Algarve-based writer Stephen Powell, author of a book on walking through Portugal, is launching a new volume, this time on the former Portuguese colony of Mozambique.
“Since Mozambique is about eight times the size of Portugal, I opted for public transport on this occasion,” said Powell. “The country is pretty starved of tourists, partly on account of a long-running insurgency in the north. But if you don’t mind rough roads, most of Mozambique is actually an alluring place to visit. The coast is beautiful and unspoilt, there are great national parks and the people are friendly and welcoming.”
Powell worked as a Reuters journalist for 27 years and went to Mozambique in 2024 because he felt it was under-reported in the English-speaking world.
“My motivation was partly to see a country I didn’t know at all, but I also wanted to write about people doing inspiring work,” said Powell. “Bad guys when they are powerful get so much attention. To redress the balance a little, freelance journalists are at liberty to put the spotlight on good guys. I consciously try to do that as a roving reporter.
“In Mozambique I went to the Gorongosa National Park to talk to the Idaho millionaire Greg Carr. He has spent more than $100 million helping to restore the park which was ravaged by civil war. Some species – hyenas, leopards, jackals and painted wolves – disappeared. Now the wildlife has returned and Gorongosa has become a role model for Africa. The key is deep engagement with local people and Gorongosa does that brilliantly, introducing new crops, expanding education and health facilities.”
In a very different vein, Powell also went to Moatize, a coal-mining town in the northwestern province of Tete. He reported on an initiative by the town’s inhabitants to take on the Indian owners of the mine, whom they accused in an open letter signed by more than 300 people of committing a crime against humanity. Black clouds of coal dust from mine explosions are a regular feature and the mine uses a lot of water in a region hit by drought.
“One thing I try to do is to take my time,” said Powell. “Journalists are generally under serious time pressure and those of us who are retired from full-time work can gift our time. I spent about three months in Mozambique, with a little side-trip into Malawi. In Moatize, I spent several days talking to people. I was very moved by the commitment of one man in particular, businessman Amadssen Veterano, to throw his energy into campaigning for less pollution. Veterano is a married man with four daughters, but he was tireless in the work he did for the community.”
Powell recounts in his book, Letters from Mozambique, that he first went to Africa as a young man just out of university. “It was a fortuitous encounter with Kurdish bandits in the badlands of eastern Turkey that first set me on the path to Africa,” he writes in his introduction. This encounter persuaded him to abandon his original idea of taking the hippie trail to Kathmandu. He went to Africa instead.
Letters from Mozambique, with illustrations by Powell’s daughters Megan and Rachel, is published by SilverWood Books on January 10 and can be bought from them, Amazon or other major outlets.
With fellow writer Sue Hall, who lives on the same hill as him in the countryside near Tavira, Powell will be co-facilitating a travel writing course on May 18 to 21. For more information, click here.
