Xengana

   Mulungu in Xengana means "foreigner". If anybody ever calls a mulungu a mulungu, it's not necessarily rude, more of a fact. At work, on home visits sometimes, the people we don't know who we visit will ask who is this mulungu? The activistas will say oh, this mulungu? She's our friend and she works with us. Xengana is obviously a barrier in my work here but I've come to appreciate and respect it.  I think this is because Africa is currently developing and has numerous mulungu influences from several mulungu countries. So, I would say I like Xengana but I don't like it like I like chick flicks and ice cream. So, I'll say I respect it because being around people who are speaking Xengana makes the experience feel authentic...really African.  Which is strangely neat to experience because it's good to know that even though there's so much mulungu history and current influences here, not everything truly African has been lost in the assimilation of foreigners.


   I'm a huge Lost fan. I love the show and I can't wait to see the last season. Did Juliet really die? Anyway, sometimes being here makes me feel like I'm in a Lost episode. Mozambique was colonized by the Portuguese.  Abandoned buildings have been left behind. The national language is Portuguese. The houses the Portuguese lived in are still here. They're really nice from all that I've seen. The ones that I've seen all have driveways and houses that are obviously very well constructed.  They mostly all have running water, or a very nearby source. I have visited a few of my Moz friends who live in these former houses and it reminds me of the Lost episodes when the gang moves into the old Dharma Initiative compound years after they left. It's not strange-I mean they have made it their home here.


  Even parts of Mozambican culture seem to have been adopted from mulungus. For example, Mozambicans love hot tea with sugar and drink it probably at least once or twice a day. Has that always been Mozambican culture? Even Xengana has certain words that have been taken from English.  One of my coworkers told me this is because of the proximity of South Africa, and as people traveled to and from, took some of the words and made it their own as well. For example, the word bejinho (Portuguese) is kiss in English, and khiss in Xengana.


  This past week I've been in Maputo and went on a day trip to South Africa. It's safe to say that Maputo is the most developed part of Moz. It's more modern-it has a mall, restaurants, clubs and hotels. Embassies and people from all over the world are here. I can't help but admit that whenever I'm in Mozambique, more so at site, and see another person who doesn't appear to be African I think that person must be a mulungu, too. I don't think it's bad to think that, to think to label someone like that because it's not a negative thought, just a fact.


  I'm not saying that mulungus should leave Africa for the preservation of African culture. Time and actions change things. Colonization happened, and now Mozambique and other African countries are developing. And because they are developing, a result is assistance in different ways from many mulungus. Hopefully over time, Africa will become completely self-sufficient and won't need mulungu assistance. Different things from different cultures as a result of mulungus here have been adopted by Mozambicans and surely other Africans.  These things that have been adopted by mulungu cultures have become what Mozambican/African culture is today.


  South Africa has a large white population. They look like typical mulungus. It's a strange feeling and thought process to try to explain because they are in fact, not mulungus. South Africa is now their home. So maybe someday, as Africa becomes developed nobody will really be mulungus anymore. It's just an observation and feelings that are hard to put into words- based on the direct, forever effects due to the colonization of Mozambique and of Africa.