Telephone interview – 2000 kms of distance… Roland, where are you ?
Hey, I am sitting in the tent right now!
No show tonight ?
Wait, I am closing the tent, many animals are coming in. It’s not easy to catch them. Everything fine, but it’s raining. It started to rain when we set up the screen.
What is the name of the place ?
Hey, so many animals are coming inside ! Ugly animals : spiders, scorpions and dangerous stuff. Ok the tent is closed now. We stay in a rural district. Inhambane looks like a commercial center compared to this. We are in Moçimboa da Praia, 200 kms north of Pemba, close to the Tanzanian border. The day before we played in a village called Quelimane, 18 kms from Moçimboa da Praia. Yesterday we played in a ‘bairro’ of Moçimboa and it started to rain after our show, so we came back today, but the rain got stronger and nothing happened.
How were the concerts ?
Great. We played for 1500 people on the first show, 100 on the second. We played with 2 local singers too. They just came when we were playing and we invited them. One was a bit famous in the area so everybody was singing along his songs. Afterwards people answered to our songs with a lot of power, which is great because they are normally very quiet in this area, they don’t even talk, when they see white people they just laugh or run away. But when we played they loved it and sang along. They are very young, many children.
What is your playlist ?
We play ‘Uma noite de prazer’ in each concert. For the rest, we improvise. I dance sometimes, Helio and me are training, running every morning to keep our bodies fit. Here in Moçimboa da Praia there is a market on the sea. It’s unique and looks very nice, we like to go there. We get a lot of oysters. Their only production is oysters. Mountains of shells stand on the side.
A bit of culture ?
In Pemba they have a language called Macua. Here they speak 3 different dialects coming from Swahili. There is a big influence from Tanzania. Drinks and main products come from there, as well as many people. We also find Somalian refugees and people from north of Mozambique. But 90% don’t speak portuguese. We always need a translator. People are dressed with colourful and beautiful capulanas, different from Inhambane’s. Muslim men and ladies wear these capulanas on the head as well. It is all very beautiful but the people still look sad. They don’t have much to do, stay around and let the day pass by. Some fish oysters, everybody is trying to get enough food for himself but there is no trade, no economy. People are very poor.
What about CinemArena ?
We are very happy to work gain with our friends from CinemArena. There are new members too, which makes it quite harmonic. Oups, another thing entered here. Just a moment… Ok, everything fine. The CinemArena camp is set up as usual. Maria is cooking food, we just had a big pot of pasta with tuna. 10 tents around. We walk some distance for water and shower. Camping in rural area. This time we have an american movie. CinemArena’s aim is to convince the parents to get tested so that their children can get treated in case they are HIV-positive. I understood it’s about treating the children with antiretroviral in the hospital, but some people told us that the treatment is very expensive and poor people often don’t get it. I still don’t know if it is true and I can’t believe it. I will investigate.
What is coming next ?
Tomorrow we go to Awasse, not too far from here. We keep our tents in Moçimboa da Praia. We have 3 shows and come back every day. On the 11th we go to M’bau. On the 14th we go to Montepuez, a bigger city like Pemba, where we play another 2 shows. Energy and all. On the 18th we have a flight to Beira and come back on the 19th.
Last and most difficult question : where is Helio ?
Helio did not come back with us. He was always asking for condoms, drank some sura with the community, made new friends and was so animated that he decided to stay there, dancing in the rain. No problem, he will find his way. Keep it positive in Inhambane and all over the world. This was Roland Positivo Mundungaze from inside the tent on the northern border of Mozambique. I am positively catching animals now. Tschüss !
Hi all Positivos, I really had a such a laugh reading Rolands interview … keep the website up like this, I keep recommending it to everybody but have all the more reasons since you got more creative about it. chuckle! I read the interview again… kicher!
Reena