Pemba, Mozambique

From Porto Amélia to the Shelter Port of Mozambique


sand happiness
Young girl from Pemba, sprinkled with sand, on Wimbe beach.
Shoots - Defends
Two boys entertain themselves with shots and saves on a still wet sand in Pemba.
low tide
Residents of Paquitequete walk at low tide off the bay of Pemba.
martial stunts
Boys practice stunts on a Pemba seafront.
Machel Machel
Statue of Samora Machel, the first president of Mozambique, in the Pemba Library.
One and a half meter octopus
Casal de Pemba displays an octopus just collected from fishermen in canoes.
vegetable peace
Client sitting on a small improvised terrace on top of a huge baobab tree.
Baobabs or Baobabs
Silhouettes of Pemba baobab trees on the banks of the Mozambique Channel.
Wimbe Football
Young men from Pemba play soccer on the sandy beach of Wimbe.
Mary Help of Christians
A passerby passes in front of the Church of Mary Help of Christians, in the upper town of Pemba.
Mother & Daughters
Mother and daughters from Pernambuco on the beach in Wimbe.
Aqswa Mosque
A resident of the Paquitequete neighborhood walks in front of the Awswa mosque.
Sand Fashion
Kids flour sand to impress photographers passing by on Wimbe beach.
golden fun
Kids flour sand to impress photographers passing by on Wimbe beach.
communal baths
Kids ecstatic for the bathing fun on Wimbe de Pemba beach.
Islamic architecture
Nook with Muslim architecture of the Aqswa mosque in Paquitequete.
Paquitequete. or paquite
The fishing district of Paquite seen from the upper city of Pemba.
back to the coast
Fishermen return from the Mozambique Channel to the outskirts of Paquitequete.
Attack Trio
Players from one of the teams about to face off on Paquitequete's naked.
In the Wind of the Channel
Small dhow sails towards the neighborhood of Paquitequete, on the coast of Pemba.
In July 2017, we visited Pemba. Two months later, the first attack took place on Mocímboa da Praia. Nor then do we dare to imagine that the tropical and sunny capital of Cabo Delgado would become the salvation of thousands of Mozambicans fleeing a terrifying jihadism.

We are in the middle of the dry season in Mozambique.

We wake up with another daya radiant. Clouds, just a cumulus caravan and stratocumulus devoid of moisture and whitening the sunny winter of this eastern African.

We walk along Marginal Avenue, through the north of the peninsula where Pemba sprawls.

The road curves under a sharp vertex of the coast, below a reef in the Mozambique Channel which there made the sea shallow and sandy.

We stop at the top of a rocky cliff. At that very moment, a group of fishermen lead their colorful canoes to the beach.

There, another party awaits them, equipped with buckets and bowls, receptacles for the fish and octopuses that the fishermen bring on board.

They are women in head scarves, with folkloric capulanas from the waist down.

There are also some young people in costumes with a little traditional, football team shirts, matching shorts and flip-flops.

That fishing transaction takes place on a daily basis so there is little to discuss. In a flash, buyers put the buckets and bowls on their heads and disappear into the heart of their lives.

Sellers take canoes to anchor on the other side of the bay.

We readjusted our gaze to a beach that the low tide was still discovering and that the sun was golden whenever it fell on it.

There, two boys competed in a match from goal to goal with a Champions final delivery.

Onward, a few small dhows glide over the emerald water, with a course similar to that of canoes.

We went down to the foot of the cliff. We found that, after all, a few buyers remained in its shadow.

A young mother with a sleeping baby on her chest.

And a man at her side who, to our amazement, unfurls an octopus with tentacles from head to toe.

We realized that fishing had not arrived for everyone.

In addition to this couple, three young people chirped, remelted. Intrigued as to where the muzugos, arrest them with shy smiles. They make it clear to us that they expected other fishermen to come ashore.

We returned to the top determined to extend the panoramic privilege. In the meantime, the traffic of pedestrians and boats crossing the shallow waters had increased.

Pemba, Mozambique, Capital of Cabo Delgado, from Porto Amélia to Porto de Abrigo, Paquitequete

Fishermen and boats in the section of Pemba inlet near Paquitequete.

More canoes and tiny dhows converged on the same natural anchorage, organized in front of the first wave of houses and coconut trees in the neighborhood of Paquitequete.

There we proceeded to discover Pemba.

It's Friday. About ten in the morning, the heat gets tight.

Even so, as soon as we reach the naked in the heart of the village we come face to face with three players fully equipped with the colors of their team: yellow jersey, bright purple shorts.

They prepare for a kind of local derby. The photographic time they allow us is short and does not entitle us to discounts.

More players arrive, some from the same team, others rivals, in any case, blessed by the Aqswa mosque that, behind them all, juts out above the houses.

The residents of Paquite, as the neighborhood is treated in order to shorten the hassle of calling it by its full name, are mostly Muslims.

As is the population of Pemba in general, without prejudice to the diocese and Catholic churches in the administrative heart of the capital of Cabo Delgado.

The area of ​​Pemba was already Muslim, counting more than half a millennium at the time of the pioneer passage of Vasco da Gama around these parts, in 1492, it is said that by islands of the Quirimbas archipelago.

She was a Muslim, with a strong Swahili influence and a speaker of the Kimuani dialect that almost half a millennium of Portuguese colonization never made disappear.

After all this time, the mosque of Paquite, Pemba and the people of northern Cabo Delgado find themselves afflicted with a jihadist madness (poorly) disguised as an Islamic faith.

Explanations from experts on African affairs say the problem began after Muslim leaders were radicalized by the teachings of the Salafi current, which is vigorous in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.

Now, Salafism and its teachings are contrary to Christianity, animism, Western values ​​and even a more balanced Islam.

It worsened after their return, when armed rebels instigated by them, invaded traditional mosques and threatened to kill believers if they did not adhere to the radical ideals they defend.

These insurgents faced resistance from moderate muftis and the general population to accept a Muslim faith and life subjected to Salafism.

At some point in this insurgent process, the Ansar al-Sunna (Supporters of Tradition), a dissident faction, made its way in the region.

It was joined by elements that call themselves ISIS representatives, estimated to be Somalis, Tanzanians, Ugandans, Congolese and others.

As a practical terrorist result, since October 2017, attacks on police stations and other state entities, on indiscriminate churches, villages and towns have been repeated, increasingly destructive and bloodthirsty attacks.

They took place first in the city of Mocímboa da Praia and surrounding villages. Despite occasional and poorly coordinated military responses from the Mozambican police and armed forces, reinforced by others from South African and Russian private companies, the territory controlled by the dissidents has increased.

On March 24, 2021, Palma suffered the most devastating of attacks. This brutal attack caused an as-yet-to-be-determined number of victims, some foreigners. He left decapitated corpses in the streets, to be eaten by animals.

The attack on Palma put a brake on natural gas extraction operations from the offshore Rovuma field. It generated a new influx of refugees who tried to reach Pemba by all means.

At this time, Mozambican authorities closed mosques that they considered radicalized. Others remained open and moderate.

They contributed to the reception of around 700 refugees who continue to flock to Pemba by all means.

On foot, some after walking more than 100km with children and a few belongings on their backs. And disembarking from canoes, dhows and other overcrowded boats on the surrounding beaches.

The churches in the upper town of Pemba are now also covered reception centres, in the heart of improvised tent fields that increase day by day and reinforce the notion that, like the boats, Pemba has also exceeded its limits. .

Which is not surprising considering that, in normal times, the city is home to only 140 Mozambicans.

It is still hard for us to believe – let alone to understand and internalize – the whole atrocious scenario that we learned about from the successive bad news.

In July 2017, when, following Paquite, we ascended to discover the upper city, nothing in Pemba allowed us to imagine its current reality.

Under the dry heat intensified by the almost-sharp sun, we found that section of Pemba, overlooking Paquite, almost deserted, with a more than tranquil, sedative atmosphere.

The Maria Auxiliadora church remained closed, with no sign of the faithful, with a brownish façade outlining the blue sky.

One or another passerby passed in front of the Cathedral of São Paulo, without haste.

The provincial library was given over to the insinuating statue of Machel Machel, Marxist precursor and first president of the independence of Mozambique.

In the Pemba successor of colonial Porto Amélia, still full of Portuguese architectural and administrative legacy, only the sector surrounding Rua Comércio, adjacent to the port from which the goods (and now thousands of refugees) arrived, clashed with the apathy prevailing at the height of the city. .

Today, unlike then, victims of the economic collapse that accompanies the Covid 19 pandemic and the refugee crisis, shop owners say it makes less and less sense to keep them open.

Let's go back to the context why we traveled through the lands of Cabo Delgado, on the eve of the disgrace that would come.

In the afternoon, we walk along the Avenida Marginal in the opposite direction. We had lunch at a Pieter's Place.

Then, we walked along the immediate beach, to and fro, in search of the majestic baobab trees that insinuate themselves into the Mozambique Channel, as if beckoning to our Malagasy neighbors.

At sunset, we arrived at Wimbe beach.

The vast, white sand and the translucent waters of this seductive coastline made it the ultimate bathing resort in Pemba.

Luckily for a community of tourism entrepreneurs and the dissatisfaction of most of the people from Pernambuco who complain that, due to the fame of the beach, the cost of living in the city has become unaffordable.

At that time none of that mattered.

Wimbe was given over to the youthful frenzy that always precedes sunset here.

Teenagers competed in a fierce soccer match with the resident coconut forest as the estimated boundary of the field.

Others, younger, shared a long bathing ecstasy, diving and splashing in the waves that the cove's rounded gentle made.

Two or three of these bathers notice that we walk around with a camera.

"Look here, muzungo, look at us! “Thus, they guarantee our attention. In a flash, they flour and gild themselves with sand, like improvised mossiro masks.

In another, they generate a smiling human pile that almost slips through the lenses inside.

In July 2017, Pemba lived all this happiness and much more.

May God, whether Muslim, Christian or of any other faith, spare you.

NP Gorongosa, Mozambique

The Wild Heart of Mozambique shows Signs of Life

Gorongosa was home to one of the most exuberant ecosystems in Africa, but from 1980 to 1992 it succumbed to the Civil War waged between FRELIMO and RENAMO. Greg Carr, Voice Mail's millionaire inventor received a message from the Mozambican ambassador to the UN challenging him to support Mozambique. For the good of the country and humanity, Carr pledged to resurrect the stunning national park that the Portuguese colonial government had created there.
Enxame Mozambique

Mozambican Fashion Service Area

It is repeated at almost all stops in towns of Mozambique worthy of appearing on maps. The machimbombo (bus) stops and is surrounded by a crowd of eager "businessmen". The products offered can be universal such as water or biscuits or typical of the area. In this region, a few kilometers from Nampula, fruit sales suceeded, in each and every case, quite intense.
Ilha de Mozambique, Mozambique  

The Island of Ali Musa Bin Bique. Pardon... of Mozambique

With the arrival of Vasco da Gama in the extreme south-east of Africa, the Portuguese took over an island that had previously been ruled by an Arab emir, who ended up misrepresenting the name. The emir lost his territory and office. Mozambique - the molded name - remains on the resplendent island where it all began and also baptized the nation that Portuguese colonization ended up forming.
Ibo Island, Mozambique

Island of a Gone Mozambique

It was fortified in 1791 by the Portuguese who expelled the Arabs from the Quirimbas and seized their trade routes. It became the 2nd Portuguese outpost on the east coast of Africa and later the capital of the province of Cabo Delgado, Mozambique. With the end of the slave trade at the turn of the XNUMXth century and the passage from the capital to Porto Amélia, Ibo Island found itself in the fascinating backwater in which it is located.
bazaruto, Mozambique

The Inverted Mirage of Mozambique

Just 30km off the East African coast, an unlikely but imposing erg rises out of the translucent sea. Bazaruto it houses landscapes and people who have lived apart for a long time. Whoever lands on this lush, sandy island soon finds himself in a storm of awe.
Ibo Island a Quirimba IslandMozambique

Ibo to Quirimba with the Tide

For centuries, the natives have traveled in and out of the mangrove between the island of Ibo and Quirimba, in the time that the overwhelming return trip from the Indian Ocean grants them. Discovering the region, intrigued by the eccentricity of the route, we follow its amphibious steps.
Fianarantsoa, Madagascar

The Malagasy City of Good Education

Fianarantsoa was founded in 1831 by Ranavalona Iª, a queen of the then predominant Merina ethnic group. Ranavalona Iª was seen by European contemporaries as isolationist, tyrant and cruel. The monarch's reputation aside, when we enter it, its old southern capital remains as the academic, intellectual and religious center of Madagascar.
Morondava, Avenue of Baobabs, Madagascar

The Malagasy Way to Dazzle

Out of nowhere, a colony of baobab trees 30 meters high and 800 years old flanks a section of the clayey and ocher road parallel to the Mozambique Channel and the fishing coast of Morondava. The natives consider these colossal trees the mothers of their forest. Travelers venerate them as a kind of initiatory corridor.
Fianarantsoa-Manakara, Madagascar

On board the Malagasy TGV

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Zanzibar, Tanzania

The African Spice Islands

Vasco da Gama opened the Indian Ocean to the Portuguese empire. In the XNUMXth century, the Zanzibar archipelago became the largest producer of cloves and the available spices diversified, as did the people who disputed them.
Lion, Elephants, PN Hwange, Zimbabwe
Safari
PN Hwange, Zimbabwe

The Legacy of the Late Cecil Lion

On July 1, 2015, Walter Palmer, a dentist and trophy hunter from Minnesota killed Cecil, Zimbabwe's most famous lion. The slaughter generated a viral wave of outrage. As we saw in PN Hwange, nearly two years later, Cecil's descendants thrive.
Muktinath to Kagbeni, Annapurna Circuit, Nepal, Kagbeni
Annapurna (circuit)
Annapurna Circuit 14th - Muktinath to Kagbeni, Nepal

On the Other Side of the Pass

After the demanding crossing of Thorong La, we recover in the cozy village of Muktinath. The next morning we proceed back to lower altitudes. On the way to the ancient kingdom of Upper Mustang and the village of Kagbeni that serves as its gateway.
Visitors at Talisay Ruins, Negros Island, Philippines
Architecture & Design
Talisay City, Philippines

Monument to a Luso-Philippine Love

At the end of the 11th century, Mariano Lacson, a Filipino farmer, and Maria Braga, a Portuguese woman from Macau, fell in love and got married. During the pregnancy of what would be her 2th child, Maria succumbed to a fall. Destroyed, Mariano built a mansion in his honor. In the midst of World War II, the mansion was set on fire, but the elegant ruins that endured perpetuate their tragic relationship.
lagoons and fumaroles, volcanoes, PN tongariro, new zealand
Adventure
Tongariro, New Zealand

The Volcanoes of All Discords

In the late XNUMXth century, an indigenous chief ceded the PN Tongariro volcanoes to the British crown. Today, a significant part of the Maori people claim their mountains of fire from European settlers.
The Crucifixion in Helsinki
Ceremonies and Festivities
Helsinki, Finland

A Frigid-Scholarly Via Crucis

When Holy Week arrives, Helsinki shows its belief. Despite the freezing cold, little dressed actors star in a sophisticated re-enactment of Via Crucis through streets full of spectators.
4th of July Fireworks-Seward, Alaska, United States
Cities
Seward, Alaska

The Longest 4th of July

The independence of the United States is celebrated, in Seward, Alaska, in a modest way. Even so, the 4th of July and its celebration seem to have no end.
Meal
Margilan, Uzbekistan

An Uzbekistan's Breadwinner

In one of the many bakeries in Margilan, worn out by the intense heat of the tandyr oven, the baker Maruf'Jon works half-baked like the distinctive traditional breads sold throughout Uzbekistan
Newar celebration, Bhaktapur, Nepal
Culture
Bhaktapur, Nepal

The Nepalese Masks of Life

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Spectator, Melbourne Cricket Ground-Rules footbal, Melbourne, Australia
Sport
Melbourne, Australia

The Football the Australians Rule

Although played since 1841, Australian Football has only conquered part of the big island. Internationalization has never gone beyond paper, held back by competition from rugby and classical football.
Alaska, by Homer in Search of Whittier
Traveling
Homer a Whittier, Alaska

In Search of the Stealth Whittier

We leave Homer in search of Whittier, a refuge built in World War II and housing two hundred or so people, almost all in a single building.
Navala, Viti Levu, Fiji
Ethnic
Navala, Fiji

Fiji's Tribal Urbanism

Fiji has adapted to the invasion of travelers with westernized hotels and resorts. But in the highlands of Viti Levu, Navala keeps its huts carefully aligned.
Portfolio, Got2Globe, Best Images, Photography, Images, Cleopatra, Dioscorides, Delos, Greece
Got2Globe Photo Portfolio
Got2Globe Portfolio

The Earthly and the Celestial

Frederikstad-Saint-Croix-American-Virgin-Islands-Freedom
History
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The Emancipation City of the Danish West Indies

If Christiansted established itself as the capital and main commercial center of the island of Saint Croix, the “sister” of the leeward side, Frederiksted had its civilizational apogee when there was the revolt and subsequent liberation of the slaves that ensured the colony's prosperity.
Cargo Cabo Santa Maria, Boa Vista Island, Cape Verde, Sal, Evoking the Sahara
Islands
Boa Vista Island, Cape Verde

Boa Vista Island: Atlantic waves, Dunas do Sara

Boa Vista is not only the Cape Verdean island closest to the African coast and its vast desert. After a few hours of discovery, it convinces us that it is a piece of the Sahara adrift in the North Atlantic.
Northern Lights, Laponia, Rovaniemi, Finland, Fire Fox
Winter White
Lapland, Finland

In Search of the Fire Fox

Unique to the heights of the Earth are the northern or southern auroras, light phenomena generated by solar explosions. You Sami natives from Lapland they believed it to be a fiery fox that spread sparkles in the sky. Whatever they are, not even the nearly 30 degrees below zero that were felt in the far north of Finland could deter us from admiring them.
Visitors to Ernest Hemingway's Home, Key West, Florida, United States
Literature
Key West, United States

Hemingway's Caribbean Playground

Effusive as ever, Ernest Hemingway called Key West "the best place I've ever been...". In the tropical depths of the contiguous US, he found evasion and crazy, drunken fun. And the inspiration to write with intensity to match.
Argentinean flag on the Perito Moreno-Argentina lake-glacier
Nature
Perito Moreno Glacier, Argentina

The Resisting Glacier

Warming is supposedly global, but not everywhere. In Patagonia, some rivers of ice resist. From time to time, the advance of the Perito Moreno causes landslides that bring Argentina to a halt.
Mother Armenia Statue, Yerevan, Armenia
Autumn
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A Capital between East and West

Heiress of the Soviet civilization, aligned with the great Russia, Armenia allows itself to be seduced by the most democratic and sophisticated ways of Western Europe. In recent times, the two worlds have collided in the streets of your capital. From popular and political dispute, Yerevan will dictate the new course of the nation.
Dominican Republic, Bahia de Las Águilas Beach, Pedernales. Jaragua National Park, Beach
Natural Parks
Lagoa Oviedo a Bahia de las Águilas, Dominican Republic

In Search of the Immaculate Dominican Beach

Against all odds, one of the most unspoiled Dominican coastlines is also one of the most remote. Discovering the province of Pedernales, we are dazzled by the semi-desert Jaragua National Park and the Caribbean purity of Bahia de las Águilas.
Okavango Delta, Not all rivers reach the sea, Mokoros
UNESCO World Heritage
Okavango Delta, Botswana

Not all rivers reach the sea

Third longest river in southern Africa, the Okavango rises in the Angolan Bié plateau and runs 1600km to the southeast. It gets lost in the Kalahari Desert where it irrigates a dazzling wetland teeming with wildlife.
In elevator kimono, Osaka, Japan
Characters
Osaka, Japan

In the Company of Mayu

Japanese nightlife is a multi-faceted, multi-billion business. In Osaka, an enigmatic couchsurfing hostess welcomes us, somewhere between the geisha and the luxury escort.
The Dominican Republic Balnear de Barahona, Balneario Los Patos
Beaches
Barahona, Dominican Republic

The Bathing Dominican Republic of Barahona

Saturday after Saturday, the southwest corner of the Dominican Republic goes into decompression mode. Little by little, its seductive beaches and lagoons welcome a tide of euphoric people who indulge in a peculiar rumbear amphibian.
Sanahin Cable Car, Armenia
Religion
Alaverdi, Armenia

A Cable Car Called Ensejo

The top of the Debed River Gorge hides the Armenian monasteries of Sanahin and Haghpat and terraced Soviet apartment blocks. Its bottom houses the copper mine and smelter that sustains the city. Connecting these two worlds is a providential suspended cabin in which the people of Alaverdi count on traveling in the company of God.
Flam Railway composition below a waterfall, Norway.
On Rails
Nesbyen to Flam, Norway

Flam Railway: Sublime Norway from the First to the Last Station

By road and aboard the Flam Railway, on one of the steepest railway routes in the world, we reach Flam and the entrance to the Sognefjord, the largest, deepest and most revered of the Scandinavian fjords. From the starting point to the last station, this monumental Norway that we have unveiled is confirmed.
Society
Markets

A Market Economy

The law of supply and demand dictates their proliferation. Generic or specific, covered or open air, these spaces dedicated to buying, selling and exchanging are expressions of life and financial health.
Ditching, Alaska Fashion Life, Talkeetna
Daily life
Talkeetna, Alaska

Talkeetna's Alaska-Style Life

Once a mere mining outpost, Talkeetna rejuvenated in 1950 to serve Mt. McKinley climbers. The town is by far the most alternative and most captivating town between Anchorage and Fairbanks.
Bather rescue in Boucan Canot, Reunion Island
Wildlife
Reunion Island

The Bathing Melodrama of Reunion

Not all tropical coastlines are pleasurable and refreshing retreats. Beaten by violent surf, undermined by treacherous currents and, worse, the scene of the most frequent shark attacks on the face of the Earth, that of the Reunion Island he fails to grant his bathers the peace and delight they crave from him.
Full Dog Mushing
Scenic Flights
Seward, Alaska

The Alaskan Dog Mushing Summer

It's almost 30 degrees and the glaciers are melting. In Alaska, entrepreneurs have little time to get rich. Until the end of August, dog mushing cannot stop.
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