In Mozambique there's no better way to circulate a piece of information than to share it. Pretty much anyone will do, but if you can find a mãe then you're set. Game over. The whole town will know. Gossip, or fofoca is a force to be reckoned with here.
I remember during training someone was mentioning how the best way to get your news was to go to the market and strike up conversation, or to just listen at your local hospital. It's true. The main way that news circulates in Mozambique is word-of-mouth. Some people have televisions, a few more have radios, but the vast majority don't have anything more than the word of their neighbors, who heard it from their neighbors, who heard from the man buying fruit from them that morning after he eavesdropped at the bus station while the man traveling from Nampula was talking to his friend. In the end, everyone knows that the price of coal in Nampula has gone up and now the Chinese are going to be building another road to help facilitate its transport. For example.
Another reason this medium is so popular is that in some areas there is distrust of the government, resulting in everything heard from official sources being taken with a handful of salt. Not that the fofoca culture always clears the fact-checker, plenty of the information that gets spread is completely false, one of the biggest challenges I face as a Peace Corps Volunteer (foreigner) and health worker. All it takes is one confused mother out in the mato to mention how white people like to run off with black babies and my job becomes ten times trickier. Who's going to talk about malaria with a baby-lifter? It can even become dangerous in some cases, when the disinformation results in mistrust and unrest as people believe the answer to a problem is to get rid of its source (maybe a PCV or foreign aide worker?).
More relevant in the day-to-day is the way this sharing of false information complicated health efforts. If someone starts spreading word that malaria can be treated by making tea from feijão macaco it becomes tougher to convince a person that they need to protect their children from mosquito bites in order to not become sick in the first place. Or if someone says that the free condoms USAID supplies health centers with are actually contaminated with HIV and that's how the disease is spreading, how are we supposed to convince individuals to use protection? These are just two examples, but the reality is that this word-of-mouth publication can lead to incredible complications in healthcare. It is only fair to mention that it can also result in huge successes if it is tapped into in the right form!
A short anecdote to end off. Today I was sitting at a table drinking a Coke and overheard a couple eating a few tables over chatting with someone. Guess who was the subject of their conversation? Yep, nothing more interesting than a random white guy in the middle of Mozambique. Three tidbits about me were shared in rapid succession: 1. "He works at the hospital; he weighs babies." (True. I help with baby weighing and nutritional information.) 2. "He speaks Makua." (Nice to hear and a very sweet compliment, but only semi-true. I know enough of the local language only to exchange pleasantries.) 3. "He rode all the way to Lioma on his bike." (True. Lioma, the town where Michelle works is 57km away and I did bike there once; it was an incredible ordeal that my legs have not forgiven me for yet.) I gave the fofoca game for the day a 2.5/3 and walked away a happy volunteer, proud that my community is beginning to get to know I exist and what I do.
I remember during training someone was mentioning how the best way to get your news was to go to the market and strike up conversation, or to just listen at your local hospital. It's true. The main way that news circulates in Mozambique is word-of-mouth. Some people have televisions, a few more have radios, but the vast majority don't have anything more than the word of their neighbors, who heard it from their neighbors, who heard from the man buying fruit from them that morning after he eavesdropped at the bus station while the man traveling from Nampula was talking to his friend. In the end, everyone knows that the price of coal in Nampula has gone up and now the Chinese are going to be building another road to help facilitate its transport. For example.
Another reason this medium is so popular is that in some areas there is distrust of the government, resulting in everything heard from official sources being taken with a handful of salt. Not that the fofoca culture always clears the fact-checker, plenty of the information that gets spread is completely false, one of the biggest challenges I face as a Peace Corps Volunteer (foreigner) and health worker. All it takes is one confused mother out in the mato to mention how white people like to run off with black babies and my job becomes ten times trickier. Who's going to talk about malaria with a baby-lifter? It can even become dangerous in some cases, when the disinformation results in mistrust and unrest as people believe the answer to a problem is to get rid of its source (maybe a PCV or foreign aide worker?).
More relevant in the day-to-day is the way this sharing of false information complicated health efforts. If someone starts spreading word that malaria can be treated by making tea from feijão macaco it becomes tougher to convince a person that they need to protect their children from mosquito bites in order to not become sick in the first place. Or if someone says that the free condoms USAID supplies health centers with are actually contaminated with HIV and that's how the disease is spreading, how are we supposed to convince individuals to use protection? These are just two examples, but the reality is that this word-of-mouth publication can lead to incredible complications in healthcare. It is only fair to mention that it can also result in huge successes if it is tapped into in the right form!
A short anecdote to end off. Today I was sitting at a table drinking a Coke and overheard a couple eating a few tables over chatting with someone. Guess who was the subject of their conversation? Yep, nothing more interesting than a random white guy in the middle of Mozambique. Three tidbits about me were shared in rapid succession: 1. "He works at the hospital; he weighs babies." (True. I help with baby weighing and nutritional information.) 2. "He speaks Makua." (Nice to hear and a very sweet compliment, but only semi-true. I know enough of the local language only to exchange pleasantries.) 3. "He rode all the way to Lioma on his bike." (True. Lioma, the town where Michelle works is 57km away and I did bike there once; it was an incredible ordeal that my legs have not forgiven me for yet.) I gave the fofoca game for the day a 2.5/3 and walked away a happy volunteer, proud that my community is beginning to get to know I exist and what I do.
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| Gazing down upon part of the vast network of gossip that is Mutuáli from above. |
