Maputo, Mozambique

Welcome to Maputo, Mozambique. This capital city on the banks of the Indian Ocean is Mozambique's largest and most important city. It is a city of well over 1.5 million people and serves as the political, economic, and cultural center of the country. It is a diverse city with a strong Portuguese and Bantu cultures as well as Arab, Indian and Chinese influences. From the sea, it looks fantastic and we couldn't wait to get ashore and into a different and new country.

The port is right in the city and as soon as you leave the ship you are thrown into it's hustle and bustle as the central train station, an important architectural and historic attraction, is right outside the port gates. As impressive as the outside looks, step inside and you are in a working train station, not just a historical landmark.  We also ran into one of the many friendly people we were to see in Mozambique.

Directly across the street from the station, in a place called "Workers Park", was an important monument affectionately called the "Snake Lady". Actually dedicated to the Mozambiquean soldiers who fought in World War One, it depicts a lady a with large snake that she has killed. You can try to guess what the symbolism means, but good luck in figuring it out, not many have.

We were then off to the Central Market. As usual, a colorful, boisterous place where locals flocked to fulfill their daily needs.

Not far from the market was the City Hall Building, the Catholic Cathedral, the country is over fifty percent Christian and only thirty  percent Muslim, and a building built out of iron in 1892 by Gustav Eiffel of the tower fame. The Ferro House, as it's called, was never lived in. Can you imagine an iron house in this heat?

We had two young energetic tour guides that were eager to show us around Maputo. They spoke perfect English and are really representative of the future of this country as two-thirds of the population is under twenty-four years old. Unfortunately, average life expectancy is only to fifty-two.

Next we were off to were the people of Maputo party: the beach. Every night all facets of society meet at the many beaches to eat, drink and party. They clean them up in the day time and begin again at night. Not nearly as manicured as South African beaches, but more real in many ways. 

Then it was off to lunch at the Serena Hotel, Maputo's best. It was quite a nice place.

As we broke for lunch, I asked the guide if we were going to see where the people lived. The monuments and city center were fine, but this is a country that is one of the poorest in the world with an average annual income of $250 per person. He said he would now take us to the other side of the city. The place were he lived.

The difference was immediately visible. Here the street economy thrived. The houses were made of corrugated sheets or cement block and were very close together. There were few satellite dishes, but the streets were clean and the people seemed vibrant and without the vacant look we saw in people all over Cuba. Yet we also saw children working, cleaning one of the canals that ran along side of the road.

One of the lecturer's onboard the ship said Mozambique was on the rise. The economy was one of the fastest growing in Africa albeit from a very small base. The country had gone from Colonialism to Independence to Communism then Socialism and for the last twenty years a fairly representative government without too much corruption. There was hope. Perhaps he was right, Time will tell. We certainly saw elements of all that in our brief visit to it's capital city. 

Perhaps two pictures sum up the past and present. From Colonial times and kept in the National Museum a complete  set of elephant fetuses taken from elephants slaughtered to protect sugar cane fields. From present times, these beautiful flowers planted with hope for the future.