Africa-Press – Angola. The road to the village of Nova Esperança starts at one end of the village of Sanza Pombo, initially tearing through one of its suburban neighborhoods, continuing sinisterly through forests, mountains and steep slopes with always sandy soils, which cause serious damage to vehicles and patience of conductors
The initial part of the only route for those heading to the municipal seat of Buengas is dominated by rough pavement of reddish earth, easily overcome by rainwater that opens up ditches and monstrous chasms.
Along the way, kids run to the road, called by the roar of distressed engines, waving from the other side of the ravines that, in certain places, divide the small villages in half, leaving only a narrow tongue of land for cars to pass. The shifting soils favor vehicles digging trenches that look like tunnels, which reach such a considerable depth that vehicles are not visible from a long distance.
After the village of Mbuenga Sul, a former concentration of Portuguese settlers, the ravines give a truce to the road and pass the whip of punishment to the abundant and voluminous sandbanks that grow in the belly of the road, forcing the driver to use the first and second gears, assisted almost always by the left-hander, that is, the first and even the second booster.
“Boss, it fatigues the engine and tires the driver”, observed Neto Kambembe, in the face of the painful silence of the Jornal de Angola reporter, who prefers to look at the forest of robust trees, vines, herbs and other species that spread almost along the way, opening up areas for cultivation and hunting. These forests, generally open, of a tropical type with low vegetation and open in their interior, over which the vultures fly in a circle in search of any prey, provide shelter to many species of animals, especially antelopes, pacaças, gazelles, monkeys, chimpanzees, pacas (mbuiji), hares, as well as different species of birds and snakes, as said by a villager who carried a boa constrictor on his back, dead in one of the your traps.
Along the way, broken down vehicles can be seen, with problems with the clutch disc, ball joints or even the engine, which forces, when this happens, a forced rest for travelers, who stay for days until the solution is found to continue with the scrubbing. . “Since I’ve been here (working) I’ve slept three or four times on the road”, said administrator José Bunga in conversation with journalists from Edições Novembro.
On certain sections of the track, very powerful trucks or passengers with machetes and axes in hand opened new shortcuts in the jungle, looking for alternatives to circumvent the depth of obstacles or the brakes of the voluminous sand. “In colonial times, ravines didn’t exist that much, it seems that the world is getting old”, observed the elder Samuel Mpaxi, himself also in disbelief with the current problems of the road, when asked if the road was always in this pitiful state. , at one of the stops of the old Land Cruiser car for a short break.
The elder, who is the head of the Association of Traditional Authorities (AST) of the Mbwengas, the traditional name for the region, also said that in colonial times there was a white man who forced the sobas to mobilize the population to cut grass, which was placed on the trail of the road, which facilitated the transit of vehicles. “With grass, cars didn’t skate on sand,” he said.
When the car’s engine roared again and it managed to climb a small hill, a group of dwellings appeared nearby, but still far away, given the nature of the road, that even at a distance marked a difference in relation to the villages passed along the route. It is the seat of the municipality of Buengas, “where the road ends and Esperança continues”, a metaphor that is regularly used by its inhabitants, probably because of the difficulties faced in road traffic or for any other reason that only they know about.
The village of New Hope
Nova Esperança began to be built long before the 40s of the 20th century, only being elevated to the category of town on September 1, 1971, which is why the population gathers annually to celebrate effusively. Rituals, fairs, football matches and dancing nights are promoted.
Even in the village, the car did not stop “skating”, a brake caused by the same sand on the road, which also forces people to walk as if they were doing vanity, with the cadence of the steps dictated by the effort to remove their feet from the ground. “We in Uíge it is easy to determine the people who live in Mbuengas. They walk with their arms and legs open”, shot an official of the Ministry of the Interior posted here, in conversation with reporters about the state of the road and the pavement of the streets of this village.
There are still many signs of the Portuguese colonial presence everywhere. The stores, some already converted into residences, are arranged facing each other on the only street. In the place where the barracks of the first phase of the colonial occupation of the region used to be, a warehouse and a water elevator that supplied the town were built. The population is now forced to search for the precious liquid in rivers or in the small cisterns of the administration, judging by the inoperability of the system for capturing, storing, treating and distributing water from the Xixi River, which is just three kilometers away.
José Bunga said there were guarantees from the Ministry of Energy and Water for the construction or expansion of this water supply system to benefit the 7,018 inhabitants of Nova Esperança.
Behind the old town, some infrastructures were recently built, with emphasis on the Municipal Palace, the residence of the assistant administrator, the Casa Protocolar and other residences for middle-level civil servants. Many of these infrastructures were built with temporary, prefabricated materials, such as the hospital at the entrance to the village, the Administration building and some houses. The Municipal Administration works in five separate blocks, three of which are for provisional construction and two for permanent construction, which, in the view of administrator Bunga, who expressed the intention of building a single building for all the services of the Administration, “is inappropriate to the norm.” Recently, the buildings that house the municipal administrator, his deputy and other officials were built, in addition to the housing areas in the extreme southeast, which “fattened” the town and took away its colonial smallness.
The 200 dwellings program allowed the construction of 108 houses, of which, however, only 29 are completed. Of the unfinished ones, 64 already have roofs, 12 do not have a roof and three are in the foundation phase.
On the outskirts of the village, the people set up an informal market where they sell the result of their daily sweat. Yams, ginguba, bombô, manioc and other products from the countryside that facilitate matabicho can be purchased here. In the afternoons, some game meat, bombô fuba and other products are purchased here, mainly by Administration employees, teachers, police officers and nurses.
The only bakery, built in colonial times, has long been closed, with only its huge structure being present, which can be seen from a distance, forcing residents to stock up on “dumb bread” made in small artisan ovens scattered around the village.
At night, the small town is illuminated by a 700 Kv generator set, which works with great difficulty related to the occasional purchase of fuel and spare parts, according to the administrator, who makes the definitive solution to the problem of the construction of a mini-water dam from the Xixi River.
Never giving up hope, the administrator José Bunga believes that the solution to the problem of the road is soon, judging by the guarantees he has received from his superiors, that there is already funding, provided by the Angolan Investment Bank. “I want to get this problem resolved, which will certainly make the Buenga people smile, before moving on to my administrative reform”.
The return of the parties
This year, citizens gathered again to celebrate the 1st of September, the day the town was elevated to the category of town, following the disintegration of the former possession of the Bayakas under the jurisdiction of Maquela do Zombo, in 1971. It took three days consecutive food and drink and music events at events hosted by local artists and others hired in the city of Uíge.
Several artists paraded on the stage set up in the center of the village that animated the population. “We didn’t sleep. We danced all night. It’s better to come always to take away people’s sadness”, said Pedro Nzengele, an elderly man in his 70s.
The singer Caba Chato was warmly applauded, especially when he offered his acclaimed song “Funguna” to those present. The singers Baki Maquela and the group “Anambwenga”, musicians with a lot of experience in the national square, also received effusive applause. The duo “Gémeos” and “Pérolas Negras” also contributed to the sleepless night of the village of the future.
Long before the show, there was a ritual, held on the Xixi River, which the villagers and surroundings consider sacred. Directed by three elders who hold the secrets of the mystique and the knowledge of the region’s experience, the ceremony was attended by the municipal administrator José Bunga, civil servants and representatives of various social organizations. Wine was spilled and pieces of bread thrown onto the riverbed to “feed the mermaids”, according to the Batsoso custom. Shortly afterwards, Nova Esperança residents watched a football match between village youth and a church group Católica, with the latter in the end lifting the cup. The administrator took advantage of the occasion to offer balls and other sports equipment to the local teams. It was the culmination of the football tournament.
Late into the night, the Municipal Administration offered a fraternization dinner to various entities in the region, including the political parties MPLA, UNITA and FNLA, whose representatives tasted the food of the land,side by side, at the same table.”We want to restore joy and unity to the young and the elderly”, said José Bunga Alberto, who was also eager to see the issue of access to the village resolved, which is,as he pointed out,”the only concern of the population of the Mbuengas”.
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