Lourenço Marques

My quest to understand Southern Africa continues, this time moving toward the Indian Ocean and Portuguese East Africa. Specially, Mozambique and its former capital, Lourenço Marques (now Maputo).

This is a video/travelogue I found recently and randomly on YouTube. The phrase "lost world" keeps bubbling up into my mind--but then again, I'm sure black Africans and others might perceive it differently.

Nonetheless, white Africans were part of the geographical and cultural landscape in Mozambique for close to 500 years, no small timeframe. And then when Portuguese rule came to an abrupt end in 1975, something like 250,000 to 500,000 Portuguese Mozambicans vacated the premises in a matter of weeks, some heading back to Portugal, some to South Africa, some to Brazil, some to parts unknown.

That makes me a little sad. Again, the whole lost world thing, coupled with a frustration with those who left, who gave up, and let an independent Mozambique fend for itself.

Loss you say. Black Africans lost a lot before, during, and after Portuguese rule. Do I feel less for them? No, not necessarily. Maybe it's that the Portuguese loss is better documented. Maybe I can relate better to the "Western" world exemplified by the Portuguese. And, alas, maybe I'm just an insensitive, racist jerk.

Still, I find I want to read more, see more, learn more about these worlds, past and present. I should really pursue that history master's again, although that seems like a dry way to approach what is essentially a wistful wanderlust, more romantic than scholastic. More about my yearning to travel, explore, communicate, than my desire to rummage through old records and conduct interviews.

Maybe I'm too much of an ineffectual, intellectual lightweight, cursing to be clever, but, feh, I've grown more comfortable with that over time. Essentially, I just wish I could explore some, travel more, live larger.

As I jog through my 50s, here's hoping I'll make more strides toward those life goals. Here's hoping someday ill know what I want to be when I grow up and will actually get to be it.

"Lourenço Marques . . . ." It's the "Rosebud" of its own time and place, with fewer Freudian connotations I would imagine.