Ok, less romance. Ilha de Mozambique. Worth the trip.
It 's the old capital of the country.
Disgraced after decolonization, now reborn through tourism.
get there by land is easy, a few hours of jeeps ('s not random, always at least 2 machines in Africa. Autogrill and SOS are not covered) and you come to a bridge to one lane. Nothing serious, is the only access to the island (Ilha).
becomes more serious when one considers that the bridge is 3 kilometers long and that the cars must travel to reach the synchronized platforms placed at regular intervals that allow you to pull over and pass those coming in the opposite direction. If we are wrong, are worthy of hours of scripted comedy Neapolitan of the good times.
If the guard who gives the signal for departure had been right, if you traveled at the speed right and if they let you get to the exit, pay the entrance fee and take the only road leading to the white part of ' island. To the right and the left is the world.
Let's figure out what happened on the island. The road was eventually transformed into an elevated because the island is made in two areas: not being able to carry the materials from the mainland, to the sides of the road is carved limestone (Ex corals, probably) to make the bricks of the houses of white settlers. Dig dig, you have passed the three-meter and in that space did the black part of the island, the village is in the basement and on the road that leads to the Portuguese.
There are beautiful buildings, ruined and occupied for decades. Neglect not typical of local remove the magnificence, the island should be wonderful if you were white and armed. There
find delightful small hotels is a joke, some run by Italian chefs and often do not look out of place in any city.
Yet the buildings are not very many, lack of matter.
Matter found the going a bit 'below, you can not not to see: Fortaleza Sao Sebastiao is tough, imposing, half-island is within its walls. Go through the ramparts, the parade, visit the stands, water tanks. You will also see the Chapel of Nossa Senhora de Baluarte, considered the oldest building in equatorial Africa where it is buried the first bishop of Japan (yes, the Portuguese and with them the Jesuits to go to Japan, made stopovers in Mozambique, that could explain why it is said katana knife in Mozambique).
Then you'll see two things that make your hair stand on his head.
One is a deep pit 3 to 4 feet long and ten. Historical digression: the Portuguese, took the place of the Arabs in 1500, but the waters were infested by pirates, and not Islamic.
Piracy was not seen very well and hunts the robbers were taking place with regular frequency. Not that the Pirates were the shins of a saint, but if you take them alive, throwing them into the pit. Rain, sun (two years ago touched the 56 degrees), little food and were provided with sofraffollamento transform men into a zombie, who slaughtered animals for the waste that the soldiers hurled. Those who survived, was extracted after a 6 - 12 months when he was a judge in Portugal, considered pro forma, led behind the fortress, shot in a kind of theater, an ancient substitute for television and threw into the sea that sharks must live. Amen.
The second thing is a picture of opening: what you see on the bottom is the remains of a jetty at high tide when the vessel docked. On that pier have passed thousands of slaves.
Ehhh yeah, here is revealed the mystery: Ilha de Mozambique was an isolated station, where he concentrated the free labor of the Portuguese empire. Arab slave traders and Bantu, yes, slavery was common among blacks, bring their goods and, when they were loaded on ships, they, too, received as compensation the Pearl of Africa : glass beads, today sought souvenirs were the currency of exchange. Glass against life, an idea of \u200b\u200bthe value.
No, much of Africa is not a country of compromise. Beauty, violence, elegance and ferocity have been and are to this day no half measures. We must always keep him in the head, when it comes to that land.
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