Maputo: The Havana of Africa

Last Friday, Mike and I headed off to the airport to catch our flight to Johannesburg. We arrived around 11:00pm, and quickly grabbed a cab to the backpacker's we would be staying at for the night. We met up with the rest of our group, talked for a bit, but went to bed pretty quickly.

It was an early rising the next morning, since we were catching the Greyhound out of South Africa, into Mozambique and to the capital city of Maputo. The bus ride was great, very comfortable, and very scenic. This was the first time that I'd been out of the Cape Town/Stellenbosch area, so I kept open eyes as we toured the countryside and headed toward the border.

The border was a bit hectic. It was crowded, and the lines for things weren't entirely clear. Luckily, the attendant from our bus was well-versed in this, and showed us where to go. In true African nature, I'm fairly certain that some bribes were issued to the border police to process them faster. This is Africa. I got very few photos though, since it is illegal in Mozambique to photograph government buildings, officers, or border posts. I think they suspect you of being a spy, but who cares the reason when they're holding AK47s. Despite this, I may or may not have taken some.

The country itself is quite poor, ranking in the last 25 nations worldwide in GDP. It can be seen after crossing the border, as the countryside changes a bit. I hardly realized I was entering the capital city when we entered Maputo, as I saw a goat crossing the street and the roads were in disrepair. What I started to realize, though, is that Maputo is a unique layering of all the colonial and struggle histories from the past 60 years or so.

Soaring down a street toward the hostel.

Imagine a city that was clearly active, bustling, and wealthy during the Portuguese colonialism of the mid-1900's, but then a 10 year fight for independence and a 16 year civil war left the country in ruins. The result is huge, magnificent, crumbling stone Portuguese architecture... a ghost city in some ways. And after all the Portuguese were kicked out of the country and the economy fell, they turned to the communist countries of the Cold War. Thus... there are clear communist-inspired apartment buildings, and nothing seems to have been painted within the last 50 years. You could even describe the city as the Havana of Africa. It is just quite odd, as you can imagine, to have crumbling buildings, streets, and parks that were once great at the center of the still busy city. It felt like a completely different case study of colonialism in Africa. I digress, look at the photos.

Parliament Building, I believe. Shhh.

The central park downtown.

During our full day, we did a guided tour of the city, the market, and some special sights. We then visited one of the nearby coastal villages, where I heard parts of Blood Diamond were filmed. I'll have to re-watch it. The villages are interesting, since they feel uniquely "African". Structures are made of palm and thatch, and it was a nice change to see people living with the "resources" they have, and being able to fish and gain other sustainability from their surroundings. This, as opposed to the poverty and hopelessness that is hard to escape within South African townships. That may be a superficial reading of the situation, but it felt like these people were happier and had more agency. That they didn't have the "leftovers" forced upon them. I don't know.

Fishing in the Indian Ocean

We had two nice nights on the town. One the nights was spent at a big fish market, with loads of prawns, mussels, and fish. I only ordered fries because I'm not huge on seafood, but they tasted quite good when I tried others'. The other night we spent at a large night club called Coconuts, with several dance floors and a pool and stuff. It was expensive, and had lots of young people. I certainly didn't understand where they came from or lived. After leaving though, there were a number of taxis waiting for us. I didn't realize, though, that most cars in Maputo do not have functioning car batteries. So we took two cabs, which began with me helping to push the first cab so it could drop into gear and drive off. Seriously. Then we got in and other people pushed us... into a minibus van. After scraping our mirror across the front side of it, they shrugged it off and pushed us in the other direction toward the hostel. Onward! It was amusing.

Fish Market

Our hostel. It was my first time sleeping in a mosquito net, and for good anti-malarial reasons.

Overall, Maputo was very neat. It is falling apart and stuff, and filthy because there seems to be no garbage collection, but I think I liked the city. I felt safe the whole time, which is a change from being in South Africa. Safe from other people at least, since the culture surrounding the police isn't that great. They ride around on benches in the back of pickup trucks, in groups, holding their assault rifles. Everyone must carry identification at all times, so tourists need their passports even on foot. A few people in our group were stopped by the police that checked passports. Chris was without his, so they flatly stated that he would be going to prison. They are underpaid and are usually looking for a bribe in Meticals (the currency). He only had South African Rands, and someone else was on their way with his passport, so they let him go. Oh well. A Mozambican prison may have been rather interesting.

My spy shot of the police vehicle. Imagine the AKs.

We spent a full day and two nights in Maputo. On day three, we got up very early to catch the shuttle to Inhambane province, our final destination. That will be the next installment! See below if you'd like to see more photos.