Ilha de Mocambique is a mind- and time-warp, an
African Havana accessible only by sea or via a 3.5km single
lane bridge from the town of Lumbo on the mainland, which
is itself a two-and-a-half-hour drive from provincial capital
Nampula, the nearest big city.
Historically, the island was not this remote. Originally
inhabited by Swahili settlers in the 14th Century, the
location came to European attention once Vasco da
Gama had established the sea route from Portugal to
India in 1498. The Portuguese set up shop in 1507, and
over the next 100 years, this tiny lump of land, a literal
speck on a map – 3km long by about 400m at its widest
point (or about 1.2km^2 ) – became the colonial capital for
Portuguese East Africa, an area covering 801,590km^2. It
was only in 1898 that Lourenço Marques (now Maputo)
was designated the capital.
Antonio Jaime – ‘James’ to his friends and tourists
whose tongues can’t handle the nuances of Portuguese- is a tiny man with a vast inventory of facts about
Mozambique Island (again with the easier English
version). He’s a resident of Macuti Town, the settlement
on the southern end of the island, named for the palm
fronds used for roofing, and is known to pretty much
everyone you pass on the tour and knows everything
worth knowing about all the historical attractions.
The first of these is the Palace of São Paolo, built at the
beginning of the 17th Century as a Jesuit college and
then converted for service as the Governor’s Residence,
which is how it has been preserved as a museum, with
the furniture, décor and art from that period maintained.
It’s huge and enchanting. Ming vases stand on pedestals,
recalling the link between Portugal and their colony in
Macau in China. Mindbogglingly intricate sideboards,
couches and tables, made from rock-hard ironwood,
speak of wealth, luxury and cruelty – as good a metaphor
for colonialism as you’re likely to find. The cruelty is, in
this case, sickening: after the slave artists responsible
for these masterpieces were finished their work, their
hands were cut off, purely to ensure the exclusivity of
the completed pieces.
There are a number of bedrooms – for the governor and
his family as well as visiting dignitaries, and even one
designed specifically to host the king of Portugal, shouldCoral Lodge is a short
boat ride away from
Ilha de Mocambique.
For more information
or to book a stay, go to
corallodgemozambique.com16
travel leisure | lifestyle
MOZAMBIQUE ISLAND
History
condensed
Out-of-the-way island offers astonishingly
rich insights into half a millennium of
African antiquity