Elderly Cape Verdeans in Mozambique return home on visit after 50 yearshttp://www.asemana.cv/article.php3?id_article=13636&var_recherche=verdeans
Elderly Cape Verdeans in Mozambique return home on visit after 50 years
25-11-05
After more than 50 years on the other side of Africa, a group of five Cape Verdeans living in Mozambique have returned to their native land for a visit.
Suffering, frustration and joy, but above all nostalgia, are the main elements in the story of these Cape Verdeans who, more than 50 years ago, made their way “south,” as the was often the term in Cape Verde at the time, and who only know have fulfilled their dream of seeing their native country once again.
At 1:50 am on November 23, João Rodrigues Brito, 66, Teresa Fernandes Delgado, 60, Ambrosina Varela, 70, Matilde Gonçalves, 60, and Elisa Gomes Varela, 72, landed at Sal’s Amílcar Cabral International Airport in a South African Airways flight arriving from Johannesburg. Wide smiles revealed the emotion that exploded in their hearts.
After so many years and so many hardships, their hidden dream, their hope that seemed condemned by time, is reborn as a gift from heaven. After having lost contact so long ago with their families in Cape Verde, they are now on a voyage of rediscovery, anxious to meet at least one relative who can answer all of the questions they’ve brought in the luggage of their hearts.
João Rodrigues de Brito, 66, is a native of Santa Catarina, on the island of Santiago, and left Cape Verde when he was eight years old alongside his father for Mozambique. With strong emotions, as is to be expected, Brito does not hide his joy at stepping once again on Cape Verdean soil, a dream that with the passing of the years he had long ago stopped nurturing. “I’d already quit dreaming. Coming to Cape Verde was a dream that lived inside me. My second dream is to see my children successful, and, thank God, they’re headed there,” he says.
The initiative for this trip back home comes as part of the program of the Institute of Communities program “Cabo Verde na Coraçon,” which is being elaborated in collaboration with the Prime Minister’s Office. The objective of the program, according to Institute of Communities representative Paulo Medina, is to provide these Cape Verdeans with the possibility of reactivating their connection to Cape Verde, their origins and their culture.
Brito and the four women making up the group make no efforts to hide their gratitude. “No other country in the world would make a gesture like this. At least, I don’t know of any, particularly a small, poor country like ours. But thanks to the government of Cape Verde I’m back in my homeland today. This is wonderful! I can’t even believe it,” he says.
“Before the plane began to descend, when I saw the light, I started to cry... After all these years, God, I’m happy,” says Teresa, as she wipes away her tears. She and her companions are eager to meet the President and the Prime Minister, whose name some of them are unable to remember (which is only natural, given their age), and express their gratitude.
“I was constantly sick. And the moment I got in the plane, it seemed as if God gave me a light, and in fact I feel better with this joy,” says Ambrosina, who is also visibly moved. “I just want to thank our government. If it wasn’t for them, I’d die without seeing my country again,” says Elisa Gomes Varela, 72. “If it weren’t for Cape Verdean authorities, where would we have gotten the money to come here? I’d die without seeing my homeland,” explains Matilde Gonçalves. “They spent most of the trip quiet, until at one point they started to sing songs from Cape Verde, and I thought, they must be rehearsing for the big show when they arrive. It was very beautiful,” says João Álvaro, 41, who accompanied the group. Álvaro, the son of Cape Verdean parents, is the only one of them who had been to Cape Verde before.
Teresa is a native of the island of Brava, but grew up in Praia. She left Cape Verde at 17 and since then has fought a difficult battle to make ends meet. Now 70, Ambrosina Varela finds it hard to recount her story. Ambrosina worked on the hellish cacao plantations of São Tomé and Príncipe while still a young girl, before heading to Mozambique, where life did not prove to be much better. Elisa Gomes Varela, 72, is from Santa Catarina (Santiago), and left Cape Verde in 1956, first for São Tomé and Príncipe, on a boat ride that lasted seven days, and then, years later, headed to Mozambique on a voyage that lasted two weeks.
Matilde Gonçalves tells that she is from Ribeira Principal, near the town of Tarrafal on the island of Santiago, and left Cape Verde when she was three. Even more than her colleagues, she has come to get to know her native land. Opportunities to meet and chat with their fellow Cape Verdeans will certainly be plenty, especially since the Institute of Communities, according to Paulo Medina, has scheduled a series of activities with the group, including meetings with President Pedro Pires and Prime Minister José Maria Neves, trips to the municipalities of Santa Catarina and Santa Cruz, and sessions with community associations, among many other things. The group will return to Mozambique on December 9, wrapping up a Christmas present that arrived a few days early. |