Prédio Pott

I began with a bolo de arroz (rice cake - not the dry type but an actual cake) and a strong cup of coffee, and then went strolling in the Baixa area of Maputo.

I picked up a newspaper for Portuguese reading practice. The big story was all about the recapture of Mocimboa da Praia, a coastal town in the far north, which has been under insurgent control for around a year. This marks an important step towards regaining stability in Cabo Delgado Province.

I went past the Pott Building (Prédio), built in 1891 for the Consul of Transvaal Province, Gerard Pott. Now it’s in ruins but was once one of the city’s (then known as Lourenço Marques) most important buildings.

At Maputo’s station I was almost hustled into the Museu dos Caminhos de Ferro de Moçambique (Railways of Mozambique) by a guide who introduced himself as first Carlos and later Charles when he realised I was an English speaker. He was keen to share his story. He spent most of the 1980s in Cuba studying to be a doctor, as there used to be strong political cooperation between the two countries and a scholarship programme to train poor Mozambicans in skills the country needed. Later in the decade regime change in Mozambique saw the repatriation of Mozambicans from Cuba, which left some with incomplete studies and an uncertain future. It happened to Mozambicans in various countries undergoing changes around this time, including Germany in 1990. Charles had excellent English, learnt he said from a Canadian girlfriend he had in Cuba. I would like to visit the Railway Museum so I pledged to return another day.

It’s getting quite dark by 5.30pm here in the winter months. As the afternoon drew to a close I found myself on the cathedral steps where a saxophonist started playing various songs. I enjoyed Careless Whisper. A group of young women were practising their catwalk turns as the cathedral concourse has one of the city’s least decrepit stretches of flagstones. In another nook a pair of women in their late teens hung out, one as a chaperone, one excited to meet a nonchalant man in his 20s who would swagger up and then feign disinterest, and all the while the flirty exuberance of youth sparked.