Go Tell the Crocodiles: Chasing Prosperity in Mozambique

In this breezy, loosely organized work of reportage, Gerety, a journalist and former Fulbright fellow, examines “the efforts of ordinary people to provide for themselves” in modern Mozambique. The author strives for a balanced perspective on the country he quotes international observers as uncritically deeming “Africa’s success story.” In a narrative peppered with Portuguese idioms (Portuguese is the country’s official language), he delves into various perspectives on life in a developing country, speaking with, among others, a politically ambitious warlord in hiding, a profiteering human smuggler, and a teenage street merchant struggling to earn $1.50 a day. They are mostly treated nonjudgmentally and with deference toward the insights they reveal. Throughout, Gerety describes “a society... where the drive to solve problems seldom passed through official channels.” A brief history of the country, from Portuguese colonization to the modern struggle between dominant political parties Frelimo and Renamo, serves as context, but most attention is given to the author’s interviews from 2008 to 2016, presented thematically rather than chronologically. Crocodile attacks, the intersection of language and disease, feuds between subsistence and commercial farmers, and holdover colonialist mind-sets round out Gerety’s subjects. His work reads very much like a multipart serial for a magazine, amply enlightening the reader about various aspects of Mozambique life without completely coalescing into a unified work. (Feb.)