The café in Baixa was full. The clinking of cups mingled with conversations and the noise of buses. Mário looked out the window, from where the port could be seen in the distance.
“Professor,” he began, “the other day you said that foreigners come to trade. But when did trade turn into competition?”
Mahlemba took a sip of his coffee and replied, “Around the year 1500, Mario. For almost a century, contact with merchants from the East was peaceful.”.
But when the Europeans arrived, they brought a different logic—not that of trade, but that of control. They wanted to dominate the routes, establish exclusive ports, decide who could trade and who could not. It was the beginning of greed.”
“"And what about the people here?" Mario asked.
“They reacted as best they could,” the professor said. “Some kingdoms resisted, others tried to negotiate. But the arrival of a new power changed the balance. The sails that once brought friendship began to bring weapons. The gold of Manica and the ivory of the Zambezi ceased to be shared wealth and became objects of exploitation under surveillance. Trade ceased to be dialogue and became dispute.”
Mario paused. "So, professor, was it at that point that we started losing control over what was ours?"“
“Yes,” Mahlemba replied. “But not only because of external factors. Also because, among ourselves, divisions, local rivalries, power struggles, and distrust between neighboring peoples began. And when a people is divided, any external force can easily dominate it.”
The noise of the traffic outside grew louder. Mahlemba looked out the window and said, “The lesson is old, Mario. Gold attracts the foreigner, but disunity is what invites him to stay.”
Mario became thoughtful. "It seems that our weakness always begins from within."“
Mahlemba smiled, but sadly. "And that's why knowing the past isn't nostalgia, it's prevention."“
Final message: The routes that once united peoples have become borders of ambition. The gold changed hands, but the land remained the same.
A country loses what it has when it forgets the value of what it is.
