African Sojourn - Issufu Nurmomade

Issuffo Nurmomade An hour’s flight from the capital Maputo brought me to Nampula, where I was received by a representative from the office of our sponsor. I was lodged in a Pensao ( guest house) named Prima Verra. It was an old quaint building from the Portuguese times . The next day I was taken to the office of Mr. Issuffo Nurmomade one of the biggest cultivators of Cotton in Nampula . He had named his company Sanam ( in hindi it means beloved) which was an acronym for Sociedade Algodoeira de Mozambique . It reflected his Indian origins. He was among the early Gujarati emigrants who came from Daman & Diu which were Portugese settlements in India.They spoke Gujarati and still followed the same customs. The muslims were of course Bohri Muslims and the Hindus continued with Garba during Navratri. Of course all of them had Mozambique passports with a christian middle name.Many of them of them subsequently also accquired Portugese passports which was their gateway into EU countries. Issuffu , who was in his fifties had a luxurious villa with a swimming pool and a fleet of cars which included a Prado & a Lexus and upscaled Toyota pickups. He was always in a jeans & white shirt with a cigarette in his mouth.He had two sons Dilawar & Faisal, the elder incharge of the cotton operations & the younger incharge of retail business. Both were characters of their own, Faisal was the flamboyant playboy ,an arrogant person with a fancy car and the latest Nokia mobile , often riding rough shod on many. Dilawar was a more mature person, calm and more balanced in dealing with people and maintaining a quieter lifestyle. Nampula Itself was a province in the North of the country and had fertile soil where the main crop was cotton . There were also Cashew trees of yester years, introduced by the Portugese from where cashew was harvested. During the season many buyers from India came for buying the cashew nuts to be send to India for processing mainly to Quilon district in Kerala. There were other crops like Pigeon Peas/Sesame Seeds ,which were also grown. Nampula was also host to many NGO’s from all over the world ,US AID being one of them which helped the farmers by making co-op societies, giving seeds and buying the produce from them. There were many other NGO’s who were engaged in this agri business. There were other NGO,s like HALO ( made famous by Princess Diana) who were involved in de-mining operations in the nearby province of Cabo del Gado, adjacent to Nampula. This was because of a decade of civil war between two warring political factions of Renamo & Freelimo when the entire cattle & wild life had been killed & eaten and the entire infrastructure, including the railways , built by the Portuguese were decimated. The all famous Medicine Sans Frontiers ( Doctors without Frontiers )also had a presence, along with the UN Food Programme. One could run into many of their representatives in the street side cafeterias in the evenings which served Cafe ( strong black bitter coffee served in a small cup along with a chilled glass of water , which was a chaser) . Of course there was beer and soft drink. One also could get a slice of pastry and yes ,our own samosa though with meat filling. The town also had a sprinkling of cafes with pool tables where most of the young hung out which were quite popular and served dinner, which invariably consisted of Chicken, Meat & Fish served with Pau.Yes one could get French fries to go with the meal. The Portuguese ,when they ruled Mozambique owned vast tracts of land in which they cultivated Cashew & Cotton and food for themselves, They had huge mansions in the middle of their lands and some even had airstrips.They had generators for lighting and lived a comfortable life.They unlike the British mingled with the local people of African origin , married them , which resulted in a mixed racial soceity. Most of this Infrastructure was destroyed during the civil war. Nampula Town itself was a quaint town with four main roads. The Cathedral of Arquidiocese de Nampula stood prominently with its towering spires reaching out to the sky. The town had a hospital , with basic facilities . Most of the expats had medical insurance , which enabled them to be airlifted to nearby Johanesburg for more serious ailments .( Mostly it was Malaria, which one could not escape.If serious It went to the head which was serious. Of course there was the scare of AIDS )There was a post office and a telephone company called Teledata, which offered phone service and dial up Internet services. Surprisingly enough mobile service were available, the main service provider being Vodafone. It even had a restaurant called Aurora,which served Indian food.There were a few colleges even.The town had a lake which was the main source of water supply. There was a growing middle class in Nampula with the same aspirations like the middle class all over the developing nations,but majority of the local people were of very ordinary means , but surprisingly enough quite happy as most had a transistor glued to their ears ,listening to Portuguese songs played by a local radio station.The local municipality collected a radio tax along with the electric bills . It was in this environment , I landed up after all that hustle bustle of Dubai.