AMATEUR BUILDERS will begin construction of Mozambique’s first Irish bar this week, laying the foundations for a project set to raise funds for a local women’s co-operative.
The bar, which will be built from bamboo, will take centre stage at a festival in the African country’s third largest city, Nampula, over 2,000km north of the capital Maputo.
A contingent of six Irish volunteers departed from Cork airport over the past two days, embarking on a 26-hour journey to Nampula.
The group plans to attract over 3,000 locals a night to their temporary drinking establishment by providing Irish music and entertainment. The Nampula festival, which celebrates the founding of the city, attracts the country’s wealthy elite, who will unwittingly donate to the city’s poor through their patronage of the bar.
Organiser Martin O’Donoghue, director of Cork-based company Rocket Media, worked as a volunteer in Nampula last year. In witnessing the festival first hand, he spotted an opportunity to share the wealth of the rich among the country’s poor.
“During the festival, the city’s public park is transformed into a warren of little temporary bars . . . and the rich folk come out to spend their money. So while they won’t really know they are donating, they actually will be,” Mr O’Donoghue said.
The bar will also serve to open up Irish culture to locals in Nampula, as Martin, who teaches Irish dancing in Cork, plans to stage a céilí.
The group had hoped to offer Guinness and Murphy’s stout on tap, but found this to be logistically impossible, as the closest Guinness brewery is situated 1,000km away, in Kenya.
So, Baraca Irlandsia – which translates from Portuguese, the official language of Mozambique, as “Irish Shebeen” – will serve local beer with a 40 cent mark up on a 50 cent cost price, which in turn will be donated to a local charity.
“We will have a few token bottles of Guinness and Murphy’s on the shelves, so they can taste it if they like,” Mr O’Donoghue said.
The group hope to raise at least €5,000 for the Women’s Co-operative of Nampula, which was established by Fr Ronan White from Dublin, a member of the order of the Holy Ghost Fathers.
The co-operative, which is run by a collective of local women, includes a malnourished infant feeding scheme, a sewing training centre, a computer skills centre, a herbal medical centre and a library.
The Baraca Irlandsia temporary bar will operate as part of Nempala’s festival from August 19th to 21st.
Visit http://www.lifestudio.ie/donate/nampula.html to donate to the project.