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Locals stand beside a damaged section of the road between Beira and Chimoio in Nhamatanda district, central Mozambique, on March 19, 2019<\/p><\/div>\n
When speaking to my sister on the phone, it\u2019s statements like this that drive home the sobering reality of Tropical Cyclone Idai\u2019s impact. My sister took time off work to volunteer as a relief worker in Mozambique. When we speak, her voice is heavy with what she\u2019s seen. It\u2019s a heaviness that is familiar to those of us who have experienced grief, or who have borne witness to it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the days I\u2019ve been here, grief has settled over Beira in a thick blanket of reddish-brown mud,\u201d she tells me over a bad line, late last night. \u201cIt\u2019s still warm here. It\u2019s like the sun doesn\u2019t know what\u2019s going on on the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are rumours in the news of a cholera outbreak,\u201d I say.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the thing about the cyclone; it\u2019s not over when it\u2019s over,\u201d she sighs. The cyclone destroyed access to clean water; the dregs of dirty water left behind are undrinkable. No clean water means no sanitation, which means an almost explosive spread of disease. The vaccination campaign planned for next week cannot come quickly enough, and the defeat lurking in my sister\u2019s voice when she tells me that there have already been a few confirmed cases in the area, is almost enough to break my spirit.<\/p>\n
We end our call the usual way: love to my boy, stay safe, see you soon.<\/p>\n
African spirits have had to suffer a lot of pain. But through all of the desolation, there is always something that continuously arises out of African soil, even out of the mud of the storm. As Africans, we are marked by our resilience; we have unbridled power when we connect with each other and support each other as a community. There are areas of Mozambique near Beira that have been cut off from the city, because of the flooding, yet there are boatmen who fight the currents to reach the people stranded there and bring them to safety.<\/p>\n
In the next phone call I have with my sister, I will remind her of this before hanging up: in times of catastrophe, the true character of a place and its people is revealed. This is the true character of Africa: in the face of what is being called one of the worst natural disasters to hit the southern hemisphere, we rise with our grief and support each other, carry each other, and ferry each other across storm-tossed currents.<\/p>\n