Maputo Riots

September 3

It’s looking like the protests have stopped for now. They started on Wednesday and gradually calmed down yesterday afternoon. People were in the streets, burning tires and throwing rocks. The police intervened. The road between Maputo and Matola was one of the main protest points and until this morning the road was blocked. Today, public transportation (big buses) resumed and chapas (mini buses) were more sporadic. There were rumors going around that the protests were supposed to start again today at noon, but we haven’t heard of anything significant. The government met yesterday to consider the crisis. People are not satisfied with the government’s response to the protests against the price increases (not sure what their response was but it wasn’t what the people wanted). Things are exacerbated by the fact that government workers get all their expenses paid for so are not affected by the increases. Life seems to be resuming back to normal from our vantage point.

September 1

This morning, as we were getting ready, Rebeca (Nadia's nanny) called me and said that there weren’t any chapas running, so could I come get her. I got Nadia ready and started driving to her house. As I entered a neighborhood near her neighborhood, there were a lot of people in the streets and they started telling me to turn around. I stopped and talked with two women who said that if I didn’t turn around, someone would burn my car. I could see smoke ahead so turned around and tried to go a different way. That way too had smoke in the distance so I decided to go home and tell Rebeca to stay home. Joél, meanwhile went to work and only a few people came into the office. Someone mentioned something about a 'greve'. It is a word we have always confused with 'grave', which means grave. Joel had to look it up in the dictionary which said it means strike. They had the radio on and would tell Joél what was happening. It turns out that someone organized via SMS texts a protest against rising food, fuel, electric and cement costs. Various places around Maputo turned violent and people were burning tires, throwing rocks at cars and breaking into stores and warehouses. Joél had some meetings scheduled for today so wanted to stay at the office but (thankfully) came home for the day. I didn’t feel safe alone, more emotionally than worried about actual threats. His co-wokers said that our area of the city (and where the office is) is pretty safe. As the day went on, we saw fewer and fewer people on the streets and all the businesses near us were closed. We watched the news on TV which has been analyzing the violence. We talked with our next door neighbors who said that they were staying home too. During the morning, the kids in the building seemed to relish in a day off from school, running up the stairs and all over the roof but by the afternoon, they were in their apartments. When Joel came home he went up on the roof to look. He said that it looked like there was a ring of fire around the city about a half mile to the north and west. By the afternoon we knew that things had calmed down a little when one of our neighbors who like to play their music loudly started their stereo; I guess they too stopped watching the news. We called the MCC rep to let her know what was happening (and the SALT participant who lives in Matola, a suburb of Maputo also affected by the protests, who couldn’t get a bus into town so went back to her host family).

We’re safe and not in danger. We keep praying for peace and it confirms to us the relevance of MCC’s work with systemic programs. It seems so sad. I keep thinking that people resort to violence when it’s their last resort or feeling powerless. They are angry with the government because it’s allowing the price increases, but here it seems, people riot or join in things without thinking. So I wonder how many people were swept along with the wave of emotion without thinking through things. I’m thankful we’re safe.