News & Information

BRIDGING THE GLOBALISATION GAP: ACORD BRIGHTENS  UP THE  LIVES OF HUNDREDS OF YOUNG PEOPLE THROUGH INTERNET SERVICES IN LICHINGA, MOZAMBIQUE.

Our writer Jacob Nanjakululu narrates his experience in this part of the World.

Descending from the plane at the Lichinga airstrip, I was met by a cold windy breeze beating hard against my brow. The environment looked so familiar yet it was my first time in this capital of the northern province of Mozambique. Yes! It reminded me of the Great Rift Valley Highlands weather in Kenya. I certainly felt at home. It was about mid day when I arrived in the company of Izelia, the administrative officer of the ACORD programme based in Maputo, Buene and two other people from Panda in the south of the country. A few more minutes of a car ride and we were in the centre of Lichinga town.  Lichinga as the name, in my mother tongue,

Hundreds of people now enjoy Internet Services installed by ACORD Mozambique in a small town in Lichinga.

 coincidentally suggests rises above the surroundings in what looks like a former island with the lake perhaps having receded thousands of light years ago.

Indeed Lake Nyassa, the name given to this administrative province of Mozambique is not very far from Lichinga town, vindicating a possibility of some truth in this theory. 

Arriving at the ACORD office in a double story building on what clearly is the main street in town, we were received by an enthusiastic staff and members of the Lichinga community. The small unassuming office on the ground floor was filled with a sea of humanity. The effects of long periods of exposure to cold windy breezes visibly registered on their otherwise very bright faces. Their eyes lit up with excitement on seeing us. I was later to learn that the office is used as the only internet and information centre in the province and perhaps the only visible link of this marginalised province to the world and to globalisation.  

Lichinga is for sure a clear demonstration of how the effects of the scramble and partition for Africa have affected the rural population. Lying over 2,000 kilometres North of the capital city, it takes a 4 hour flight to this town. From Maputo you literally over fly a full length of South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia and go over Malawi as you cross Lake Nyassa to reach Lichinga. A distance that is longer than flying from Nairobi to Addis Ababa or from Johannesburg to Nairobi! Only the difference is this is one country, a narrow long stretch of land-the hand work of the Portuguese colonialists.

 We quickly got down working with staff on the logistics of a workshop that was to be held the following day. The day quickly passed without noticing and before I knew it was already dark. Consulting my watch, it was barely six in the evening. Yes, it was winter and the days were shorter than the nights as darkness set in early and lingered on after dawn. 

Back to my guest house, I was hit by the reality of having to interact with hosts that I could hardly communicate with. I knew little of the Portuguese language. Luckily for me, one of the guest attendants spoke Kiswahili very well. My anxieties were assuaged and I was soon engrossed in a conversation with him on diverse topics, ranging from how he learned the language and the livelihoods of people in the province to his tough life experiences growing up in a marginalised community and a war torn country to boot!

The workshop room was milling with people when I arrived early the next morning. Rural folk looking energised but the smiles could not hide their long years of struggle to eke a living from farming and other small productive activities.

 The debates soon got lively, and for the first time I understood practically the outcome of ACORD’s efforts to build a social movement in Africa capable of not only working on practical and immediate needs of the people but also challenging the root causes of poverty and marginalisation. Heated debate ensued as the community based organisation members asserted that ACORD had indeed facilitated and influenced the government to engage the communities in matters of development. While the government representatives argued that they had their own mechanisms and ACORD was in fact just a player like any other.

 A slender woman, obviously looking older than her real age shot up, ‘there is no denying that ACORD showed you the way’, she thundered, ‘can you dispute the fact that ACORD was the first to come to our otherwise then forgotten community and sat us down to come up with community development plans and worked with us to implement them?’ Yes, she continued, ‘you have plans but you had never come to us before and indeed in many areas ACORD introduced you to the people when it should have been the opposite! As if that is not enough, your planning processes hardly took our views into consideration, only lately did they after ACORD showed the way’. A thunderous handclapping by participants and shouts of ‘Say it all! Say it all!’ were heard above the din of applause. She would have continued had the moderator not intervened to make the debate more balanced and get the government representative’s view.

 A male participant and government representative cleared his voice, swallowed hard and looking every inch a cornered prey, finally managed to pull himself together and said, ‘err ehh what I was explaining was that all the Civil societies are part of the government development implementing system and we work in synergy…’

He was suddenly cut short buy none other than his colleague who introduced herself as the one responsible for social and community development. ‘I have personally been to many rural and far flung, outlying districts of this province, she started, looked around the room surveying with her sharp aging eyes as if to stump her authority on the participants, and continued, ‘I met numerous community based development groups and associations that ACORD mobilised people to form and use as development vehicles. We can not deny that.

She asserted and continued, ‘these community groups have been to a large extent, over 90% successful economic improvement vehicles for the communities and partners with us in government on development matters. We are grateful that ACORD came to the communities’ rescue at a time when we were still cropping in the dark in approaches to effective community development. She concluded, surveyed the room again as if to say she was the last authority on the matter. Indeed the matter had been rested. The people had spoken, talk of a social movement leveraging change and calling on governments in Africa to account!

 Back at the office in the evening and second and last day of the workshop, I saw a young lady probably in her early twenties in the middle of a group of peers attracting quite a deal of attention. I inquired from a colleague in the field office what the matter was. The girl was looking elated and was the centre of attraction and admiration by her friends. In smattering English my colleague explained that she had just received an email offering her a dream job she had applied for to work in one of the tourist hotels in the capital city.

This got my interest, through my colleague I managed to have an impromptu interview with her. ‘How do you feel about your new fortune?’ I asked through my colleague turned interpreter. ‘I am so   happy; she said her face beaming with excitement. Before I could ask another question, she continued. ‘And all, these thanks to this CDIT internet project by ACORD otherwise I would not even have afforded a postal stamp and envelop to post my application for this job. This internet café services are fast and affordable to the poor like me.’ She added, with a tinge of sadness in her voice as she made the latter statement.

 I wondered aloud, where would this girl be without organisations like ACORD? Poor, marginalised with stifled hopes staring in a future of despair? The internet centre, I was later told, had helped so many young people to access information on employment opportunities, do research and accomplish their studies.

 As I left Lichinga, after a week of sojourn, boarding my flight to Maputo I still saw a lingering picture of this poor girl whose fortunes had tremendously changed at a click of a mouse courtesy of ACORD, conceivably the only little but significant tangible benefit of globalisation in the dusty rural town and seat of the provincial government of Nyassa I had witnessed.