Moz History (in brief)

I just finished reading "The Winds of Havoc" by Adelino Serra Pires, a Portuguese immigrant to Mozambique, who ran hunting safaris there for many years until Frelimo came to power. The book presented me with a fascinating history of Mozambique, but not the type that comes from history books. He presents it as an autobiography of his own life mixed in with how what is now written (or not written) in history books has shaped Africa.

I was intrigued to find out that Frelimo had its start in the far north of Moz, actually based in Tanzania, and it had its first major rebellion in Mueda. I went to Mueda, I loved Mueda. It was chilly there and beautiful! It was also dark and violent. I had been told that the war hadn't gone that far north, which is true, Renamo never got quite that far. Mueda and Mocimboa da Praia and further north to the Rovuma River has been a Frelimo stronghold since pre-independence.

However, en route to Mueda we were warned not to go far off the road to use the bush latrine because of landmines still there. We stayed near the road. Very close.

I also was fascinated to hear about all the fabulous big game that used to populate Moz. Adelino traveled to Beira and spoke about how beautiful it was, and then how he saw it near the end of the war, and it was not looking so great. Now it is just a shell of what it used to be. From the disused soccer field near the church we worked at to the old style portuguese buildings with bullet holes in them and left to ruin by the elements, I saw just a shell of what it used to be.

I also read a bit about the re-education camps, which I have only heard of in brief. I know that Frelimo dissidents were sent to the far northwest, to Lichinga and Niassa Province, to camps to be re-educated there. They also sent the sick and disabled there. There were work camps, a la typical Marxist Communist regimes (gulags in Russia). Sad story of the beautiful country with so much possibility.

I wish there were a simple solution, but for a country ravaged by drought, floods, war, and communism, there is not any one simple solution. Kudos to those working in Maputo, its good enough there and in some of the southern beach towns. But the bush-bush and the north, like Pemba, are far behind. My heart still is breaking for the people of Moz, of Africa in general as well. What will become of Moz? Will it ever become "developing" again, or will it remain in this "underdeveloped" state that it was brought down to after independence.

O que vai ser a historia do Mozambique? O que vai ser minha historia em Africa, em Mozambique? Ninguem sabe. Ninguem sabe. Deus sabe, somente Deus pode ajudar.

(from top to bottom, the photos are of: ruined building that a family still lives in next to a soccer field, also in shambles. a little girl in Mueda, children are the hope of Mozambique. the treacherous road from Mueda, elephants still haunt these remote places, but I didn't see any in 2 1/2 months in Moz. the last photo is from the road on our magnificent Beira trip, somewhere in Moz, ruined buildings, the typical landscape was huts with a few ruined buildings every few hundred km.)