“Just gonna stand there and watch me burn”

On my way back to Namaacha, after traveling for 4 weeks, after all the chapas and trains and planes, after the vast variety of people and cultures, I encounter the most frustrating men. I’m the first person on the chapa, so I sit in the front seat. I wait for almost an hour as if fills, and the last seat in the chapa is between me and the driver. I’m told, “Move over so this man can sit there.” I jump out and say, “No, I’ll get out to let him in, but I’m not moving. I like my seat.” I got laughed at. “Lady, it’s against the law for a man to sit in the center seat if a woman is in the window seat.” ?!?!?!?!? I quote, “Against the law.” I argued for a bit, (“Really, against the law? Culture, sure. Custom, I don’t doubt it. The law? Try again,”) talked about equal rights, (“Yes, men and women have equal right here, but not this. This is a law,” I was told), refused to move seats, and eventually the dude got in the middle seat. The driver, the dude, the cobrador (who takes your money and lets people on and off), and several of the men at the chapa stop were all talking and yelling about how this white chick was refusing to obey the law and give a man my seat. Lets note 2 things: They always think I’m weird here, and since when has the law mattered for anything?! So, we finally leave, the driver muttering, “You’re wrong but let’s go.” I politely asked to stop and talk to the police along the way, because there are conveniently 4 check-points between Namaacha and Maputo, but no dice. When we finally arrived, I asked the men, “Did you survive? Did you suffer?” I’m still amazed sometimes at people and their knowledge of what is “right”. I’m sure a few of those men truly thought it was a law that women cannot sit in the front. Ha, not on my watch.


One thing Scoot and I talked about once I got home was inability of the women on the chapa with me to support me or back me up. Sure, maybe some of them would’ve liked to, but they have to live here with these cultural inequalities for the rest of their lives, deal with misogynistic men constantly, and continually battle to get by in this imbalanced culture whereas I am just visiting and get to leave it all behind. I know they just had to sit there and watch me, but maybe I made at least one person think things could be different someday.