Backchat

I have blipped Vila Algarve some years ago but it’s a sobering monument in Maputo that merits another post. Confiscated as a residence and used by the Portuguese police during the colonial period as a centre for interrogation and torture, it has been derelict for as long as I’ve been coming to Maputo. It would be phenomenally important and interesting as a museum so I hope one day the city government can complete its ambition to convert it into a national memorial.

I had to leave Maputo mid-afternoon to start the journey back to Tanzania, and I had to transit in Johannesburg for some hours. I nestled in a café and wolfed down a cheesecake. I thought of my nan, who always used to warn me that I was ‘going to be sick’ if I ate too fast. I remember my backchat that I would cross that bridge when the time came. A position I still stand by.