Francisco complains. He tells the son that he plays that the land will not be his when he grows up. In a short time, children will have to play in another land, and that is what annoys them. “They haven’t given us a choice, it’s been yes or yes. There is a huge reserve of coal under us, and that is the punishment that God had reserved for us. We have seen the money and the government has ignored our demands, we are strangers in our house!”

Kapanga is a village of small mud huts. It is only a few kilometers from the city of Tete, which is heading north. The Zambeze river kisses the lands of the neighbors, cooling in the heat of summer and leaving some limes that are beneficial. “They are very fertile lands. We can extract three harvests of tomato a year, just using our technology. Think about what we could do if we had the instrumentation and wisdom that you have in Europe,” says Abilio, while taking the land in your hands and trampling it. He works in the Solidarity Campesina Nacional (UNAC) association. There are no more issues to deal with at the office tables: the refugee farmers who have created the exploitation of coal. “They tell the inhabitants of the area that they will give them all the amenities, a house, a light, water in the kitchen and in the bathroom, a terrain, tools, etc. But then the peasants, both the Brazilian company Rio Tinto, which exploits coal, and the Government of Mozambique, are ignored and turned to deaf ears. The doors of the UNAC are open to the peasants, but we have little strength with the multinationals of Rio Tinto and Vale,” explains Abilio.

Coal at dusk

Coal has always been used by the inhabitants of Kapanga, especially for heating food. In the mountains there has always been some small exploitation or charcoal made with wood from the forests of the area. But in the 1990s, after almost twenty years of conflict, Mozambique began to consolidate from its ashes and the external markets struck the African territory. It had large fishing resources and many possibilities for gas exploitation. The giant coal business also germinated at that time. Large areas of land concealed huge reserves and this rich land became a misfortune for its inhabitants. The coal extraction system is very aggressive with nature and it chokes the life around between black dust and smoke. As if that were not enough, the amount of water to be used to wash the coal is very high; the Zambeze River is blackened by it, and only poor people dare to eat the fish that have remained there.

Brazilian companies Rio Tinto and Vale are the multinationals that have opened mines in the Tete area. With an operating permit of 50 years, there are many tonnes of coal that are brought up to date, although there is no concrete data. They make the mountains disappear and fill the valleys with debris brought by giant trucks. The fruits and vegetables of the peasants living in the area are dark, to the point of doubt that they are edible.

As a solution, the two multinationals committed themselves to transferring to other lands the population living on these heaps of coal. Not only did they give them house and land in good condition, but also money and work. False promises. But business lawyers have been forced to shut down farmers’ complaints. At first, farmers were at ease in the new houses, far further away from the promised areas. An example of this is the settlement of Kateme, 50 kilometres from Kapanga. The houses looked solid and they had electricity. But they quickly realized that they only have a few hours of light, that they have to go to community wells to search for water, and that the new grounds are arid, almost sterile. Before they took three harvests per season, if now they can take one... They haven't given jobs to the expelled, only a few work on wages, building what their house will be, and it's there.

Drowning with thirst

Ephremidis opens the doors of his house and apologizes for not having anything to offer us. “The water we have is to drink tonight, because the water we have taken these past days from the well is not drinkable and the company Vale brings it to us in the trucks,” he says. Represents local farmers: “We’re all angry because the plots we’ve given are sterile. Maize is the basis of our food and we can barely harvest a crop. In addition, it is of exaggerated quality, as you drink little water since it is cultivated. They are often eaten by insects, which grow very weakly. So we told Rio Tinto and Vale, and their answer was to bring a truck with chemical fertilizers. In the long run, we know that it will not bring benefits, because it depletes and pollutes the land. We farmers know what we need: a powerful irrigation system. But here there's no river, no lake, no pond. The water should be brought from the outside and it's too expensive. We want it to be changed and the multinationals to deliver on their word. We want to live like our ancestors, cultivating the land, dignified. Nothing else. And here you can't."

Ephremidis has led us to see his lands. They were given to her when she was transferred from Kapanga to Katem. He took his tools and put the earth in front of our eyes. However, the surrounding land collapses as an area of the beach at the time the azada enters. With his finger he pointed towards the dry corn field: “Look at what this land gives. Nothing.” Despite the cold season, the heat is intense in Katem. In summer the temperature reaches 50 degrees Celsius, and if this is coupled with water scarcity, the conditions are not good for agriculture.

Ephremidis criticized that “the solution of companies has always been the omission and stalemate when the situation assumes it”. “When water is lacking they bring it into the trucks, if the soil is not fertile they will provide us with fertilizer, if we do not have doctors, technicians will supervise the inhabitants of all the people, on the street, and so on. Patches on patches,” says Francisco angry. “Soon I will be taken to such a place and that future I don’t like anything. The Capangatinos have condemned us to poverty, they believe we are idiots!”

Permission from the local police is required to visit Kateme. No matter if you have journalist accreditation for the entire country, local authorities will decide who gets into the settlement and who doesn't. It works as a jail, but this jail has no walls, but an isolation of many kilometers. The nearest villages are too far away, you cannot go on foot. The time we have been given to be in the settlement has run out, we have to go before there is any problem. Francis, aware that he will soon be sent to the settlement, tells Ephraim, worried, that there they will die of thirst. “We are already drowned,” Ephraim replied. We shook hands and drove back to Kapanga.

The garden of the elders rots

In the capital Tete live the workers of Rio Tinto and Vale. Many of them live in hotels, most of them of foreign origin, especially Brazilian and Chinese. The exploitation of coal has created a new problem: increasing economic inequality between classes. In Abilio’s words, “a room in a first hotel could cost at most 10 euros. Now that there are foreign workers and they have more money than Africans, the cheapest cost is EUR 100. A beer costs 5 euros and in the first 50 cents you could drink a good beer.”

The coal industry has done nothing to the people of Mozambique. The poor people have received no advantage, they continue to burn charcoal and not the coal that companies exploit. “Most of the coal goes to China, Australia and Brazil. In the case of Brazil, because exploitation generates a lot of pollution, they do not do it in the State, but look for other territories for it, and it has touched us,” explains the member of the UNAC. “We have to bring the food out from South Africa. We eat more expensive and worse. Many cannot eat enough and have to resort to landfills in big cities to get something that can be put in the mouth or sold through the trash. We have created an unjust nation, we have not fought for it for so many years. We have let the camp of our parents rot,” adds Abilio, desperate.