Ilha de Moçambique

Ilha de Moçambique appears to be the exact opposite of what you think it might be. Only three or four kilometers long, maybe a kilometer wide. It is so tiny, that you can sometimes see both shores on the street ends.  It makes you believe that it is approachable and easy to get acquainted with. The more you think you know it, the lesser the knowledge that the island actually wishes to share with you. There are tourists, newcomers and those who pass by. They are welcomed, don’t get me wrong, but there will be no mating dance for you.  Should you not be skilled in speaking Portugese, this shall be your problem, you English speaking brother. You want to talk, learn the language, sister. Just when you think you are a true local, you know all about Africa and you are ready to publish your memoir full of participatory observations* something or someone will remind you that you are merely a stranger here.

In my dorm room, right in the middle of the oldest part of the Stone Town** the old frescoes on the wall are indicating that a noble person used to be a host here long time ago. The neighbour, jolly Bruno, a true Roman in Ilha de Mozambique, welcomes you in his fancy outfit and knee long socks (his age demands a little dose of eccentric clothing behaviour).  He believes that Vasco Da Gama used to live in this street, maybe even in this house. Bruno hosts the island most famous and exquisite breakfasts. Candied pears, porcelain, home made bread, scones, marmalades, garden rucola, lemon grass tea and Portugese ham. All in the cool and table clothed entourage of his beautiful villa. Downstairs a local celebrity – Harry Potter (let’s say that really is his name, for island’s sake) may collect his guests and show them around the island. When he walks the streets of Makuti Town*** kids are shouting his name as if he was an Ilha God. Harry ex Machina. I heard about the legend of this tour guide polyglot with wild passion for his island, cooking and people, from a fellow traveller Daniel (who I met in Paje, where else). I asked around by the bar (where else) and HE Himself found me on the streets the next day. There is the Lady That Always Cheeky Smiles at The Bottle Store. There is a chatty guard on the square next to the local Museum. Museum is the old governor’s house. The Swahili architecture, the Arab traders, the Indian and Chinese merchants – you can see it all out there. Chinese porcelain, ebony from Goa, Swahili carvings and the indiscreet presence of the Portugese colonial order. Even the altar mascarones look like they have just had a piped party in the marine orient express. There is an unguarded fort, and nobody inside to tell you the story of the fortified past. There is a beach front with houses occupied by trees. There is a jetty with small caffe. Jetty gets busy around sundown. If the ocean is quiet there will be jumps and swimming. There is a lot of hanging out, school kids noises, boat hassle, street art (lovely Hollywood sign in Makuti), barbers, tailors, street vendors, Chinese medicine man, mosques, churches and Hindu temple. Everything goes really slow, but the island keeps on breathing. Places like that are best left unphotographed. Only remembered or imagined. I've always found presence of the camera in anyone's household or everyday surroundings offensive and intrusive. And so you are left with photographs of empty spaces or distant scenes.

 What is this island about? I don’t know. I just walk the streets like a proper tourist. 

I am starting to believe that there is a great knowledge in the things you’d never discover, even greater order in the chaos of street labyrinths, grandeur in the ruins of the fallen cities and communal memory to events and heroes forgotten by the history.

*Anthropological joke -  almost as unfunny as the jokes of architects

**Northern part of the island, predominantly a remain of Portugese settlement

***Southern, or, simply – ‘the other’ part of Ilha, a city within city. The kingdom of locals. Settlement here takes predominantly from local building materials – beach rock, mangroves, clay, coconut tree.