Cobue

The next phase of this orientation in the landscape will take place in the areas close to Lake Niassa (Nyasa in Tanzania and known as Lake Malawi in English). I ventured this way around a year ago for a few days of leisure time after work inside Niassa Reserve. This trip will be even more appealing as it will take us to very remote areas bordering the lake. The area is very dry at this time of the year, and our descent from the high escarpment (eastern boundary of the Great Rift Valley) was as dramatic as I remember, with the vast Lake Niassa coming into view.

The town of Metangula is the biggest settlement on the Mozambican shore of the lake. We travelled through here, meeting a local government bigwig en route, and continued north to the village of Cobue. Here there is a surprisingly large Catholic church, which was burned in 1986 during the civil war. There has been some renovation now, with the building at least under partial use once more. The size of the church speaks to Cobue’s former role as a trading and lake transport outpost during the colonial era. According to inconclusive research, Cobue might be correctly spelt as Cobue, Cóbue, Cobué, Cóbué or Cóbuè. We shall never definitively know.