On the 20th of September, at half past one in the afternoon, I had the pleasure of guiding Siya, who came all the way from South Africa and is currently in Maputo for a research project.
Hi, my name is Romão from Nenane Tours, and this tour was brought to you in association with Maputo Trips. 😄
Before we even met, Siya had already given me butterflies in my stomach — and I mean that in the best way. This tour is a partnership between Nenane Tours and Maputo Trips, and she told me she’d found us after digging deep into the internet, specifically looking for a company that offered authentic experiences and was owned by a young Mozambican. Hearing that someone went that far out of their way to find exactly what we’re trying to build was, honestly, exactly the kind of guest I’d love to meet more of.
I’ll be honest about how the day started: we began about fifteen minutes later than planned, entirely my fault — I misjudged how long it would take me to get from my place to Siya’s accommodation. My sincere apologies for that one, Siya.
There was one small, very human moment early on. I wasn’t immediately sure how Siya would like to be addressed, so I tried a few different pronouns early on and adjusted based on her reactions, until I got it right. That approach worked, and once we’d found our footing, we got straight into it — from the very first minutes, she had me answering questions about everything, not just food. That curiosity set the tone for the whole afternoon.
We started at Restaurante Graciana, one of the best places in the city for traditional Mozambican cooking, where we shared two dishes that really capture the flavors of the south: matapa (cassava leaves with crab) and couve (cabbage with shrimp), with badjias on the side as a starter — all washed down with a 2M, one of our most celebrated national beers. From there we went to Xima, where Siya tried petisco, the soup Mozambicans swear by as a hangover cure. That day’s version was made with “rabo de vaca” (oxtail), though it can just as easily be made with cow tripe or chicken giblets. We closed the tour at the Associação dos Músicos Moçambicanos, catching a jam session led by Manecas o Simpático — nothing quite like a cold beer and live marrabenta to end a food tour properly.
Somewhere between the matapa and the marrabenta, we ended up talking about what food actually means in a place. Siya made the point that you can learn more about a community’s habits and values through what’s on its table than almost anywhere else — and that tasting local dishes with someone explaining the why behind them gave her a much deeper read on Mozambican culture than she expected.
The conversation that stayed with me most, though, came a bit later. Siya mentioned that Mozambique struck her as one of the more welcoming countries in the world for the LGBT community — and that although she’d caught a few curious glances along the way, none of them ever felt unkind or threatening. That’s not a small thing to hear from a visitor, and it’s the kind of observation that makes me proud of this city.
What was supposed to be a two-to-three-hour tour ended up running three and a half — and I’m starting to collect real evidence for Einstein’s theory of relativity: three hours with people you click with fly by like five minutes. We both left wishing we’d had a bit more time.
Siya, thank you for the curiosity, the honesty, and the conversations that went way beyond the menu. Wishing you all the best with your research — and the door is always open whenever you’re back in Maputo.
A Luta Continua.