The rights to prosper - Mozambique
The prospects of one Island could offer a lesson for the rest of the country
VISITORS are charmed by the narrow streets and shady squares of Moçambique Island, a remote town that is part of northern Mozambique and sits, just off the coast, in Indian Ocean. With several hundred elegant and brightly-coloured stone houses built by Portuguese colonists centuries ago, when Moçambique was their capital, it has some of Africa's most striking architecture. A whitewashed church, one of 14 old religious houses, may be the oldest still standing in the southern hemisphere. The town is a UNESCO world heritage site. A 16th-century Portuguese fort stares out over it all.
But walk on the sandy beaches to watch the sailing dhows, and the charm evaporates. Between heaps of broken glass and rusting railings lie mounds of rubbish and human faces. Squatters light fires among blackened tumble-down, piles of rubble. Fig trees sprout from gaping cracks in roofs and walls.
All of Mozambique suffered during nearly two decades of civil war that ended in 1992, Refugees overwhelmed the town, tripling Its population to 42,000 Even with peace they refuse to go back to villages that lack electricity, schools or piped water. After 300 years of gentle decline, it took just three decades for the old capital to rot almost beyond rescue.
State donors—Norwegian, American, Japanese—have offered to chip in. But Gulamo Mamudu, the town council's head, says private money is needed to help drive renovation, "Many people are interested in investing here. But a fundamental problem is the state housing agency." Most buildings were nationalised on independence in 1975, Private ownership is now allowed in theory, but few have papers to prove it. Few maintain their homes: getting a loan to mend your house from the island's only bank is impossible without a title deed.
Those eager to invest - mainly rich foreigners - are mostly barred by the state housing agency. One South African, who bought and restored a house dating from 1550, first half to form a Mozambican company and make a local friend its boss. "Foreign investors are looked on as second-class." he complains, "All these land regulations keep people away." He knows of many outsiders who come to the island, keen to set up hotels and tourist firms. Most leave frustrated and confused by hostile property rules and demands for bribes.
The country’s newly elected president, Armando Guebuza, who took office this week, is a businessman keen to lure foreign investors, even though his ruling Frelimo party is still socialist in name. A useful first step would be to simplify and relax those property rules. That might be risky politically: many Mozambicans mutter that foreigners, especially South Africans, try to buy up everything. But he could declare an experiment on Moçambique Island, letting foreigners buy title deeds so they can bring in private capital. If investment and jobs followed, it might be a model for the rest of Mozambique.
The Economist - 05.02.2005
