Preserving identities

Fefe Indigg Loy

Craftsman and worked for the government, 60 years old
Excerpted · August 2017

Note: Fefe Indigg Loy passed away in 2021. We are deeply grateful for having had the opportunity to meet him, his house and hear the stories he kindly shared.

Interviewer: What is your connection with the Island of Mozambique?
Fefe Indigg Loy: I wish that the Island could improve. By the time I was born, few people lived on the Island. People respected the culture and our identity. Now this doesn’t happen. People say they are from the Island but they don’t know its history. They must have moral values. People don’t respect each other and the elderly. When I was a kid we would go to neighbors’ homes to listen to their stories. And we respected them. We had morals.

Do you know what are UNESCO and its role regarding the Island of Mozambique? The UNESCO World Heritage Site (WHS) nomination…?
F. I. L.: Yes, I know.

Do you think the WHS classification changed the way people perceive the Island of Mozambique or the way they interact with it or the Island itself?
F. I. L.: Things didn’t change that much. But UNESCO has a particularity. If the Island is a WHS, not only for the people but also for the material things are disappearing. I surveyed a girl that came from Denmark, and we did a book about the Island. We interviewed the older people of the Island, asked about local traditions, about the houses of the Island, observing the houses with construction styles from the Arabs, and Swahili ones, from Portuguese colonial times. And macuti houses they are few left. Because they are transforming the houses without any care and people are not calling it out. This used to have macuti houses in the macuti part. That is why is called that. But today, things are changing. It is losing its credibility and identity of being macuti. They are putting in zinc and doing brickwork. There are things UNESCO said it was important to defend. But this is only on paper. For example, in front of Escondidinho [hotel], they are putting up pavement, but who is supervising? Where are the responsible people from the town hall or UNESCO? Where are the people defending the Island’s heritage? I don’t agree with the role UNESCO has on the Island. They are not defending the Island’s heritage. We, the sons of the Island, even if we complain about the situation to the people in charge, they don’t listen to us. We have complained so many times that the houses are being destroyed, but nobody listens. I and Hafiz try to do something. Why UNESCO, which has the role to train new people, not only the youth… Youth today does noise, doesn’t have history, is noisy and it is annoying, they don’t have morals. In my time, there used to be Religion and Morals, and we know how to respect others. Today it doesn’t exist and children don’t have morals. Where are we going from here..?

Overall, do you think people are about the conservation of the Island of Mozambique?
F. I. L.: People don’t care, I say that clearly. People here don’t know the importance of having a macuti house. They don’t know what it is to preserve heritage. They don’t seek knowledge. If there are conferences there are all in the stone city part. They are never in the macuti part. Here we have people with a very low level of education. A team should be formed that went from neighbourhood from neighborhood explaining the importance of preserving heritage, of respecting our own identity. So people don’t care.

Did you visit any museums? If so, what is your opinion about them?
F. I. L.: Yes, I visited many times and exhibitions. As I said I’m a goldsmith, a sculptor…The museum that we have here represents more the history of the colonial time than the history of Mozambique. Some children cannot know their history because African history is not represented anywhere. The museum has shown some African history but it is the one from Nampula. We should portray the wars, with photography… To turn this around, a person must be conscious of its history, and that doesn’t happen. There is no African history there…It is very expensive to take people from here to Nampula. And people are not accustomed to moving to a museum. Even the closes ones, don’t go.

What do you consider to be your heritage?
F. I. L.: My heritage is to preserve my own culture with its unique traces, like the cuisine, the language, the way of dressing, and the respect. Today everything is modernized. Occidental style is mixed with African style. More and more people reject their culture to be like somebody else. The Europeans, for example, never had the desire to dress like Africans. They respect their own culture and identity. But we don’t. We diversify our culture. Certain people in government jobs don’t let their children speak macua. They feel embarrassed. These people are denying their own culture. There’s no national identity like that.   

What do you think about the current state of the Fortress of San Sebastian [Fortaleza de São Sebastião]?
F. I. L.: That fortress is not in great aesthetic condition. Or they do a museum, so people could visit it. It is something that attracts tourists to the fortress. Could have something that explains its history. A part could have a laboratory for engineering or anthropology of a University, for example. The money collected from the entrance tickets could then go to restore something else.

What do you think about the coming of foreigners to the Island? Did the WHS classification help boost tourism or the coming of foreign investigators and investors..?
F. I. L.: Yes. It gives light to the Island. It would be good to have tourists here all the time. It would be good that the people that receive the tourists respected them. They are our guests and should be respected. Should have support and somebody to guide them to the places on the Island. I know people should be educated to guide tourists. It is revenue that can help pave more roads and rehabilitate houses. There should be a House of Culture, to tell stories to the tourists. Because the young people that tell stories to the tourists on the streets are adulterating them. Their own history. The history of the Island of Mozambique is on one side, the macuti side, and the stone city. For one or two dollars they say something to tourists that is not true. The tourists then don’t come to the macuti part. They don’t tell the history and stories correctly. Some books that are edited and I read about the Island of Mozambique this and that… But then I open another book and it says another different thing. They don’t match. The Island is mine and I have to tell the real stories. Each neighborhood has its own history.

Do you feel connected to some monument on the Island of Mozambique?
F. I. L.: Regarding that part, I cannot quite respond. I distanced. People don’t know moral values and the idea of being of the monuments. I saw a story on TV, about a kid that was asked “Where did Luís de Camões lose his eye?” and he answered, “In a nightclub”. The tourist that comes here knows that we don’t know the history of our Island. I know how to explain where he lost his eye because I’ve studied and know who he is and how many years he stayed here on the Island of Mozambique. Two years. There is an old door in the house where he used to live. He wrote part of the Os Lusíadas here. They think he was born in a nightclub and they think it was where he lost his eye. There is also a story that a woman tells, on TV, that the origins of Tufo were that the sailors used to play on their pans. I mean. How come? The true origin is from Zanzibar! From Arabic people. Tufo is from our culture here also because Arabic was one of the first to inhabit the Island. So it stayed. And they show this on TV but don’t bother to tell that this is not a correct version of history. It is necessary to align the facts and know our history. You, the Europeans, can tell your history and even ours, things that we can’t do. Because in Europe they investigate. I spent almost my life in Germany. I know and respect Germany. I feel black but also German. The education that I got is different, I’ve learned to respect others. And to respect the things of my country. This is missing in the mentality of the inhabitants of the Island. People don’t take care of public spaces, like gardens. They should know that you can’t take things off the garden. And then children grow up thinking that this is normal behavior. There are monuments on the Island that are not respected. People build sheds around the monument. Where are the people that confiscate this sort of thing? Or they are not there or people don’t respect their orders.

Is there any story or anything else you would like to share?
F. I. L.: I was born in a very religious family, a Muslim family. In my family, there is a mix. My great-grandmother was born were on the Island and so my great-grandfather. So my family started to grow. My grandfather left to do business somewhere else, in the continental area. When I was young my parents were afraid that I would screw up, because I didn’t give importance to religion. To go to school, to assimilate, the child must have a house, a bed to sleep in, eat with cutlery, a Portuguese name… So we used to go to a “regular” school and then were taken to a Portuguese school, to be next to a white person. Because you already had a civilization, know how to behave around other people. Until now, a part of my family is practically Muslim, almost radical. 

Do you feel people are becoming more religious or Muslim, over time?
F. I. L.: We can say that the Island is a bastion of the Muslim community. 99% are Muslim on the Island. Few Catholics and zero Hindus now. I learned the arts with an uncle. He is living in Maputo. He is much respected and respects others as well.

You are a goldsmith and a sculptor. Did you want to learn those arts or it was something imposed on you?
F. I. L.: No, it was my own will. I have a group of goldsmiths on the Island: the Association of Craftsmen and Goldsmiths of the Island of Mozambique (ASSOUIMO). I’m the president. I also paint. I like art because it is the only way to express our feelings. We inspire ourselves and create.