Global Poverty Monitor

It was straight on to the markets after that. As we got nearer to the markets, I saw that there were Mozambican people (mainly men) standing around in what looked to be a parking lot, holding goods that they were trying to sell. I though that actually was the ‘market place’, until I realized that there was a large building directly behind. Inside that building was the real markets – the people outside were merely street vendors who were preying on the people who wanted to come to the markets. The first stall I saw was a fish stand, which smelt awful. The fish weren’t even on ice, so I wonder how long they had been sitting there and just how safe they would be to eat. I can’t imagine people throwing away good, saleable fish just because it was caught a few days earlier.

Most of the stalls inside the markets were traditional African items – especially wooden items, carvings and paintings. One thing I noticed was that the people selling outside the markets were mainly selling Western items – sunglasses, CDs, plastic toys, whereas inside there were mainly tradition African items along with some fresh food and other packaged food. I suppose the reason might be that the people inside would have to pay rent for their stall, and so would need to have a more stable business to be able to guarantee that they can make rent. On the other hand, the people selling Western goods did not seem to have a large supply, and so probably picked them up cheaply from somewhere, and tomorrow may be selling or doing something completely different.

The markets were definitely an experience – it was quite daunting, and the salespeople were very pushy. By the time we left I felt that I was used to the money, which will be handy for the rest of the time here.