Business
Update: Reverse brain drain from Europe to Africa widens as more Portuguese flock to Mozambique
In keeping with local laws that cap the number of foreigners working in a company, Silva’s partner and manager are both Portuguese, while the rest of the staff – who deal with kitchen and orderly duties – are Mozambicans.
Silva is quick to reject any suggestion that this is an unfair power dynamic. “It should be seen as an advantage, not as a conquest,” he insists. “At the end of the day, it is a niche waiting to be developed. It is a leap of faith we are taking.”
Silva’s desire to stress this is, perhaps, unsurprising given the Portuguese history in Mozambique. The former colonial master benefited from slave trading in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Portuguese rule was often heavy handed and brutal in the 20th Century. Mozambicans had few rights and were barred from highly skilled and managerial positions until the years immediately preceding independence.
Tense relations and local discontent sparked the military coup which brought independence.
Charles Mangwiro, a Maputo-based journalist at Radio Mozambique, was a baby when Mozambique gained independence. But, since childhood, his parents have told him about the indignities that befell them and fellow Mozambicans under Portuguese colonial rule.
“They told me there was segregation and the Portuguese were racist.”
