Mozambique…Now I’m in Africa
(written 09/23) This is the Africa of my imagination…red dirt, huts, heat, women in brightly-colored sarong skirts, people selling all manner of items on the streets and carrying all manner of items on their heads. And…crushing poverty. South Africa surely presents one face of Africa, but not the one I picture when I imagine the continent. This is more like it. Here are some random snapshots of life in Mozambique:
Devastation
Mozambique is poor, very very poor. The average annual income is just US$300. And the country is still struggling to emerge from a 17 year civil war that ended in 1992.
It wasn’t a civil war, really, since the rebel group (Renamo) had no desire to govern. Its sole objective was to paralyze the country. Renamo was set up and backed by South Africa and Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) with the sole intent of destabilizing Mozambique. You see, the black consciousness movement was growing in strength in Mozambique, and South Africa and Rhodesia didn’t want that spilling over into their countries. So, they backed a rebel force that completely destroyed the country for seventeen years. That was its sole mission. Disgusting. (Of course, the US has done the same thing, messing with other countries for its own benefit, ie…Central America in the 80s, Cold War proxy wars, etc.)
So, for almost two decades, the rebel forces destroyed roads, bridges, railways, schools and clinics. Villagers were rounded up, anyone with skills was shot, and atrocities were committed on a massive and horrific scale. What would even remain almost two decades of wholesale destruction? Some estimate the country had been set back half a century or more. It’s been over ten years since the civil war ended, but Mozambique still shows the scars. It’s sad.
So why would I bother going to Mozambique? That’s easy:
1. Tourism brings in much needed money.
2. Because it’s there. Because if I don’t go, I will stare at Mozambique on the map for the rest of my life, wondering what it’s like.
3. Because traveling is when I feel most alive—especially when traveling in some far off corner of the world like Mozambique. I need that right now. I need to feel alive after a year of being numb. And I need to relearn to appreciate being alive.
4. International travel always keeps one promise: it reminds me of all that I have. It makes me feel very grateful. This trip is no different.
But, it’s also a bit confusing right now. I am depressed. I don’t want life without Warren. But I stare out the window at the passing landscape of poverty and hardship, and I simultaneously feel very lucky. The latter doesn’t ‘cure’ the former. I feel both emotions at once.
And so I just stare out the window, waiting for all of it to come together in some logical way, waiting for that big epiphany that makes life good again.
(…You know, the big epiphany that will never come if I am waiting for it. Oops, getting too Zen for a blog about Africa. Wrong continent.)
Devastation
Mozambique is poor, very very poor. The average annual income is just US$300. And the country is still struggling to emerge from a 17 year civil war that ended in 1992. It wasn’t a civil war, really, since the rebel group (Renamo) had no desire to govern. Its sole objective was to paralyze the country. Renamo was set up and backed by South Africa and Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) with the sole intent of destabilizing Mozambique. You see, the black consciousness movement was growing in strength in Mozambique, and South Africa and Rhodesia didn’t want that spilling over into their countries. So, they backed a rebel force that completely destroyed the country for seventeen years. That was its sole mission. Disgusting. (Of course, the US has done the same thing, messing with other countries for its own benefit, ie…Central America in the 80s, Cold War proxy wars, etc.)
So, for almost two decades, the rebel forces destroyed roads, bridges, railways, schools and clinics. Villagers were rounded up, anyone with skills was shot, and atrocities were committed on a massive and horrific scale. What would even remain almost two decades of wholesale destruction? Some estimate the country had been set back half a century or more. It’s been over ten years since the civil war ended, but Mozambique still shows the scars. It’s sad.
So why would I bother going to Mozambique? That’s easy:
1. Tourism brings in much needed money.
2. Because it’s there. Because if I don’t go, I will stare at Mozambique on the map for the rest of my life, wondering what it’s like.
3. Because traveling is when I feel most alive—especially when traveling in some far off corner of the world like Mozambique. I need that right now. I need to feel alive after a year of being numb. And I need to relearn to appreciate being alive.
4. International travel always keeps one promise: it reminds me of all that I have. It makes me feel very grateful. This trip is no different.
But, it’s also a bit confusing right now. I am depressed. I don’t want life without Warren. But I stare out the window at the passing landscape of poverty and hardship, and I simultaneously feel very lucky. The latter doesn’t ‘cure’ the former. I feel both emotions at once.
And so I just stare out the window, waiting for all of it to come together in some logical way, waiting for that big epiphany that makes life good again.
(…You know, the big epiphany that will never come if I am waiting for it. Oops, getting too Zen for a blog about Africa. Wrong continent.)