African Entrepreneurship Record

”Fernandez, Portuguese, 27 years old, what is your specialty? What was your profession in Mozambique?”

”Officer, I don’t really have any specialties! But profession probably means work, right? I suppose I was a plantation farmer?” Fernandez asked somewhat uncertainly.

Facing the inquiry from the East African staff, Fernandez still appeared somewhat uneasy because this East African in front of him seemed quite authoritative, even making Fernandez feel a bit fearful.

This East African looked like he was under twenty years old, and although slightly immature due to his age, his face like dry bark immediately gave off the impression of having faced many storms, instinctively making people overlook his age.

However, for Fernandez, it’s not so much that this East African felt oppressive, but rather the hidden hint of murderous intent he seemed to exude.

Added to that was his outdated East African Defense Army uniform that he hadn’t had time to change, indicating he had ”killed before,” and likely had a few Portuguese lives in his hands, which posed a silent deterrent to the Portuguese present.

”So you’re just a thug then!” Proust asked.

Proust was unaware of the psychological activities among the Portuguese being registered there. As a former Defense Army soldier who had recently enlisted and then retired, transitioning to civilian status, Proust had indeed seen blood.

In his mind, people like Fernandez in the Portuguese plantations should all be thugs. After all, farming doesn’t seem like something the Portuguese colonizers would do themselves; they just need to oversee the Black slaves.

Fernandez shook his head and said, ”I’ve never bullied anyone. Although my status is slightly higher than the Black people, my work mainly involves patrolling the plantation, observing the growth of cotton, and then reporting to the management personnel.”

”What work did you do before coming to Mozambique?”

”Before coming to Mozambique, I was born in a small fishing village by the sea in Portugal. But my family mainly farmed for Mr. Elbak, a noble in our village. Most of the land in the village belonged to his family,” Fernandez said, patting his head.

”Oh, are your family members in Portugal?”

Fernandez nodded and said, ”I have an older brother and my father above me. As for my mother, she passed away when I was young. I haven’t married in these years, so in Mozambique I count as a loner. I have a few friends, but many have already left Mozambique and chosen to return home.”

”Good, congratulations, you will now be a proud German,” Proust stamped the name Fernandez with ink.

...

After becoming ”German,” Fernandez, along with others, was assigned to various plantations or farms around the original Maputo. However, compared to before, there was now an additional compulsory course every day.

”As Germans, you naturally need to speak fluent German. East African Standard German is based on Swabian dialect, incorporating parts of other languages’ vocabulary and content. Of course, you don’t need to understand this too much. What’s important now is being able to communicate with others or understand some vocabulary,” said a Portuguese translator to the workers in the plantations.

In East Africa, Portuguese is considered one of the more popular foreign languages because back in the day, East Africa and Portugal had frequent trade exchanges. Later, when the two countries became enemies, it was even more necessary to ”know oneself and the enemy,” making Portuguese education quite large in East Africa.

”You need to first forget your past Portuguese identity, because in most cases, many people will not have any connection to Portugal for the rest of their lives. Accepting reality isn’t shameful, especially since the decline of the Portuguese Kingdom has lasted for centuries, not caused by you.”

”And the Kingdom of Heixinggen is the future country for you and your descendants. Everyone must love this country for our lives to get better. To eliminate various disputes, mastering German first is necessary.”

”Of course, you can choose to slack off and not actively learn. That will only make it impossible to get around East Africa. Eventually, the entire East African region will have no space for other languages.”

The East African instructor spoke harshly, but most of the original Portuguese present didn’t have much opposition. This was the awareness brought by the defeat in war. Moreover, with the migration of populations in Europe, changing nationalities isn’t something hard to speak of.

East Africa defeated Portugal twice, which destined the Portuguese remnants in Mozambique to be unable to act tough. Of course, there are exceptions, like the forcibly conquered Boers by East Africa.

But regarding the Boers, East Africa has completely adopted a different strategy from the Portuguese in Mozambique. The Portuguese in Mozambique haven’t been scattered by East Africa but continue to stay there, while the Boers have already spread across various regions of East Africa.

”We’ll start the class now. Today we’ll learn fifty words. Don’t be afraid if you can’t remember them; later someone will help you memorize them forcibly.”

Afterward, the East African instructor began teaching these Portuguese, and the course content was simple, just reading and copying the words repeatedly.

Most of the initial East African immigrants went through this process. What truly enabled them to quickly learn German wasn’t the classroom environment but the everyday German environment.

The East African Government is organizing immigration work, and it will take less than a year for East African people to outnumber the original Portuguese in Mozambique.

...

”Fernandez, did you understand the class?”

After class, it was already eight in the afternoon, a colleague asked Fernandez in Portuguese.

Fernandez shook his head and said, ”Of course not. Now just thinking about those strange symbols gives me a headache.”

”Yeah! Who would have thought that joining East African nationality would require learning? It’s almost unbelievable. We’re not nobles or merchants. Managing plantations doesn’t require so much knowledge.”

Fernandez said, ”It’s too late to say anything. After joining East African nationality, we can’t leave even if we want to. But our choice is not bad. At least the East African Government hasn’t treated us harshly; they should be considering us as one of their own!”

The colleague nodded and said, ”You’re right. Of course, the premise is separating ourselves from the Portuguese Kingdom. In the future, we’ll have nothing to do with Portugal. But this is also good. We hardly see hope in Portugal anyway.”

Fernandez chuckled and said, ”Now we are all Germans. Just by filling out a form, we became Germans. If only Europe had so many countries to learn from East Africa, there would only be one country.”

”One country would be good; it would prevent constant wars like in Europe,” his colleague said.

”Portugal doesn’t go to war, but the economy is in a mess, and there are often rebellions and turmoil. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have left for overseas,” Fernandez said.

”When the economy is terrible, most countries are like this, but Portugal is too bad. Now the whole world is developing, except Portugal keeps moving backward. But these things have nothing to do with us anymore. We now count as a part of the Germans. What happens to Portugal in the future is irrelevant to us.”

Fernandez nodded and said, ”That’s right. But the situation in East Africa isn’t easy to say either. Let’s observe for a while. Hopefully, our choice is correct.”

Fernandez is not alone in feeling uneasy. They are somewhat familiar yet unfamiliar with East Africa. However, in the decade of coexistence between Portuguese and East Africa, one thing is clear, East African cities have developed very rapidly. When relations between the two countries were friendly, many Portuguese would go to East African cities for consumption and entertainment.