Hello again! First a brief history of the island. It was first utilized by the Arab and Swahili traders before being colonized by the Portuguese in the 1500s and 1600s. For many years it served at the site of Portuguese colonial management, especially of Goa in India. It was also the capital of Mozambique (the name of the island and country likely coming from one of the Arab rulers – Moca-Zambiki or something like that) until the government was transferred to Maputo. The island faced many attempted takeovers by the Dutch and the British and so two large fortresses were built on the island. For a long time, blacks were not permitted to settle on the island. Eventually the island was split into two, In the north were the Arabs, Indians and Portuguese. In the south were the locals. Nowadays, locals inhabit the entire island and only the architecture reflects the past division. After the civil war, the island was declared a world heritage site by UNESCO.
But some of the buildings also look like this:
Daudo’s other uncle rents out rooms so that’s where we were to stay for the duration of our visit. On our first morning he arranged for a local to give us a tour of the island. The architecture is very very Portuguese in the north part of the island. Some of the buildings have been very well kept, but many other have been neglected and are starting to or have already crumbled, which is a real shame. There are residences, churches, mosques, sports centres and even a hindu temple. We saw a statue of Vasco de Gama and of a famous Portuguese writer who lived for a few years on the island. There is a four star hotel and a public garden, plus a market a cemetery and a palace. There are stone walkways along the beach which are a bit overgrown. As beautiful as the island is, it could be so much more so if it had been taken care if. I couldn’t help but think that it would have been even more spectacular in the 1700s when the Portuguese were there and the buildings were all brand new. Too bad the country can’t afford to invest in reconstructing the island. There is a lot of poverty there as well, with many families living in the crumbling buildings or in the slums on the south of the island. This neighbourhood kind of sunk into the ground because it is built on the site where the stones were taken to build the fortresses. Most of the locals are fisherman and there are constantly fishing boats sailing around the island.
The palace and Vasco de Gama:
We spent the afternoon at the beach, but we had to be careful which beach to visit. The one across from the house we were staying in, we were told to avoid because the locals use it as a giant toilet (we’ll just say that sanitation on the island is not what it could be…). The other beach, however, was very nice and the water was ridiculously warm. The temperature while we were only the island was always above 35 degrees, several times over 40. It was HOT!!! Sleeping at night was a little tricky between the heat at the very hungry mosquitoes (I was taking my anti-malaria pills the whole time).
On the second day we went to visit the fortress at the north of the island. It was large enough to hold 200 people. It was quite interesting to see and offered a very nice view of the water, which was a gorgeous green and blue. We saw the kitchen, the living quarters, the chapel, the cannons and even the dungeon. In the afternoon we went to the beach again and a café and then stumbled across a bookstore which a huge selection of books in English! Lilian and I each bought a book – she Agatha Cristie and me Jane Austen.
The fortress:
The next day we went to the three museums (which were all located in the same place). First was the old palace. It’s too bad we weren’t allowed to take pictures because it was quite spectacular, with intricately carved furniture from Goa, huge paintings of Portuguese kings and beds that were about 4 feet off the ground and required stairs to get into. There was a chapel as well, and a room for the King, should he ever visit (but he never did). However, it was used once by Samora Machel, a previous president of Mozambique, instead. The second museum was the nautical museum, which had some artefacts recovered from nearby shipwrecks as well as models of the ships that used to frequent the island. Then finally there was the sacred art museum, which had a lot of Christian imagery and statues of many different saints.
That afternoon we went to the beach again and were joined by a troupe of small children who wanted to copy whatever we were doing. They were actually pretty good, but several of the other kids drove us nuts. The young one would point and yell “Cunha!!” which, as you probably guessed, means “white person” in the local language. The older ones would call us “Amiga” (friend) and then follow up with “Da-me dinheiro” (give me money). Once a few of them figured out where we lived, they would stand outside the door saying “Amiga, amiga amiga…” until we told them to go away.
Back to the story. That was New Year’s Eve, and that evening Daudo and his family came to the island. We went to a place called Nautilus for New Year’s. There were some fireworks and champagne.
The next day we went with Daudo’ aunt on a trip to another beach on the mainland. We drove for a long time along dirt roads and then managed to get the truck stuck in some sand. We headed for the beach and saw that the tide was literally a kilometre out. We walked all the way to the water. It was a HOT day but the water in the little tidal pools was even hotter, like a mini hot tub. On our way back we had to push the truck out of the sand, which took 5 adults. I was so tired when we got home that I decided to stay for a nap rather then go to the beach again. I slept a little and then went walking around on my own and bought myself a capilana (the skirts that the Mozambican women wear).
Our last day was pretty mellow. We relaxed a bit and I went with Lilian to look at more capilanas. We asked about a tailor and found one who could add some ties to my capilana so I can tie it on. The next day it was back to Nampula. We stopped a couple times along the way and each time the car was immediately swarmed by people selling all sorts of things – beans, bananas, live chickens. We drove a little around Nampula and then the next morning went to the travel agent to books flights back to Maputo (we decided 31 hours straight on a bus would not be so much fun). Now we are back home and you are probably as tired of reading as I am of writing. So I will leave it at that.
No comments:
Post a Comment