Being in Africa begun in July 1983, long before Angelina Jolie adopted her Etiopian child and later gave birth to her own in Namibia; or Madonna who followed suit and got her highly-publicised Malawi son. It was also years before America's super media mogul Oprah Winter focused her benevolence and wealth on South Africa, to build a leadership school for girls. Nelson Mandela - whom I admire to be the true father of democracy in the world, was still in prison in Robin Island, and apartheid's reign of terror held the heart of Southern Africa.
We, my family - consisting of two teenage boys and my Swedish diplomat-husband - arrived in Nairobi, Kenya for a week's holiday prior to settling down in Maputo, Mozambique - the new diplomatic assignment. Our first encounter with Africa's wildlife begun in Ambosele Park, - around six hours drive from Nairobi - passing through a vastness of open fields without vegetation except for huge umbrella-shaped trees that punctuated a mirage of sea. On the top branches were hanging bird nests shaped like pouches. There were famous Marabo birds - huge like horses that could run with similar speed, if pursued. One huge egg is equivalent to twelve chicken eggs if scrambled. In Nairobi's park, we saw a snake pit with the world's most dangerous species like the mamba. It was an exciting introduction into the Africa we would embrace for the next five years.
Mozambique's capital is Maputo - known during the Portuguese era, as Lorenzo Marques. After some 400 years of Portuguese colonisation, Mozambique finally got its independence. When we arrived, the Marxist Frelimo liberation army had taken the reigns of government. It had huge problems, an economy in ruins, agriculture was minimal and limited, food was in shortage as everything else, and the government lacked the infrastructure to govern. In short, the Frelimo was learning the big difference between struggling as a liberation army and struggling as a legitimate government. Samora Machel, the charismatic Frelimo leader was the president. His wife was Graca Machel, education minister who later married Nelson Mandela.
The Mocambicans are a gentle people. Very few have education and employment was scarce such that, the diplomatic homes were staffed mostly by men, not women. The majority of the menfolk were contract workers in South African mines, leaving their homes and families to the women. Womenfolk carrying babies on their backs, trekked tens of kilometers to their farms. Mozambique was to become later the third largest Swedish develoment aid recipient, a large part of which went into subsidising its budgetary deficit.
Aside from its charms as a country of many tourism potentials, it lies just beside the Indian ocean, its source of fish and seafoods. But whatever harvests it gets like tiger shrimps, only go to its main ally, then USSR to barter with oil. Even other exportable goods like semi-precious stones go to its Eastern European friends. As a Marxist state, its diplomatic relation was strong with the former communist states, whose representatives in Maputo often liked to show who was " more equal than the others".
Before the Swedish government built its new grandious embassy in Maputo, the old embassy - where my husband held office as ambassador, was housed on the second floor of a fish-smelling apartment. The embassies and residences of big powers like the US, USSR and Great Britain were grander by comparison. Sweden was a butt of diplomatic jokes because it did not know how use its development aid muscle to get a better building. It felt even at this time, that no matter how much aid came to Mozambique, it would continue like Tanzania to be an international aid mendicant.
We went to neighboring Swaziland quite often because my husband was also accredited to the "Queen Elephant Mother" - as the tribal head of state who was mother of the Crown Prince was known. The old king of Swaziland had around 120 wives by the time he died. His heir, the English- educated Crown Prince was crowned king in an extravagant ceremony attended by diplomatic representatives of most countries. First came the tribal coronation, then the Westernised one, complete with open field shows and games. The streets of Swaziland glimmered in black Mercedes Benzes, all flown in to service the foreign guests. The extravaganza could have answered a year's budget without foreign borrowings. Many years after we left, this young king had surpassed his father's number of wives.
Experiencing Africa then, was seeing not only the extreme ends of poverty and disease but encountering victims of the on-going civil war between the Frelimo and its armed opposition, known locally as the "bandidos". Fightings raged in many parts of the country which made travelling by road extremely dangerous. What used to be a leisurely 3-hour drive to Swaziland for our monthly food shopping became impossible because the "bandidos" shot at cars and burned them. Pictures of buses burned with its passengers still inside and others hacked by machete came out in the "Noticias", the only local paper. One afternoon, Maputo was rocked by explosions from bombs that exploded nearby. All embassies went into crisis meetings to carry out a mass evacuation plan. But it was contained and evacuation did not take place. But bombings in small scale took place in many houses believed to be harbouring anti-apartheid guerillas, the African National Congress or ANC. The Pretoria regime had a fantastic intelligence system that was able to locate precisely ANC safehouses.
In the later years in Mozambique, we experienced not only constant fear from the on-going fightings but worst of all, the tragedy of a presidential plane crash carrying Samora Machel, some of his advisers and ministers and the ambassadors of Zambia and Congo. The presidential plane was Russian-made, the pilot was Russian-trained and on its way from a peace summit, it ran into a night storm, lost its direction and crashed. Maputo mourned its beloved leader, and funeral parades were also held for the ambassadors who lost lives. The death of Samora Machel was investigated, and to this date, no one believes a hundred percent that it was not the working of his enemy, apartheid South Africa.
This was my piece of Africa that lives on. We have visited other countries in Southern Africa especially South Africa, Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Swaziland and Malawi. There are many differences between these nations not only in languages they spoke, but to a great extent, they mirror the influences of the colonising powers that shaped their nationhoods. Today, the Marxist states have succumbed to the lures of the market economy, opened their boundaries to tourism and foreign investments. But, their economies have not taken off. And if one looks at Zimbabwe today, it is in worst condition as when it was a newly-liberated state. In Mozambique, Foreign Minister Chissano became the new president. He remains so up to today, 20 years later. To the gentle Mocambicans I say: " A luta continua!"
We, my family - consisting of two teenage boys and my Swedish diplomat-husband - arrived in Nairobi, Kenya for a week's holiday prior to settling down in Maputo, Mozambique - the new diplomatic assignment. Our first encounter with Africa's wildlife begun in Ambosele Park, - around six hours drive from Nairobi - passing through a vastness of open fields without vegetation except for huge umbrella-shaped trees that punctuated a mirage of sea. On the top branches were hanging bird nests shaped like pouches. There were famous Marabo birds - huge like horses that could run with similar speed, if pursued. One huge egg is equivalent to twelve chicken eggs if scrambled. In Nairobi's park, we saw a snake pit with the world's most dangerous species like the mamba. It was an exciting introduction into the Africa we would embrace for the next five years.
Mozambique's capital is Maputo - known during the Portuguese era, as Lorenzo Marques. After some 400 years of Portuguese colonisation, Mozambique finally got its independence. When we arrived, the Marxist Frelimo liberation army had taken the reigns of government. It had huge problems, an economy in ruins, agriculture was minimal and limited, food was in shortage as everything else, and the government lacked the infrastructure to govern. In short, the Frelimo was learning the big difference between struggling as a liberation army and struggling as a legitimate government. Samora Machel, the charismatic Frelimo leader was the president. His wife was Graca Machel, education minister who later married Nelson Mandela.
The Mocambicans are a gentle people. Very few have education and employment was scarce such that, the diplomatic homes were staffed mostly by men, not women. The majority of the menfolk were contract workers in South African mines, leaving their homes and families to the women. Womenfolk carrying babies on their backs, trekked tens of kilometers to their farms. Mozambique was to become later the third largest Swedish develoment aid recipient, a large part of which went into subsidising its budgetary deficit.
Aside from its charms as a country of many tourism potentials, it lies just beside the Indian ocean, its source of fish and seafoods. But whatever harvests it gets like tiger shrimps, only go to its main ally, then USSR to barter with oil. Even other exportable goods like semi-precious stones go to its Eastern European friends. As a Marxist state, its diplomatic relation was strong with the former communist states, whose representatives in Maputo often liked to show who was " more equal than the others".
Before the Swedish government built its new grandious embassy in Maputo, the old embassy - where my husband held office as ambassador, was housed on the second floor of a fish-smelling apartment. The embassies and residences of big powers like the US, USSR and Great Britain were grander by comparison. Sweden was a butt of diplomatic jokes because it did not know how use its development aid muscle to get a better building. It felt even at this time, that no matter how much aid came to Mozambique, it would continue like Tanzania to be an international aid mendicant.
We went to neighboring Swaziland quite often because my husband was also accredited to the "Queen Elephant Mother" - as the tribal head of state who was mother of the Crown Prince was known. The old king of Swaziland had around 120 wives by the time he died. His heir, the English- educated Crown Prince was crowned king in an extravagant ceremony attended by diplomatic representatives of most countries. First came the tribal coronation, then the Westernised one, complete with open field shows and games. The streets of Swaziland glimmered in black Mercedes Benzes, all flown in to service the foreign guests. The extravaganza could have answered a year's budget without foreign borrowings. Many years after we left, this young king had surpassed his father's number of wives.
Experiencing Africa then, was seeing not only the extreme ends of poverty and disease but encountering victims of the on-going civil war between the Frelimo and its armed opposition, known locally as the "bandidos". Fightings raged in many parts of the country which made travelling by road extremely dangerous. What used to be a leisurely 3-hour drive to Swaziland for our monthly food shopping became impossible because the "bandidos" shot at cars and burned them. Pictures of buses burned with its passengers still inside and others hacked by machete came out in the "Noticias", the only local paper. One afternoon, Maputo was rocked by explosions from bombs that exploded nearby. All embassies went into crisis meetings to carry out a mass evacuation plan. But it was contained and evacuation did not take place. But bombings in small scale took place in many houses believed to be harbouring anti-apartheid guerillas, the African National Congress or ANC. The Pretoria regime had a fantastic intelligence system that was able to locate precisely ANC safehouses.
In the later years in Mozambique, we experienced not only constant fear from the on-going fightings but worst of all, the tragedy of a presidential plane crash carrying Samora Machel, some of his advisers and ministers and the ambassadors of Zambia and Congo. The presidential plane was Russian-made, the pilot was Russian-trained and on its way from a peace summit, it ran into a night storm, lost its direction and crashed. Maputo mourned its beloved leader, and funeral parades were also held for the ambassadors who lost lives. The death of Samora Machel was investigated, and to this date, no one believes a hundred percent that it was not the working of his enemy, apartheid South Africa.
This was my piece of Africa that lives on. We have visited other countries in Southern Africa especially South Africa, Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Swaziland and Malawi. There are many differences between these nations not only in languages they spoke, but to a great extent, they mirror the influences of the colonising powers that shaped their nationhoods. Today, the Marxist states have succumbed to the lures of the market economy, opened their boundaries to tourism and foreign investments. But, their economies have not taken off. And if one looks at Zimbabwe today, it is in worst condition as when it was a newly-liberated state. In Mozambique, Foreign Minister Chissano became the new president. He remains so up to today, 20 years later. To the gentle Mocambicans I say: " A luta continua!"
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