take a maximum of 20 kg of luggage, and leave the country. Reminds you of Mugabe's Zimbabwe, doesn't it? And naturally, this brought some negative consequences. In the years of colonial rule, very little was being invested in education, and with the flight of the Portuguese, the country was left without no doctors, teachers, architects, builders. Economic life halted to a standstill.
Those events happened during the Cold War, and the first foreigners to come to the aid were the countries of the Soviet bloc. Even today one could meet lots of people of Russian, Ukrainian, Romanian, Serbian and Bulgarian descent on the streets of Maputo, most of them had settled in that period.
Soon after the liberation, the new communist government met the resistance of a group that was well funded and covertly supported by the apartheid regime in South Africa, so the country entered a period of turmoil, and a civil war ensued. Some of my older friends and relatives still recall those dangerous times. Food was scarce, and health care and education was almost non-existent. You wouldn't find any diamonds, gold and oil in Mozambique (and only some gas has been found recently). Just wild, unspoiled nature, and the deepest natural harbor on the Eastern African coast, and some transport corridors that are of potential importance.
This is Mozambique's most recent history. But today the government is doing efforts to change the picture. In a country where 50% of the population is illiterate, and 60% of the public budget relies on international aid, there is very little real production of anything. Most goods are imports from South Africa, Europe, India and China, and therefore unaffordable for the average Mozambican citizen. The average life expectancy is 40 years, affected by the high share of HIV-positive people, malaria and the poor hygiene conditions in general.
Mozambique is full of staggering contrasts. I have seen remote places where people live in clay huts, where there's hardly any other personal belongings than a few cooking pots and a sleeping blanket. Meanwhile, 5-star hotels line up the coastline, offering breath-taking sights to the ocean, and unforgettable summer vacations for wealthy ladies and gentlemen. The average bill at a local restaurant in Maputo equals the monthly salary of a large chunk of the population.
About 4/5 of the Mozambican people are occupied in agriculture - plant-growing and cattle-breeding. And yet it creates just 20% of the country's GDP. There are few programs encouraging this sector, and the climate conditions are deteriorating with every next year - droughts are followed by floods, then hurricanes. Even a tsunami in 2004. Every year the Zambezi leaves its river-bed and leaves a quarter of a million people homeless, and at the mercy of the humanitarian aid. Until the next year.
People in Mozambique cannot afford to invest their money in bank deposits, in gold or real estate. Instead, they buy cows. The cattle market is well developed and elaborate, and it gives people the chance to secure their well-being for a few years, especially if they manage to sell a couple of cows at times of important events in life - like a wedding. Or to cover part of their debts.
Two entirely different worlds co-exist in the capital. And one of them you would probably never see in a tourist package. You'd only see it if you spend some time living there, and take a step away from the beaten track. Maputo has been Mozambique's capital since 1898, and it's the city of dead communist dictators. Not in the sense of ideological schools of thought, but mostly as a symbolic legacy that remains to be seen mostly in the names of streets and squares. Here you could meet the likes of Karl Marx, Lenin, Olof Palme and Ho Chi Minh, both on street signs and monuments. The streets remind of the communist times that have passed and gone, and the close relations that many African countries had with the socialist bloc in the years after de-colonization.
At the right side of the Marx and Lenin boulevards, life looks differently. The apartments look to the sea, the houses are fenced with tall electrified walls and security systems. Like a wealthy ghetto. The kids of the wealthy visit special schools with great teachers, their parents drive cars that even the well-to-do European could only dream about. The locals go shopping in posh malls and huge hypermarkets, and they often make the short trip across to South Africa, where the variety of goods is very rich.
Meanwhile, in the other part of the city, people shop at the local flea markets and bazaars, where one could find decent second-use clothes, and the essential goods for the home. Here you wouldn't hear Portuguese as often. Although Portuguese is the official language, here it's usually substituted by any of the 42 local dialects and languages, the most wide-spread being Makonde, Shangana, Ronga, etc. There's a word in Shangana, "Kanimambo!", meaning "thank you!" And it has become the symbol of Maputo.
It's a dynamic and lively town, by any means. The people, both the locals and the multitude of foreigners coming from all around the world to work at various international organizations and private firms, are filling the restaurants and cafes around town. Fish is the food that has been raised to a cult status. Fresh fish arrives every afternoon with the small boats from the sea - shrimp, lobsters, crabs, octopus, sharks, red fish and everything else the Indian ocean has to offer.
So, is it easy to be a foreigner in Maputo? Well, the sea, the sunshine and the relatively good infrastructure (at least in part of the city) makes it a cosy place to live, I would say. There are all sorts of food from all corners of the world. Still, you'd find difficulty getting proper books at the book store if you don't speak some decent Portuguese. Granted, the culture and the local customs are alien to many of the foreigners. But that's Africa, after all. It has a little something for everybody, if you keep your eyes and ears open to see it and hear it. And your nose, too.
My father used to compare Mozambique to an overcrowded motel. People coming and going all the time, and causing a lot of hubbub. But still very positive and well intentioned. It's a much more laid-back place than Johannesburg, that's for sure. The heirs of the older generation of Portuguese adventurers and entrepreneurs (my family being among those), are now an inseparable part of the landscape. Always locked somewhere between the two worlds of former colonizers and formerly colonized, they look at Mozambique as their home. "Here's my home, period", my mom likes to say, although she was born in Portugal.
http://www.namibian.com.na/news/full-story/archive/2012/july/article/jobless-portuguese-seek-utopia-in-mozambique/
After some long years in Europe, people like her and like my dad have decided to return/move to Mozambique, the place that's always been closer to their heart. Because it's here in Africa that everything clicks in its right place for them, for us, and everything starts to make a lot of sense. "People are more real here", my dad says. Whatever that means.
The newer generation of newcomers, born in Portugal, are also active in Mozambique. They started coming just a few years ago, mostly to develop their business, to seek for opportunities, and indulge in their adventurer spirit. "Europe is just too boring for me", my boyfriend has often explained to friends when asked why he made the choice. Although we both live in neighboring South Africa now. You never know where the winds of life would blow you.
Granted, many of those newcomers say they're not necessarily planning to stay in Mozambique forever, and naturally, the country's recent history reflects on them in a somewhat different manner. Same is probably valid for the hordes of Asians as well. Maybe not for the Indians who came here even before the Portuguese. In some of the larger towns, the Indians control a large part of the business, particularly trade. Although they live in relatively closed communities, they've brought their customs and culture with them, and they've left their mark on the modern face of the country.
The international organizations offer lots of job opportunities - Western Europeans, Americans, Canadians, Australians, Chinese flock in as well. Many of them remain to live at the brighter side of Mozambique - the romantic side, the one with the palms, the hot beaches and the exciting night-life.
I recently visited an old family friend in Maputo. There were about 30 of her relatives around the dinner table. One could probably find a representative of each of the above mentioned ethnic groups in that family. And after a short talk about her family history, I learned that she had a grandpa from Angola, a grandma from Cabo Verde and a Brazilian uncle, etc. I soon lost track of it all. "Don't you ever get confused about all this mess?", I asked her. "No. Among all this diversity, I find who I am in real", she answered without hesitation.
Her story probably describes Mozambique most eloquently. It's a mixture of cultures, languages, customs and mindsets, each of them separately, and all together, trying to build a modern society. My current home, South Africa, often likes to boast of this "Rainbow Nation" label that it's trying to present in front of the world. But maybe Mozambique has already achieved that in a more natural way, without all the turmoil, and without the grudges that come with it.
Is it a successful society? In the economic sense, not really. But how do we define "success", really? These terms can be very flexible, especially in the context of a place like Africa. When we compare Mozambique to so many other African countries, plagued by bloody conflict, and when we look no further than neighboring Zimbabwe with its self-destructive economic policies, we might begin to realize that Mozambique could really be an example of slow, very slow change, but positive, gradual, stable and sustainable change. There's a middle class slowly forming from the roots up in this country, pushing economic growth and creating other values. New, modern values. For example, having many kids is not considered priority #1 these days, not any more. What matters now is where they'll go to school, how and what they'll learn, and how they'll develop to be good and happy persons living a life of dignity. That's the main question that occupies the minds of 21st century Mozambicans, no matter what language they might be speaking.
White silver sands sprawling all along the coast, dotted with small hotels and picturesque old restaurants. It's a misty early Sunday morning, and the tourists still haven't started flocking to the beach. Only a few groups of the cheerful, drunken party-goers from the previous evening are crawling back to their motel rooms. Beach vendors are just beginning to open their small kiosks, others are hanging their goods right on the branches of the trees, or arranging it on wooden grilles on the ground: fresh bananas, pineapples, coconuts, and traditional African garments in all the warm colors of earth and tree. The low tide has revealed a large part of the shore, and topless kids are collecting small sea creatures stuck in the sand, others are riding bikes or just jogging. The sun has risen over the sea, and it's time the city woke up, at long last.
Everyone who has been to Maputo, or who has at least watched a travel documentary about Mozambique, would instantly recognize the romantic side of this country. At the opposite end of the city, long before sunrise, the local people have left their homes and headed to the local bazaars. They carry their stuff on their heads - the women, mostly. Large, heavy bags, and baskets. They say the weight doesn't matter, what matters more is keeping the perfect balance.
Mozambique is among the poorest countries in the world. Nearly half of its 10 million people live on less than a dollar a day. The romantic sunrises and sunsets do exist, but they're a luxury that's accessible only for a few. Until 1975 Mozambique was a Portuguese colony. After the liberation, the first government pursued the so called "24-20 policy", meaning that the Portuguese population had 24 hours to take a maximum of 20 kg of luggage, and leave the country. Reminds you of Mugabe's Zimbabwe, doesn't it? And naturally, this brought some negative consequences. In the years of colonial rule, very little was being invested in education, and with the flight of the Portuguese, the country was left without no doctors, teachers, architects, builders. Economic life halted to a standstill.
Those events happened during the Cold War, and the first foreigners to come to the aid were the countries of the Soviet bloc. Even today one could meet lots of people of Russian, Ukrainian, Romanian, Serbian and Bulgarian descent on the streets of Maputo, most of them had settled in that period.
Soon after the liberation, the new communist government met the resistance of a group that was well funded and covertly supported by the apartheid regime in South Africa, so the country entered a period of turmoil, and a civil war ensued. Some of my older friends and relatives still recall those dangerous times. Food was scarce, and health care and education was almost non-existent. You wouldn't find any diamonds, gold and oil in Mozambique (and only some gas has been found recently). Just wild, unspoiled nature, and the deepest natural harbor on the Eastern African coast, and some transport corridors that are of potential importance.
This is Mozambique's most recent history. But today the government is doing efforts to change the picture. In a country where 50% of the population is illiterate, and 60% of the public budget relies on international aid, there is very little real production of anything. Most goods are imports from South Africa, Europe, India and China, and therefore unaffordable for the average Mozambican citizen. The average life expectancy is 40 years, affected by the high share of HIV-positive people, malaria and the poor hygiene conditions in general.
Mozambique is full of staggering contrasts. I have seen remote places where people live in clay huts, where there's hardly any other personal belongings than a few cooking pots and a sleeping blanket. Meanwhile, 5-star hotels line up the coastline, offering breath-taking sights to the ocean, and unforgettable summer vacations for wealthy ladies and gentlemen. The average bill at a local restaurant in Maputo equals the monthly salary of a large chunk of the population.
About 4/5 of the Mozambican people are occupied in agriculture - plant-growing and cattle-breeding. And yet it creates just 20% of the country's GDP. There are few programs encouraging this sector, and the climate conditions are deteriorating with every next year - droughts are followed by floods, then hurricanes. Even a tsunami in 2004. Every year the Zambezi leaves its river-bed and leaves a quarter of a million people homeless, and at the mercy of the humanitarian aid. Until the next year.
People in Mozambique cannot afford to invest their money in bank deposits, in gold or real estate. Instead, they buy cows. The cattle market is well developed and elaborate, and it gives people the chance to secure their well-being for a few years, especially if they manage to sell a couple of cows at times of important events in life - like a wedding. Or to cover part of their debts.
Two entirely different worlds co-exist in the capital. And one of them you would probably never see in a tourist package. You'd only see it if you spend some time living there, and take a step away from the beaten track. Maputo has been Mozambique's capital since 1898, and it's the city of dead communist dictators. Not in the sense of ideological schools of thought, but mostly as a symbolic legacy that remains to be seen mostly in the names of streets and squares. Here you could meet the likes of Karl Marx, Lenin, Olof Palme and Ho Chi Minh, both on street signs and monuments. The streets remind of the communist times that have passed and gone, and the close relations that many African countries had with the socialist bloc in the years after de-colonization.
At the right side of the Marx and Lenin boulevards, life looks differently. The apartments look to the sea, the houses are fenced with tall electrified walls and security systems. Like a wealthy ghetto. The kids of the wealthy visit special schools with great teachers, their parents drive cars that even the well-to-do European could only dream about. The locals go shopping in posh malls and huge hypermarkets, and they often make the short trip across to South Africa, where the variety of goods is very rich.
Meanwhile, in the other part of the city, people shop at the local flea markets and bazaars, where one could find decent second-use clothes, and the essential goods for the home. Here you wouldn't hear Portuguese as often. Although Portuguese is the official language, here it's usually substituted by any of the 42 local dialects and languages, the most wide-spread being Makonde, Shangana, Ronga, etc. There's a word in Shangana, "Kanimambo!", meaning "thank you!" And it has become the symbol of Maputo.
It's a dynamic and lively town, by any means. The people, both the locals and the multitude of foreigners coming from all around the world to work at various international organizations and private firms, are filling the restaurants and cafes around town. Fish is the food that has been raised to a cult status. Fresh fish arrives every afternoon with the small boats from the sea - shrimp, lobsters, crabs, octopus, sharks, red fish and everything else the Indian ocean has to offer.
So, is it easy to be a foreigner in Maputo? Well, the sea, the sunshine and the relatively good infrastructure (at least in part of the city) makes it a cosy place to live, I would say. There are all sorts of food from all corners of the world. Still, you'd find difficulty getting proper books at the book store if you don't speak some decent Portuguese. Granted, the culture and the local customs are alien to many of the foreigners. But that's Africa, after all. It has a little something for everybody, if you keep your eyes and ears open to see it and hear it. And your nose, too.
My father used to compare Mozambique to an overcrowded motel. People coming and going all the time, and causing a lot of hubbub. But still very positive and well intentioned. It's a much more laid-back place than Johannesburg, that's for sure. The heirs of the older generation of Portuguese adventurers and entrepreneurs (my family being among those), are now an inseparable part of the landscape. Always locked somewhere between the two worlds of former colonizers and formerly colonized, they look at Mozambique as their home. "Here's my home, period", my mom likes to say, although she was born in Portugal.
http://www.namibian.com.na/news/full-story/archive/2012/july/article/jobless-portuguese-seek-utopia-in-mozambique/
After some long years in Europe, people like her and like my dad have decided to return/move to Mozambique, the place that's always been closer to their heart. Because it's here in Africa that everything clicks in its right place for them, for us, and everything starts to make a lot of sense. "People are more real here", my dad says. Whatever that means.
The newer generation of newcomers, born in Portugal, are also active in Mozambique. They started coming just a few years ago, mostly to develop their business, to seek for opportunities, and indulge in their adventurer spirit. "Europe is just too boring for me", my boyfriend has often explained to friends when asked why he made the choice. Although we both live in neighboring South Africa now. You never know where the winds of life would blow you.
Granted, many of those newcomers say they're not necessarily planning to stay in Mozambique forever, and naturally, the country's recent history reflects on them in a somewhat different manner. Same is probably valid for the hordes of Asians as well. Maybe not for the Indians who came here even before the Portuguese. In some of the larger towns, the Indians control a large part of the business, particularly trade. Although they live in relatively closed communities, they've brought their customs and culture with them, and they've left their mark on the modern face of the country.
The international organizations offer lots of job opportunities - Western Europeans, Americans, Canadians, Australians, Chinese flock in as well. Many of them remain to live at the brighter side of Mozambique - the romantic side, the one with the palms, the hot beaches and the exciting night-life.
I recently visited an old family friend in Maputo. There were about 30 of her relatives around the dinner table. One could probably find a representative of each of the above mentioned ethnic groups in that family. And after a short talk about her family history, I learned that she had a grandpa from Angola, a grandma from Cabo Verde and a Brazilian uncle, etc. I soon lost track of it all. "Don't you ever get confused about all this mess?", I asked her. "No. Among all this diversity, I find who I am in real", she answered without hesitation.
Her story probably describes Mozambique most eloquently. It's a mixture of cultures, languages, customs and mindsets, each of them separately, and all together, trying to build a modern society. My current home, South Africa, often likes to boast of this "Rainbow Nation" label that it's trying to present in front of the world. But maybe Mozambique has already achieved that in a more natural way, without all the turmoil, and without the grudges that come with it.
Is it a successful society? In the economic sense, not really. But how do we define "success", really? These terms can be very flexible, especially in the context of a place like Africa. When we compare Mozambique to so many other African countries, plagued by bloody conflict, and when we look no further than neighboring Zimbabwe with its self-destructive economic policies, we might begin to realize that Mozambique could really be an example of slow, very slow change, but positive, gradual, stable and sustainable change. There's a middle class slowly forming from the roots up in this country, pushing economic growth and creating other values. New, modern values. For example, having many kids is not considered priority #1 these days, not any more. What matters now is where they'll go to school, how and what they'll learn, and how they'll develop to be good and happy persons living a life of dignity. That's the main question that occupies the minds of 21st century Mozambicans, no matter what language they might be speaking.
(no subject)
Date: 17/7/12 14:18 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 17/7/12 14:25 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 17/7/12 14:26 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 17/7/12 15:54 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 17/7/12 19:01 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 17/7/12 17:00 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 17/7/12 18:43 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 17/7/12 21:54 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 17/7/12 18:50 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 17/7/12 19:03 (UTC)I wouldn't call a society with an average life expectancy of 40 and a 50% of illiteracy, "successful", but to its own standards, it probably is. And we're not in a position to judge.
(no subject)
Date: 17/7/12 19:54 (UTC)There's been some debate on the concept of happiness, more specifically "perceived happiness". There was a post (http://talk-politics.livejournal.com/1369845.html) here some time ago on this subject.
Do people in Moçambique feel "happy" about their situation? Not easy to find a simple answer.
(no subject)
Date: 17/7/12 21:58 (UTC)I'm curious. It seems the poor/illiterate/unhealthy population are indigenous? And the wealthy/affluent/more modern are Westerners? And a lot of those Westerners are coming to Mozambique to retire and/or live better on their money?
That's the gist along those lines I got from this post. Am I reading it correctly?
(no subject)
Date: 18/7/12 06:17 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 18/7/12 00:36 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 18/7/12 04:09 (UTC)M-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-F**K-YOU-I
...
And shit, I feel sorry for comparing Zimbabwe to it now. There's certain places out there you hear so much negativity about that you have to wonder if someone somewhere in Zimbabwe ever had a good day.
(no subject)
Date: 18/7/12 06:18 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 18/7/12 15:48 (UTC)