If you are wondering where Mozambique is , you have to look
up at the map of Africa . It is to the south of South Africa and is blessed by
long beaches. If anyone talks of Africa , they may talk of South Africa,
Tanzania , Botswana but never Mozambique, because it was a forgotten country
living on the dole of European union & the Vatican . Mozambique was a Portugese
colony as a result, the lingua franca of the nation is Portugese,but of course
the local dialect is Macua which is spoken in remote villages. The country had a
period of communist influence for sometime. A decade plus of Civil War between
the two political parties Freelimo & Renamo supported by various interest groups
outside the country ensured that the complete infrastructure of Mozambique was
destroyed , the forests plundered and the wild animals killed or eaten. The
country with EU intervention brought about peace and elections were held with
Freelimo winning the elections and ruling the country.
Mozambique is a country
with a rich soil . Its main crop was/is cotton , cashewnuts and it has a vast
coast line steaming with fish. One would be surprised to know that most of the
raw cashew nuts gets exported to Quilon in Kerala , India. Infact most of the
raw cashew fro other parts of Africa like Guinea Bissaue etc also land up in
Quilon in Kerala ( India)where it is sorted and segregated/reprocessed and exported. It is said
the expertise in sorting out the cashew is unique to Quilon and only women do
the job. Cotton is another crop which get exported out of the country.The
country is rich in minerals and gemstones as is in most African countries.Most
visitors to the country are buyers of these products.In the yesterday years an
island known as Ilia de Mocambique was a trading place of slaves.
So what was I
doing in Mozambique? The commodity trading company, I was working for in Dubai
decided that they would like to do a pilot project to produce URD Dhal (
ullundhu in tamizh) which was in much demand in the sub continent.They homed in on Mozambique because they had traded in some commodities with a influential man in
Nampula which is the north of the country,( with rich soil) who gave a lot
inputs as why the country was good place for investment. So there I landed up in
Maputo, capital of Mozambique, with a project report in my hand , and a phone
number of a consultant in KPMG whom I had contacted after a extensive search
,because they could speak English. All the rest spoke in Portugese, which of
course I could not speak.
The airport was very basic, like what we used to call
aerodromes in India during the British days. In my anxiety of landing in an
African country, I forgot my passport in the seat pocket in the aircraft , and
walked to the Immigration when I realized that I did not have a passport, I
rushed back to the aircraft with a few security guards chasing me as I managed
to go to my seat and collected my passport. Now that was a great start I thought
and managed to get through immigration and customs with a little bit of greasing
of the palms as was the custom those days.
As I exited the airport , there was a
scrawly black man who approached me and in basic broken english if I wanted a
taxi. I accepted his offer , and asked him to take me to the hotel which my
consultant had suggested. The taxi itself was a semi battered old Toyota car,
yellow in colour.As he was driving I asked him what his name was? He said it was
Domingo. So I asked him, did his name mean anything. He said it meant Sunday,
and went on to say he was born on a Sunday and his parents named him Domingo.
So
then Domingo started in the telling me in the same broken English, about Maputo
and the areas we were passing through.The city was dotted with old Portugese
styled buildings which had seen better days. He also gave me a lot of cautionary
advises to move in the town. Finally the hotel arrived and he helped me with my
luggage, and asked me whether I would like to have the taxi the next day.I
answered in the affirmative and took down his number and said I would call him
after fixing my local appointments. Little did I know that Domingo would be our
chief contact in Maputo in the later days. More coming……
No comments:
Post a Comment