roots | Nzualo Na' Khumalo

This is our quest: to leave the branches and find where our tree is standing on. How far do our roots go? What is it on the soil that fed the seed?

From concrete jungle to urbanized savanna, we followed the path to the start. The Root to our morals, our ideologies and identity.

Part I: Ntumbuluko wa mina/ My roots

Bairro da Maxaquene

After leaving the southern province of Inhambane, in hopes of providing a better life for their families in the capital city, Maputo, Maxaquene was the first, and still is the address of our grandparents. In the simplicity it offers, here they raised our parents under strong values such as hard work, gratitude and humbleness.

Mana Lidia is a young woman who lives in Maxaquene. Although it was the first time we met, she didn’t mind opening the doors of her house to us and making us feel a part of her family. With no hesitation, she welcomed us into her room and even shared her views on the neighborhood and our project.

The hospitality was beyond expected. From the moment we were welcomed into her home to the moment we left, we were treated the same way our parents and grandparents would have treated us. Even though we don’t share the same blood, we share the same values, for that she is a part of us and we a part of her.

Where many may see just another suburban area of Maputo, we see the corners where our parents first discovered love, the places they used to play zoto (tag) with their friends and certainly other memories we have yet to discover.

Over the years, the neighborhood has gone through various changes, but its kindness and rawness remains the same. Here we are, two generations after in the pursuit of a better understanding of our being, our intellectuality, our beginning.