Mpumi Mayisa

Bilene Mozambique is a white sanded gem that sways its elongated palm trees just 180km’s north of Maputo.

The stunning Uembje lagoon welcomes you with glee and stars in its eyes when the sun is out to play. Its water a concort of soft blue and green parallel lines streaming their way down to the enveloping dunes. Its a place tranquil enough for birds to take the centre stage and for crickets to unashamedly add to the piping with daytime mating calls. 

I was pulled in by its charm during my first visit in 2016. I was there on a cycling trip with friends and the sole mission was to abandon adulting in exchange for joy glides in the tropics. I had the time of my life because traveling with people is means taking wild and fun memories home but it also comes with frustration for curious cats like me who don’t do well with collectively experiencing sights and skimming through places that would’ve been fully indulged if there was no squad to constantly play catch up to.

The way people relate to each other was a culture shock to me as I’m a South African girl living in Johannesburg CBD. Gender determines how people treat each other and the women are ridiculous beings but the gaze on the island was different, I felt different- free. I read up on the civil war and found that one of the unintended consequences was that gender transformation quietly wormed its way in while the men were up in arms. There was no space to assign gender based roles or the use  of patriarchy to measure strengths. While the physical remnants still plague the country, harmony permeates the air and human relations isolate skewed patriarchal ideas. The gents are generally playful, chirpy and bubbly- they hurled flamboyant poses my way while the women shied away from my camera lens.

While soaking up some rays by the waters one afternoon, I gleefully watched as 4 men emerged from the tree trail that links the market to the lagoon, stripped down to their undies to trade the monotony of the humid market bustle for dips, dives and laughs in the shallow waters. 

Brightly colored verandas with garden chairs and colorful table clothes make up the food side of the market. The strong armed women specializing in fish and chicken have a stunning relationship with the spices so if you land in Bilene, tantalize your tastebuds with some fried rice served with fish or chicken. The great thing about Mozambique is that meals cost the same everywhere, whether you’re strolling down Maputo or living easy on the coastline.

I landed up on a green veranda for my dose of fried rice and chicken as I watched a girl who I guessed to be twenty two singlehandly take the role of waitress, chef and carrier of three 5L buckets of water into the kitchen. Her male companion was visiting and there was something really wonderful about how there was no gender code to adhere to. The room was void of the damsel in distress or the bright eyed prince and there was space for the giggles, the playing and her chasing him away later so she could get to work.

As I sat on the veranda and continued to people watch, I spotted a  woman strolling past with 2 beer crates mounted on her head, a handbag in one hand while the other swayed past her hip. I was both impressed by the command she had over her body and bitterly dissatisfied with the underuse of my physical strength. This was followed by a little girl I guessed to be three on the adjacent veranda, neatly covering her side of the floor with an orange and yellow wrap so she could roll and giggle on it. Her mother smiled with pride as she showed her friend what her daughter had done, and I realized that she is consciously planting the seed of independence her mother unconsciously planted in her. I am in no way romanticising the realities of the women on the island but merely tipping my sunhat to them for grabbing freedom and self autonomy, clinging onto it and recreating the norms and values that walk their sandy white ground.

The local beer is treated as a national treasure all across Mozambique. 

Pronounced DOSH- M. 

Bilene easily infuses one with hope, a hunger for the recreation of societal norms and it holds powerful  messaging for women that left me feeling myself a mighty woman- fully aware of her virtues.