Professor Mahlemba opened a new map, this time covered with small red annotations. “Mario, around 1498, when Vasco da Gama passed the coast of Mozambique on his way to India, gold was still the greatest European desire. But in a few decades, between 1505 and 1600, the gold trade began to dry up and man became more valuable than the metal.”
Mario frowned. "The man, professor?"“
Mahlemba nodded. “Yes. First they came for the gold and ivory. Then, when they realized that labor generated profit, they began to buy people. They called it trade, but it was kidnapping. Entire kingdoms were divided. One chief sold prisoners of war to another, and the trading posts became markets for bodies.”
She walked to the window. “Between 1530 and 1600, thousands of Africans were taken from the ports of Sofala, Inhambane, and Mozambique to the plantations of the islands and nascent Brazil. The sea, which once brought perfumes and fabrics, began to smell of iron and despair.”
Mario stared at the ground in silence. "And the Europeans didn't see this as wrong?"“
Mahlemba took a deep breath. “Some saw it, yes. Others said it was destiny, that forced labor was a form of conversion or progress. The cross and the whip walked side by side. And gold, ivory, and man traveled in the same hold.”
He closed the map slowly. “It was during that time, Mario, that commerce lost its soul. The ports grew rich, but the villages emptied. Africa was exporting its own future.”
Mario looked up. "So, professor, the price of gold was man."“
Mahlemba replied in a low voice: "And the price of man was silence."“
Final message: Between 1498 and 1600, the glitter of gold overshadowed dignity. The sea ceased to be a path of life and became a route of pain. And history has learned that no wealth is worth the emptiness it leaves behind.
