A costa dos murmúrios ……Lídia Jorge

With a flick of a pen, Lidia Jorge, transports you to the battlefield of the colonial war in Mozambique, where she and her husband, a Portuguese soldier lived for six years.
‘A Costa dos Murmúrios’ seems to be an echo of those terrible years of sadness, frustration and most of all of disillusionment. Narrated in a dead pan voice of Evita, we are taken back to Mozambique, to a war which did not help anyone, a war that destroyed a country and turned ‘normal’ men into inhuman beings.
But let’s get back to the hauntingly beautiful book, ‘A Costa dos Murmúrios’, let Evita narrate her strange tale of life as the wife of a soldier fighting a war so far away from home, in surroundings totally alien to him, a war that had nothing romantic about it, as had those battles fought in the arena of the Second World war.
Evita, full of love and hope as any young bride should be, travels to Mozambique to marry her college sweetheart Luis, now a soldier posted in Mozambique fighting the Colonial War.
The wedding held at the Stella Maris hotel, where the Officers are billeted, is very good, all the guests have a lovely time, food and champagne flow; the highlight of the evening is when the Commandant graces the occasion and as a mark of respect to Luis dances with the bride. As on any honeymoon, things are good, lots of laughter, lots of sex. But although Evita does not want to admit it even to herself, she does notice subtle changes in her Luis, why does he worship the Commandant, who struts around in fine muslin shirts, a scar on his chest to be seen and envied? Or why does Luis get so angry when reminded of his days at the University which she, Evita, had shared with him with so much joy? Why does he act so strange in their bedroom recreating ambushes, jumping out of the cupboard, playing cat and mouse games? So amusing really. But the worst thing, something that leaves her utterly bewildered and to some extent sad, is his utter disdain for his beloved Mathematics, small things no doubt, Evita the new bride ignores all this but…..come on now, no cause for alarm, it is their honeymoon and most importantly it is her beloved Luis that we are talking about.
There are other strange happenings too, in the place where they are billeted, some days ago huge numbers of Blacks had died of Methyl Alcohol poisoning, but everyone had said, ‘You know how these Blacks are, crazy, plain crazy for Alcohol, they will do anything for a drink’ ‘Did you see any Whites dying? Did you see any Whites dying of Methyl Alcohol poisoning’ ‘No chance, after all we are not like those Blacks, we have superior intelligence, animals they are, plain animals’. And truly so many Blacks had died, that they were carried away in dumpers and dumped in mass graves. The Officer’s wives at the Stella Maris crowded the railings watching the movement of the dumpers carrying the dead bodies of those stupid, animalesque, Blacks who will do anything for a drop of alcohol. Chattering, laughing, preening swinging their well ironed hair from shoulder to shoulder, the ladies truly a gay bunch of lovely women shared in the unusual excitement of dead people being carried away in dumpers, even if strictly speaking Blacks cannot be termed as people.
And then one fine day….. the brave Portuguese soldiers, prepare to vanquish those Blacks, rout them forever from their territory, from their Mozambique, a total decimation of Blacks, it would be an All-White Victory…..
The battalion moves to the front, after all since times immemorial men have fought battles to protect their territory, the women as always stay at home, are left alone at the Hotel Stella Maris. The women do what women are best equipped to do; they wait for their brave men to come home from War, of victory they have no doubt. Meanwhile there is always something to do, hair to be ironed and straightened, clothes to be given to the washerwoman, children if any, to be looked after. Gossip about distorted fragments of War, reaching very infrequently to strike the walls of the Hotel Stella Maris, but never fear, one thing they are very, very, sure about is that it will be an All-White Victory with total annihilation of the Blacks. They know it, they have heard it so often, there are no doubts about it at all, an All-White Victory it will be with total decimation of the Blacks.
And what does Evita do amongst this gaggle of ladies, Evita too waits, leads a serene life, walks on the seashore, swimming in the beautiful warm waters, conversation with the other ladies.
Waiting can be pleasant when you wait for your loved one…..
And then one fine day, whilst swimming lazily, she finds a bottle, a bottle in the ocean; could it have a message for her? Strangely it did, the bottle of wine encased in straw, tasted of Methyl Alcohol. It strikes Evita, sadly realization dawns, Evita now is sure, the blacks had not been drinking Methyl Alcohol, the wine they had been drinking had been poisoned.
A dash to the local newspaper yields no results, the reporters are tired, they have no time for controversial stories, or so it seems to Evita. It is then that Evita befriends the Commandant's wife, Helena, a lady she never really had time for, a lady who lives alone in a bungalow.
Their friendship progresses, and then Helena, shows Evita things which make her flesh crawl, her heart stop, her mind reel with disgust and disbelief, her beloved Luis, her mathematician husband whose only preoccupation had been Mathematics, is a man who kills Blacks for pleasure with no remorse, just sheer unadulterated pleasure. Pictures of Luis atop a straw hut, machamba, the head of a Black skewered on to a lance, Luis setting fire to straw huts with women and children inside, Luis shooting off the cloaca of hens with extreme accuracy. Isn’t he now called Luis Galex?
The photographs are proof of their loyalty to the White Regime; an All White Supremacy that would rule Mozambique after the Blacks had been decimated.
And then the battalion returns, their men return………..no, no, not victorious, not covered with laurels as imagined, but well and truly beaten.
Luis, the destroyer of the Blacks is a totally dejected, crushed, hollow figure who has nothing to live for, dreams of an All-White-Supremacy well and truly shattered.
Now for some cleaning up, mopping up of all the evidence, the Commandant and Luis, obliterate all evidence, burn their dreams and those incriminating photographs of their efforts to exterminate the Blacks, out with that desire and dream of an all White Supremacy.
Destroy those huge barrels of Methyl Alcohol, who will understand that the black scum were not people but vermin to be eliminated at any cost. Did anyone force those Blacks to drink that wine? Vermin that they were, they lapped it, brain dead illiterates, who could call such vermin humans, pity we could not wipe the entire population of scum, make it a white country
And then, Luis comes to know that Evita has taken up a lover, much like his beloved Commandant had behaved, when Helena had taken up a lover, Luis goes in search of the lover, he wants to crush this lover, salvage some pride, be a Man once again, retrieve some part of his lost soul, but the lover forewarned, escapes and the sad and empty thing that Luis has turned, commits suicide.
Eva or Evita, who had come to Mozambique in search of her beloved Luis, ready to live a life with him, finds nothing but disillusionment, terrible loneliness and wonderment at how things could have gone so wrong.
And Luis, when did he change from that intense Mathematician into a killing machine, when did he change into Luis Galex?
Yes, the Officers wives lead pathetic and lonely lives, with nothing to do, nowhere to go. In their little capsule, Stella Maris, they exist for the time that their husbands will return, and they will be a part of the White Supremacy. Of course, they deserve to be rewarded for their sacrifices; they deserve to benefit from the spoils of war.