Marromeu has spoken

A Chuabo woman’s song from central Mozambique, about the separation of husband and wife (see also Complaint). Marromeu was the second of Sena Sugar Estate’s plantations, on the south bank of the Zambesi opposite Luabo. While her husband is absent there a labour migrant, the singer is growing rice under compulsion for Lopes e Irmão, owner of the rice concession for Maganja da Costa.

This poem was sung in Chuabo by Paterina João and Palmira Goodbye of Lower Licungo, at Juncua Compound, Marromeu, 2 September, 1975.

from Capitalism & Colonialism in Mozambique (1980), 354
Leroy Vail & Landeg White