Have the aliens landed? Feeling foreign in Mozambique

Posted on 13 January 2011

While filming “Getaway to Africa’ in northern Mozambique we travelled along a gravel road that seemed to be headed nowhere. As we sped over a rise, we witnessing a site I had never seen before in my life. It looked like a pond of human sized locusts devouring the remnants of a fallen forest.

We stopped our vehicles, and found ourselves locked in a gaze with hundreds of local villagers swooping on fish nurseries with home made baskets, thousands of fingerlings trapped in the shallow flood plains of the Zambezi River. I had never seen such a forceful attempt to gather everything they could, the atmosphere seemed almost desperate. This would probably be their only catch in this area for the season. Cameras rolling we got out of the car and had about 200 people walk towards us and inspect what strange creatures had come to join them on their afternoon harvest.

I suppose most frustrating was not being able to fluently communicate with each other, but I a warm smile and a crash course on what a camera does, turns strangers into friends instantly.

A foreign site yes, but then, if we look back in history they probably wouldn’t have had to do this, as more natural river flows would have been in place and the ebb and flow of a community living in harmony with nature would have provided an altogether different scene. The road we travelled on seemed to act as a giant fish trap and provided a hearty feast for what was certainly an overpopulated region. The history of war in Mozambique has in many areas decimated natural wildlife, to the point that until very recently if you sat quietly, you would hardly hear a bird or a bug chirp. The impact of technology, agriculture and war in Africa has left a legacy of varying consequences.

A huge divide was clearly evident between our crew and the native people. How could we be so vastly different in every part of our existence and occupy the same space, if only for a moment. The locals are battling to survive as overpopulation continues and modern man seems to have thrown every natural system off kilter. Perhaps it is another species that should occupy this place somewhere in the middle, an alien perhaps? Who knows? The reality is, we will all have to move to that common ground sooner or later to see rural communities and cities prosper with the limited resources available to us.

In the meanwhile this divide, this cultural disparity makes for damn interesting travel and interaction. Solutions in Africa are very slow in taking shape, as travellers we are the eyes and the ears of what truly is happening, and with it perhaps a sense of responsibility to see things working better in the future.
 






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