Omuhipiti | Ilha de Moçambique birgit reiter

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Omuhipiti | Ilha de Moçambique birgit reiter

© Birgit Reiter 2011 All photos taken September and October 2010

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Em pleno dia claroVejo-te adormecer na distância,

Ilha de MoçambiqueE faço-te estes verbos

De sal e esquecimento.

In broad daylightI see you drift off to sleep in the distance.

Island of Mozambique,and I write you these verses

of salt and forgetting.

Rui Knopfli, in O País dos Outros, 1959

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It was with these verses that the poet Rui Knopfli began one of the most intense and fertile poetic consecrations of Mozambique Island, a place of myth and mystery, anisland of shelter and of passage, where today lie anchored memories of a past of splendour and the fate of cul-tures and of people who mingled together here, alongside the present of promises that burn on the sails that tirelessly cross the horizon on the trip along the route to the Indies. Long before Knopfli called there and wrote one of the finest anthems known in our lyrical poetry – “A Ilha de Próspero” (“Prospero’s Island”) – this small island had shel-tered and inspired poets. First of all, Camões, who stayed there for two years. More than the written chronicles, the oral tradition claims that Camões was enchanted, not just by the island, but by the spell cast by the Macua women. Another poet for whom this island was his destiny was Tomás António Gonzaga, who was deported to Mozambique Is-land in the 19th century.But the island also generated poets within its fertile womb. Campos e Oliveira, in the 19th century, Orlando Mendes, Alberto de Lacerda, who wrote beautiful evocative texts when he revisited it in the 1960s – “Exílio”. There were poets who were not born on the island, but who sang its praises. Jorge de Sena would do so, four centuries after Camões, in a pilgrimage following in the footsteps of Camões and other heroes. But also Glória de Sant´Anna, one of the most beautiful poetic voices in Moçambique, Virgílio de Lemos, Luís Carlos Patra-quim, Eduardo White, Adelino Timóteo, among others.Why is the former capital of Mozambique – the headquarters of the colonial government was established here in the mid-16th century – on the route of the poets? What secrets does this small island keep? Mozambique Island was an indispensable stopping point in the jour-ney across the Indian Ocean, particularly in the monsoon season. It was a naval base in the epoch of the great journeys. The most visible traces of the presence of peoples and cultures can be witnessed in the urban archaeological heritage, which can still be seen today. Above all, in its sacred majesty. It was the Arabs who put the Island on the mythi-cal map of history, long before the Portuguese, on their route to seek marine supremacy in the Indian Ocean.Mozambique Island did not have the same importance as Sofala as a trading post, since it was just a stop on the gold route. Its value lay in

the port, in the fact that it offered shelter to shipping, whether it was heading north or south, or to India.The Island still today holds the imperceptible charms of a place to be celebrated. Many of its characteristics are not immediately visible, but those who arrive here feel them, just as they inspired so many poets to sing the praises of a sliver of land that is only two kilometres long. In such a small space, even today temples of various cultures coexist side by side, in the cultural synthesis that makes Mozambique Island such a privileged place: churches and mosques share the sparse space of the island with the strong vestiges of the explorers and the navigators who passed through there, or took shelter and waited until the mon-soon rains had passed. Christian, Hindu and Muslim shrines. What people is this that even today still preserves, without desecration, the cemetery of the English? – one may ask, bearing witness to something unprecedented in many parts of the country and of the world. Before all else, one should stress the character of the people, arising from a centuries old tradition. They received seafarers. The island was a port and for centuries it lived with people who came from other hemi-spheres, building an open people and culture, that could put itself in the shoes of others, that accepted outside cultures, that became mul-ticultural and open to the interpenetration of experiences. Among the unique aspects of the island are its monuments and architecture, in which several experiences – the African, the Indian and the Western – are blended. This diversity is an added value for anyone visiting the island. On the route to discover the island, it is worth stressing some places that are a must for visitors. First of all, the Fortress: its sheer size makes it one the most imposing military monuments on the island. The court building, the former Convent of St. Domingos – the first was destroyed by the Dutch. The St. Paul Palace, that was previously the St Francis Xavier College of the Jesuits, built in the 17th century. The Palace, a witness to Indo-Portuguese culture, contains furnish-ings that would be of incalculable value anywhere in the world, and is indisputably one of the island’s most outstanding treasures. It is also worth visiting St. Paul’s Square, the Customs House (built in the 18th century) and the Misericórdia Church which dates from the 16th cen-tury. Alongside the church, the Museum of Sacred Art contains rare and valuable items. Other Churches, such as the Saude or Santo An-

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tónio Churches, have had their periods of splendour, and are buildings that guard within them the history of centuries. But there are also Mus-lim and Hindu places of worships, and the mosques and minarets give a visibility and impressive image to the island. The tiled houses form part of this interesting map. They belonged to people who practiced commerce, foreigners who worked in the trading posts and companies. The port captaincy, that was once an arsenal in the 16th century, was an important building throughout the 19th century, and is worth a visit.Apart from the monuments of the so-called stone city, there is the head-land of the Island, where the majority of the population, mostly poor and black, live, and where the houses are built precariously, many of them made of macúti (palm leaves). The island also surprises us by the way its people, particularly the women, dress. The sacerdotal pose of the Macua women of Mozambique Island is unique. They dress proudly, many of them with their faces covered in m`siro, with silver necklaces, earrings and other adornments, and they sit on the arches and verandas of the houses, staring into the afternoon and shaking off the tedium.Nature has also granted privileges to the Island, Here you can see the dolphins play, unmolested by the population. You can see turtles, whales. These are indeed special attractions for visitors. We could cite others, such as the coral reefs, which are another distinctive landmark of Mozambique Island.Naval carpentry, boat building and repairs, are still undertaken, as they were in the past, on the Island of Prospero and Caliban. In how many other parts of this mythical and mystical coast of the Indian Ocean, or indeed on other coasts which had an influence on the sea routes, can carpentry workshops of this kind still be found intact? We could also speak of underwater archaeology, bringing up treasures that are more than 500 years old. Items of Chinese porcelain from the Ming dynasty that have recently been discovered allow us to predict that other rich spoils from the past can be uncovered at the bottom of the seas that sur-round Mozambique Island.Today the Island is a tourist destination. It boasts of the Omuhipiti Hotel, a former inn that was reopened in late 2001, after it had been thoroughly reshaped. This hotel has brought to the Island the comfort of its 22 rooms and all the requirements of modern life, able to satisfy any visitor in an environment of great tranquillity, in intimate contact

with nature. The museum we mentioned surprises the visitors: “Wasn’t there a war in this country?” – one tourist asked, in a message left in the museum visitors’ book. Why was he surprised? Because of the conserva-tion, despite the war and its consequences. Furthermore, the populous province of Nampula (Mozambique Island is a district in Nampula) is a vigorous region, containing the Nacala Development corridor and all its potential. One should also consider the triangle formed by Mo-zambique Island, Pemba (in Cabo Delgado) and Niassa Province. There is extraordinary potential here, given the natural conditions, but also because this area supports facilities such as the Nacala Corridor, with its multiplier effect, the road, Nacala Port, the military air base, which is now being transformed into an international airport. These facilities provide the support that tourists naturally need if they are to arrive here and to stay.Mozambique Island has, above all, an incalculable cultural value. Here there took place the symbolic meeting between Caliban and Prospe-ro – the dominated and the dominator, in Shakespeare’s symbolism in his play “The Tempest”. The Island belonged and belongs to everyone. Colonised and colonisers left on its ground the seeds of Mozambican identity. We are beginning to purge the ghosts from our view of the past. The island was once an important slave trading post – the Island and nearby Mossuril, on the mainland. It was a starting point in this trade, which also involved the local chiefs. Today this route is cause for knowledge and cultural promotion. At this distance, culture helps re-deem certain phantoms of a past that was not peaceful. If Mozambique Island had no other value, this would be enough to evoke and to visit it – cultures and peoples meeting again at this crossroads of the centuries, in unprecedented complicity between the macúti and the fixed stone buildings, between the maulide dance and the saffron, the m’siro and the silver necklace, the curry and the tufo dance, expressed in Macua, Swahili, Arabic or Portuguese.This Mozambique Island is open to reconciliation between Caliban and Prospero, far from the guilt complexes that once existed. It unites and protects, as a source from which we all flow, the repository of a memory of all that it means to be Mozambican, through a majestic cultural mo-saic.

Nelson Saúte

de madrugada

12 Rua dos Trabalhadores

13market and former public granary (in the back)

14 Rua da Solidariedade

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16 public toilet

17fishermen huts near Grande Mesquita

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19Grande Mesquita

20 Escola Primaria Completa Josina Machel (on the right side)

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22 Praça de Mouzinho de Albuquerque

23Rua dos Heróis

24 Inside Complexo Indico

25Complexo Indico

26 Back of Complexo Indico

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28 Statue of Luis CamÕes

29Casa Branca and the Former French Consulate

de manhâ

32 Capela de Nossa Senhora do Baluarte (and Ilha de Goa on the horizon)

33Fortaleza de Saõ Sebastiaõ

34 Main cistern

35Water collection system of Fortaleza de Saõ Sebastiaõ

36 Christian cemetery

37Baneane crematorium

38 Graffiti I

39Graffiti II

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44 Asian-muslim cemetery

45African-muslim cemetery

46 Ilha Beach and Wharf

47Fortaleza de Saõ Sebastiaõ

48 Preparing the fishernet

49Making nails for the boats

50 Selling mangoes

51... and eating them

52 Macuti Town

53Chapa terminal at Ponta d’Ilha

à tarde

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58 Stone Town

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61Rua dos Trabalhadores

62 Stone Town

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65Football field near the Fortaleza

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68 Rua dos Combatentes

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70 Woman painted with msiro

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74 Hospital de Moçambique, side entrance

75Hall inside Hospital de Moçambique

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80 Igreja da Misericórdia

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84 Arcade in the Avenida de República

85Market and restaurant O Palador

86 Igreja da Nossa Senhora da Saúde

87Igreja de Santo António

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89Inside Igreja de Santo António

90 Park of the Baneane Temple (Hindu)

91Entrance to Baneane Temple

92 Boys playing on the anchor at the entrance of Capitania, the Port Captain’s Office

93Police station

94 Avenida Amilcar Cabral

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fim do dia

98 Sporting Clube

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101Cinema Nina

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103Avenida 25 de Junho

104 Place in front of Hospital de Moçambique

105Hospital de Moçambique

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109Avenida da República

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