Do blog do na altura jovem americano Lowell Boileau (futuro artista plástico, ver também aqui e mais ligações ao fim do seu texto) que esteve na Suazilândia com o Peace Corps em 1969, mostro três fotos das férias passadas em Lourenço Marques (LM), actual Maputo com a devida vénia.
E ele escreveu algumas coisas interessantes no seu diário como por exemplo:
E ele escreveu algumas coisas interessantes no seu diário como por exemplo:
"I was quite amazed to find the city so large modern and American-like with giant department stores and the like. Somehow I had expected a Mexican-type city. Instead there is this very clean and friendly city".
"The Portuguese people are quiet and proper middle-class people generally. They are colonialist but do not have the same degree of racism as the South Africans yet, as at home, the white is on top and the black on the bottom. They live at a comfortable pace and take a lot of pride in having neat homes surrounded by complex gardens – all quite beautiful. They quite faithful Catholics and generally traditional, conservative and modest. Girls do not go out at night on their own – instead they are accompanied by their mothers. One has the feeling that everything here has an exact and calculated place so that everything is predictable. This gives the town a sleepy appearance – a nice place to retire or live easily and unconcernedly.
"The reserved nature of the Portuguese makes conversing rather difficult, but there are many soldiers in town due the war in the north and they are always ready conversationalist for some reason."
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| 1969: Café Djambu e na outra esquina a velhinha Cruz do Oriente (de que se falou aqui) a cores |
Ver também aqui o mesmo prédio do Hotel Tivoli (aqui nas primeiras imagens) ainda com outro reclame néon da mesma época do Lótus, Arte Oriental.
Sobre a foto de cima Lowell Boileau escreveu, penso eu que mais recentemente e complementando o diário: "This cafe was my favorite hang out in LM. I relaxed my holiday hours away drinking excellent latte coffee while I read, wrote or took in the passing scene. All seemed right in the world, but surrounding the port city was a two mile deep ring of urban slums where hundreds of thousands of impoverished people lived. The slow comfortable pace of life in the well-dressed and prosperous center of LM was a false reality that history would overtaken by 1975 when Frelimo rebels would succeed in liberating Mozambique from the Portuguese Colonial government".
Sobre a foto de cima Lowell Boileau escreveu, penso eu que mais recentemente e complementando o diário: "This cafe was my favorite hang out in LM. I relaxed my holiday hours away drinking excellent latte coffee while I read, wrote or took in the passing scene. All seemed right in the world, but surrounding the port city was a two mile deep ring of urban slums where hundreds of thousands of impoverished people lived. The slow comfortable pace of life in the well-dressed and prosperous center of LM was a false reality that history would overtaken by 1975 when Frelimo rebels would succeed in liberating Mozambique from the Portuguese Colonial government".
A segunda foto foi tirada no extremo da Av. Manuel de Arriaga, do passeio da Rua Consiglieri Pedroso a olhar para norte:
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| 1969: Casa da Sorte à esquerda, Café Olimpia por trás do machimbombo, separador central da avenida, LM Bazar/Decorama à direita |
Sobre a foto de cima Lowell Boileau escreveu: "LM, renamed Maputo after liberation from Portuguese colonial rule, had a prosperous core with broad avenues and slow-paced sidewalk cafes, such as the one in the island of this boulevard".
Segundo o comentário dum leitor a esplanada no separador central pertencia à Cervejaria Tucano. Essa foto pode ser comparada com a seguinte mais ou menos recente da mesma zona:
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| Há uns anos: inicio da Avenida Karl Marx olhando para Norte com o separador central à esquerda onde esteve a esplanada |
Podemos ver nesta foto que o prédio MBIM substitui o Olimpia (obra a partir de 1970) e reparar na primeira foto de 1969 que a Cruz do Oriente foi substituida recentemente por um novo prédio, mas essa evolução é natural e até podia ter sido mais drástica. Mas talvez pelo efeito de choque, pois as fotos disponíveis na net para o mesmo periodo das de Lowell Boileau são raríssimas, a sensação com que fiquei, apesar dos sitíos serem os mesmos, é de que eram dum mundo diferente.
Outra foto de Lowell Boileau é da zona da praia:
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| 1969: Praia na baixa mar de areias brancas e sem detritos nem poluição |
Sobre esta foto ele escreveu: "The beaches of the Indian Ocean spread for miles from the north end of LM. The waves were gentle and its tides created long tidal flats pushing the water’s edge back as much as a half mile. The white specks in the center of the picture above and to the left are people probing for shell fish in the low tide."
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Um abraço.