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As Terras do Fim do Mundo

a trip to the "Land at the end the Earth"

 

Mavinga was home for the medical mission fighting the tsetse fly, had a weather station, a school, hospital and an air strip. All up a permanent European population of less than 10. When the medical mission was “in town”, the population grew "considerably" with the addition of Dr. Cabral and his team of maybe four or five medicos.

 

Mavinga - Our house at the end of the road

and the school on the left

 A small quimbo (native village) was established in the vicinity of the village. The Soba (traditional authority) Kapusso was the authority in a quimbo of 30 to 40 people of the same clan.

Sixty kilometres west of Mavinga a safari camp, Kirongosi Angola Safaris, added an international flair to the area during the hunting season. The “high society” of Mavinga had the opportunity to rub shoulders with the world rich and famous from time to time.

On arrival we would be greeted by old friends. Mum and Dad obviously and all the people working in my parents' property:

 

  • António the cook and grandson of Soba Kapusso
  • Chinoia the foreman, a tremendous horseman
  • The general hand Tita a Camussequere (Kalahari bushman) who taught me some of their strange “clicking” language
  • The two tailors Sandumba and André
  • The pisteiros (trackers) Chiesso, Malassa, Luis and Miguel with whom I roamed the savannas in search of good trophies
  • and many others that I can no longer remember the names but the faces are still vivid in my mind.

 

In our backyard - from left António,

Tita and Chinoia

Somewhere in the Cuando Cubango. Siting with me

at the back is Miguel and Malassa

 One of first things to leave in the draw of the bedside table from then on was my watch and money. No need for these things in the bush. You eat when you are hungry ( which was most of the time) and there is nowhere to use money.

Since 1961 I made this trip every year and could not wait to get back home. Later on during the war, Mr. Barros started a small airline with a twin engines Cessna linking once a week the main villages of the Cuando Cubango. Land mines made the trip by truck too dangerous and even longer and Mr. Barros with his “pucha-empurra” (push-pull engines) Cessna killed the adventure of travelling to the Terras do Fim do Mundo (Land at the end of the Earth)

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