Border Jumping

“There are many! They all cross the border, and take the jobs that the locals don’t want. The way they live, they are poor. There can be as many as 100 packed into a room this size [pointing to the small living room we are sitting in, which is about 4m x 4m]. I wonder sometimes how they are able to sleep like that at night, so many people squeezed in one room?”

Sound familiar? This was a Swazi woman talking about our Portuguese-speaking friends to the East, the Mozambiqens. It’s only a 6 hour drive to Maputo, the capital city of Mozambique, and I’m told I can do a daytrip from my permanent site. Recently out of a civil war that ended in 1992, they come to Swaziland looking for work. From several conversations, I get a sense that the Swazis look down on them a little. They take “lowly” jobs like herding cattle or, gasp, street-vending in Manzini. Apparently, they need only a week to learn siSwati, and then they can do a brisk business. Other than that, I haven’t heard many good things said by Swazis about these border-hoppers. Is this condescension rooted in jealousy? A bit of racism?

Speaking both siSwati and heavily accented English, the Mozambiquens hawk gaudy watches, trinkets, bootleg DVD/CDs, socks, and other random cheap goods (that somehow made there way over here from China or India, mostly China, but that’s another story). I even saw one dude selling toilet paper by the roll. If only more Swazis had that sort of entrepreneurial spirit…

I make a comment concerning the perpetual Swazi complaint about how tough life is in Swaziland, that the Swazis are suffering because there are no jobs and no money. What does it mean about Mozambique if Mozambiquens are streaming across the border to look for work here? “Ay, the Swazis, they are lazy,” the woman chuckles in reply. “They don’t like to work.” Maybe a little competition might jumpstart that missing work ethic that she’s talking about.

When Swaziland Peace Corps Volunteers take vacation days, they often like to go to Maputo (that, and Zanzibar). The beaches and seafood are supposed to be amazing. Will Smith visits with his wife all the time -- “My wife Jada and I love Mozambique… It feels like God’s house is in Africa, and He made sure everything around His house is beautiful. Africa is the best and worst of everything on this planet.” In that regard, Mozambique might be like Swaziland, in which there are pockets of wealth where the rich are extremely rich and but the vast majority live in poverty. I hope I can check it out sometime and talk to some people. Anyone wanna come with?

-mw