June 27

June 25 was Mozambican Independence Day and I joined in the festivities celebrating 34 years of Independence from Portuguese rule. In honor of Mozambican Independence Day this entry will consist of a brief, modern history of Mozambique, because (like all countries) the history of Mozambique has had a profound effect on what it is (and what I experience) today.

Portuguese sailors (motivated by trade potential in the Indian Ocean) landed in the Mozambican port of Sofala (near present-day Beira) in 1505 and controlled most of the East African coast by 1530. African Tribal Wars characterized the next 350 years in Mozambique along with Portuguese trade along the coast (including a booming slave trade during the 19th century). The Portuguese got serious about colonization in the 20th century and began to profit from Mozambique through 1) the proximity of the modern-day port of Maputo to South Africa’s gold mines and 2) the exportation of labor to S. Africa’s gold mines (this was a clever system of exploitation by the Portuguese in which indigenous Mozambicans were forced to work in South Africa and than pay a tax to the Portuguese Colonial Government). Portugal underwent a change in government in 1926 and elected to move away from forced migrant labor to forced labor within Mozambique. The result was high agricultural production and a valuable colony for the Portuguese. During this time Mozambique was also one of the top tourist destinations in Africa – with a seemingly endless amount of beach, and one of the best game reserves in the world in Gorongosa National Park.

In the wake of WWII Colonial Rule in Africa was coming to an end (often through violent struggles for independence). Mozambique was late to the party, but in 1963 the president of Tanzania (Julius Nyerere) convinced a few seperate Mozambican liberation groups to get it together and form a united movement for independence (this would become Frelimo (Front for the Liberation of Mozambique) – the party that continues to lead the Mozambican government today). Frelimo attempted to take Mozambique by force, but 35,000 Portuguese soldiers sent for the purpose of eliminating them hindered the plan. The Mozambicans decided to run, rather than fight, and luckily for them political problems (rather than Frelimo’s activities) in Portugal resulted in negotiations for independence between the Portuguese and the Mozambicans.

In 1975 Frelimo was given leadership of an independent Mozambique without an election, taking over a country of more than 10 million people, a literacy rate of 5% and just 100 doctors (those numbers today are 54% literacy and 600 doctors). With Frelimo in power, a vast majority of the Portuguese deserted the country, taking their skilled labor, money and management proficiency with them – and as a result destroying the economy.

In the first few years of independence Frelimo did some wonderful things socially, but failed miserably economically and ultimately started leaning towards socialism. The western world was not particularly happy with Mozambique’s Marxist policies, and neighboring South Africa and Zimbabwe (Rhodesia at the time) were not thrilled with Mozambique’s independence (both countries were white-dominated at the time). The result was a S. African/Zimbabwean supported destabilization movement in the form of a group called Renamo. Renamo’s only policy was that they were anti-Frelimo. The ensuing war between Frelimo and Renamo is commonly (though somewhat mistakenly thanks to the influence of S. Africa and Zimbabwe) referred to as a civil war; the war took the lives of hundreds of thousands of Mozambicans and lasted until 1992. Since 1992 Mozambique (still under the leadership of Frelimo) has been steadily improving in all possible ways.

Not surprisingly, tourism dropped to nearly nil during the years of war in Mozambique. Travel in the country was far from safe, and hungry soldiers managed to eat most of the wildlife that once made Gorongosa such a popular destination. Tourism in Mozambique is still recovering from the damages of war. Tourism infrastructure is difficult to find outside of a few popular destinations and Gorongosa National Park is currently known more for its lack of wildlife. The natural, undeveloped beauty however is still here.

Peace Corps English teachers arrived in Mozambique in 1998 and worked primarily in the southern part of the country. Since 1998 there have been thirteen classes of Peace Corps Volunteers (my class was lucky number thirteen) consisting in the more recent years of English teachers, health volunteers, biology teachers and chemistry teachers stationed in all ten provinces.

It seems like I have experiences everyday in which I am frustrated/bothered in some way by what I perceive as the backwards way that things are done here in Mozambique. What I oftentimes fail to take into account is that Mozambique as a country is just 34 years old. The reasons behind many of the things that frustrate me here may stem from the relative newness of Mozambique. If we think, for instance, about where the United States was after 34 years of independence it brings us to 1810, on the brink of the War of 1812 (yet another war with our original British colonizers). The history of The United States after 1810 included a bloody civil war, multiple assassinations of the president and policy gems such as slavery, prohibition, and McCarthyism. The point is, that Mozambique has not yet had the chance to learn from a long history (and the mistakes that come with history). Granted 233 years after the birth of the United States we still make plenty of new mistakes, but in general the country is run relatively smoothly. The policies, traditions and notions that make it a challenge for me to live and teach here are the result of this country’s turbulent history and relative newness.

To give an example of the point I am trying to make: Education policy handed down from the National Government dictates students in ninth grade take the following subjects: Portuguese, French, English, biology, chemistry, physics, geography, math, history, and physical education. They have each of these subjects every week at least twice per week. If you are asking (as you should be) if students can learn anything in any one subject when they are taking so many, the answer is no. From my perspective this policy seems to be nothing more than an attempt to catch-up educationally after thirty years of war. Although good in theory, the policy is not working.

Anyway, happy Independence Day (American and Mozambican), it will be a chilly one here in the western highlands of Mozambique. My second trimester ends in two weeks – at which point I hope to embark on some international travel in Southern Africa.


*The history part of this entry was adapted (in part) from Bradt, Mozambique. Phillip Briggs and Danny Edmunds

June 7

It has been a while since I posted anything, but I can explain why. I think that the things that I do here in Mozambique have stopped becoming eventful to me. I have grown used to my life here and nothing that I do seems so out of the ordinary that it can warrant a blog entry. For example, I think I wrote in one of my first entries about defecating in a hole – at this point I that is something that I would not think twice about.

All that being said I suppose I will continue to write things in order to satisfy my friends, my family and most importantly, my mother.

I have been chugging away at school trying in vain (for the most part) to get my students to understand something about chemistry. I decided to start telling them exactly what I am going to put on my tests, but most students still struggle mightily. There are some students that make an effort and actually learn something, and those are the ones that I focus on. I have no qualms about playing favorites – if I did I think I would loose my mind.

Some of my recent travel has included a trip to Manica City (which is in the mountains on the Zimbabwe boarder) to play a basketball game. Manica City is the currently the home of a large population of rich Zimbabweans who have gotten fed up with their own country. As a result it is a very nice little city. You can sit down at a nice restaurant and watch the fancy cars drive by, or walk through neighborhoods full of enormous houses. The income gap here in Africa is enormous – and I have not seen a more clear demonstration of that gap in Mozambique than in Manica City.

I returned on Sunday from a trip to Beira, which is the second biggest city in Mozambique and generally considered to be (by travelers and PCVs, but not by Mozambicans) a very unpleasant place to be. It is dirty, hot, and full of Malaria transmitting mosquitoes. However, I did have the pleasure of seeing a traffic light (we don’t have any in my province), and I got to go to the beach. My fellow PCVs and I took a trip north of Beira that included a 40 km along a terribly maintained dirt road and a short boat ride to a place called Rio Savane. It is a small campsite situated on a peninsula at the confluence of the Rio Savane (Savane River) and the Indian Ocean. There were miles and miles of beautiful beach and not another person to be seen – quite frankly it was one of the coolest places I have ever been. We played games on the beach during the day, and had bonfires on the beach at night- it was a fun weekend for all that were involved.