presents:
SIX STORIES FROM MOZAMBIQUE
© 1998 RADIO BRIDGE OVERSEAS TRUST
On the way to the
market
Boarding the ferry to Maputo from the Catembe pier
"Bargaining
at a market is an acquired skill, I thought to myself, as my
colleague bought a shirt similar to that I had purchased the
previous day for twice the amount."
RBO-reporter
Fortune Ncube from Zimbabwe & his Mocambican colleague
Emmanuel Camillo
on a market spree in Maputo
This is Maputo's
"Mercado Municipale", the official one tourists get to
know
Potentially rich
Mozambique is still trying to get back on its feet. Until that
time, its system of informal markets will remain as an important
means of survival for many.
Camillo: "This
market is called Straala, straala means star market. It started
mysteriously. Somebody started selling things and another one
joined in, after that the number increased to ten, eleven, twelve
- up to fifty and since the market is in the middle of the city,
the city council was not happy and they tried to chase away the
people who were selling here and I think it was impossible to put
it down. The police came here, people ran away and after that
they called it Dumbanenge, dumbanenge meaning you have to rely on
your feet because when the police comes you have to run and you
have to be careful."
Fortune: "Music
cassettes, wines and beers. Second hand clothes, fresh produce,
farm implements and electronic goods of a wide variety. Jobs are
hard to come by in the country because the war ravaged economy
will take time to repair. More than 15 years of civil war was
enough beating on the economy that formal private sector
investment only started trickling in recently. But in the
meantime, the national trade depends, to a large extent, on
mainly imported goods.
...except for
locally produced meals
Listen / STORY 6 - / 03'10"
"How people provide for themselves -The Straala Market in
Maputo"
The local authorities have stopped
chasing the marketeers away because selling is their only life
line. They have been advised to set up infrastructures for these
markets. In the meantime, its business as usual at Straala market,
as usual as can be under such circumstances.
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MORE MOZAMBIQUE STORIES
THE RBO PRODUCTION
TEAM:
Research & Interviews in Mozambique:
Victor Desajado, Emmanuel
Camillo, Fortune Ncube, Klaus Juergen Schmidt
Scripts:
Victor Desajado,
Fortune Ncube, Klaus Juergen Schmidt
RBO-Interns attached
to research at Cahora Bassa:
Holger Bock, Olaf
Krems, Morris Nyakudya
Presenter:
Victor Desajado,
Fortune Ncube, Dadirayi Chigoya, Shorai Kariwa
Translation in
Mozambique:
Victor Desajado,
Emmanuel Camillo, Lucia Rodriguez, Christina Maria Patricio
Technical Supervision
at RBO studio:
Norbert Irmer &
Nenad Kuzmic
Administration &
Logistics:
Jennifer Chiriga
& Dadiray Chigoya
Managing Editor &
Director:
Klaus Juergen
Schmidt