Mozying Around Mozambique
Mozambique has the slowest pace of any place I’ve ever been to. I realized why. There you have a combination of African and Latin culture. In both cases, time is a precious delicacy to be enjoyed and savored, not fast food to be devoured. Time moves so slowly here it doesn’t seem to exist at all. I meant to spend 5 days here and I am now on my ninth day and I’m wondering if I’ll ever leave, or if I’m actually
trapped in time.
I was hoping to do a story on illegal shark fishing, which I heard was going on off the coast, by various environmentalists. First I interviewed the head of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Mozambique, and a number of other people who alleged that there are Asian long line fishing vessels stationed permanently off the coast of Mozambique, catching sharks, cutting off their fins, and then throwing them back to sea. They act like modern day pirates, shooting at anybody who comes near them, including the Mozambican Navy. So I took a bus from Maputo to Inhambane and tried to hire out boats from the local Scuba dive outfits to go looking for the pirates, but nobody was willing to do it for less than a thousand dollars. They said it wasn’t worth getting shot at, and they’re probably right. So after a few frustrating days of begging and pleading to take me out to sea to look for the pirates, I went up the coast where there were reports of local fishermen catching sharks and selling their fins to Chinese buyers. At least at the beach that I went to, there didn’t appear to be any shark catching or any shady Chinese pirate types. I took a gamble on this story and it didn’t work out. I know that if I had more resources, such as helicopters or boats or thousands of dollars, I could have produced an amazing story, but so it goes. At least I was in Tofo, a quaint little beach town in Mozambique with unparalled beauty and a nice wave. It is also home to large populations of whale sharks and manta rays. I did a short piece on Simon Pierce, a whale shark researcher there. I originally interviewed him for the shark-finning story, but then I decided to just do a piece on him and his job. It was really cool snorkeling with a 15-foot fish and learning all about them. I also got to ride some nice waves at the world-class break at Tofinho.
The Vasco de Gama Bungalow was my home for a week
Not a bad view
Despite having a nice time in Tofo, I felt frustrated that the shark finning story didn’t work out because Mozambique is a country with so many problems; one of the highest rates of HIV/AIDS in the world, cyclone devastated villages, poverty, and more malaria deaths per capita than anywhere else on earth. I could have done something on one of these topics. I am not disillusioned about the actual degree of influence my stories have on the world, but nevertheless I have this horrible sinking feeling that I potentially could have helped people by doing a story on one of these topics and that by not doing so I am neglecting them. This is how I’ve felt since arriving in Africa, that there are too many problems and I want to show all of them but I cant because I am just one person. It’s so frustrating. I urge any other filmmakers to go to Mozambique and highlight one or all of these issues. Malaria, AIDS, poverty can all be alleviated over time, and the first step is raising awareness.
Pumping water from a well while stranded in Morongulos, Mozambique. I came to this village to investigate whether fishermen were selling shark to Chinese. Not only did I not find any evidence of this occurring, but I was stranded there with nowhere to stay. I had just enough money to get back to Tofo, about 4 hours down the coat, but the minibuses had stopped running for the day. Night was falling and I didn't know what to do. I asked a local if he knew a really cheap place to stay. He said he'd talk to his boss, a white Zimbabwean refugee running a beachside hostel, who came and offered me a room in his own house, a hot shower, and a meal, all for free. I told him I was based in Israel and it turned out he had lived on a Kibbutz for a while studying agriculture. We had a lot to talk about and stayed up late discussing the Middle East and the crisis in Zimbabwe. I felt so fortunate to have a roof over my head that night.