The white (wo)man

Dear all,

You might wonder whether I am still alive...or you might be wondering why I haven´t been writing for more than 8 months (!). I guess I "lost" most of my readers, by now:)

To look for reasons isn´t that easy, the most important will be the fact that the exposure to so many (contradictory) impressions and feelings made me decide to take a writing break.... I was too overwhelmed to be able to analyse very well...

After having read my previous postings I am surprised to read that much of my thinking hasn´t changed yet. I am still struggling with some of the issues I mentioned before. Especially about the role of the expat in Africa...My role...

Having stressed only the more negative aspects of "the white man' s role' in Africa, I want to share the following with you...

It happened two weeks ago, on a Friday evening just before wanting to leave office...The guard knocked on the door: "senhora, I need to talk to you..." He came to complain about the fact he hadn´t been paid his full salary (1300 meticais instead of 1700 meticais) by the woman responsible for the "condominium" (shared costs of the building where the office is located). As 1700 meticais equates plus minus 50 EURO, you can imagine that 400 MZN means a lot of money for any Mozambican (prices in the supermarkt are not very different from the prices in Europe!)...As I recently had paid an advance of 4 months of condominio, I knew that there couldn´t be any legitimate reason for not paying the guard...Struck by this injustice I went directly to Balbina´s appartment, the condominio person. She was like a magician, giving me one after the other excuse to justifify...With my human rights background I had difficulties to listen to her lies and I repeated the fact it was important the guard would receive the other part of his salary, as this meant a fortune for him. Because she was repeating and repeating she couldn´t pay that evening, I paid-in front of her- the guard the remaining 400 MZNs...When she wanted to justify her delay referring to the fact he had been absent during three days...due to his illness (!!!), I lost my "soft" attitude . I replied to her that EVERY person had to right to be absent when he was ill (I had sent the poor guy home, he had high fever and looked very ill- I even had paid his visit to the doctor to be sure he would get a decent treatment) and that I would expect that she would respect basic rights any employee was entitled to. And...that she shouldn´t make abuse of her power position...She promised to pay me back in two days (which she did!)...

After this "intermezzo" in the corridor the guard came to thank "us"...I wasn´t sure I had understood his Portuguese very well, so I repeated "us"? Yes, "it is thank to you white people in the building that we, the guards, are still working in this building, because if we were only dependent of the Mozambican inhabitants (inter alia Balbina), we would leave this place asap...Mozambicans are such a bad people, they don´t respect us, the poor, they look at us like if we were animals. But...senhora Katarina, it is not because I am poor I should be treated like shit, isn´t it?" Needless to say I was very struck (I tried to hide it, by agreeing with what he was saying and only encouraging him to keep in mind he had as many rights as any other person, in caso to receive his full salary in time...) , not only by his very critical stance, but also about the meaning of what he was telling me. If this is true (I had heard stories like this from other expats, of course I had seen it even with my own eyes before, but to hear this confirmed by a Mozambican...!), I mean, no doubt it is true as to our building, but is this true as to all the other buildings in town...? If yes...

Tinha saudades de voces...

Hope you are doing well, wherever you are!

beijo
Katarina.