“Hiva nimphela ovirela elapo”

social distancing practices and other “medicines” in the Covid-19 pandemic in Cabo Delgado, Mozambique

Abstract

This article is the result of fieldwork carried out since 2012 in the community of Namanhumbir, Montepuez district, Cabo Delgado province, northern Mozambique. Going through a multitude of tensions and land conflicts between native communities, a ruby mining megaproject and the vientes, referring to those who come from outside the village, Namanhumbir was like the rest of the world, impacted by the repercussions of the discovery of the coronavirus at the end of 2019, which imposed restrictions on the mobility of its villagers, whose supplies depend on informal activities (commerce and family farming). Based on speeches and narratives on issues related to the strangeness of “the environment” and the use of “traditional” medicine practices, this text examines local representations of illness and death in the face of fears of the collapse of a national health system considered fragile. and unable to respond to the demands imposed by the lethality of a virus understood among local communities as “literally and metaphorically foreign”.