Inside Mozambique's abandoned luxury hotel - BBC REEL
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ก.พ. 2025
- The Grand Hotel in Beira, Mozambique has had an extraordinary life: opened in 1954, it was a luxury destination with an Olympic-sized swimming pool and cinema. Closed in 1963 and taken over for political purposes during the country's war of independence, it now houses a few thousand squatters - some of whom are the third generation living there.
Mozambique photographer Amilton Neves Cuna documented the space, and the people living there, in his fascinating project Grand Hotel. In this video, he talks about what drew him to the building, and what its history can tell us about the impact of colonialism. "Photography should focus on… building a narrative, telling the unknown - trying to bring new stories to the world," he says.
Video by Fiona Macdonald, Ana Català & Zuri Obi
#bbcreel #bbc #bbcnews
Sad for me to see this. I was born in Beira in 1968. I'm Portuguese, and so feel the heartache of my ancestors trespasses, as well as pride of being born in beautiful Mozambique, in the most amazing continent on Earth, Africa. We left in 1972 and never returned, but i hope to visit one day.
Not a single photo of what it used to look like? The contrast would have been interesting.
There's a video of it in TH-cam
Paradise plundered😢
Love the video but I can't hear the words over the music 😔
I guess ronovation costs would be monumental. But there is so much heritage in it, it's worth it. Should double as a museum.
Since we don't have museum here in Beira, That was supposed to be the Biggest Museum in Southern Africa.
Fascinating, thank you 👍🏾 🖤
Lisbon, Portugal. Make progress to my beloved Mother country where I lived for 17 years.
this is wonderful. I am so happy that this building hasn't gone empty. I know that it is not what it could or should be, but people are living there when they would otherwise be homeless. Thank you for doing this. I wish the people in Turkey would follow in your footsteps with their cities that look like disney castles.
Really? The people living in that building are in misery and there are cholera infections due to the lack of sanitation in the building. The trash is stored inside the empty elevator shafts. Some of those residents (a little over 30) received new little cottages in a small residential lot as a gift from the Muslim community in the area, but they ended up renting their little cottages to others, collecting the money, and moving back to the decrepit hotel. That building needs to either be completely vacant, emptied, disinfected, and renovated, or be torn down. Probably the latter would be the best option, because even if millions are spent on the renovation, the local authorities might not be able to upkeep it in good condition. That whole area of the city is in a state of poverty and decay. You really believe people in Turkey should live in the same way? Smh...
Hello, We would like to screen this short film at a festival. Who should we contact? Thank you
So sad to see this ounce beautiful hotel…
Cidade da Beira!! Bem reportada a história.
This is a true representation of what socialism and communism bring to societies. This is the best it can offer. It is designed to do precisely this, and this is exactly what it did in absolutely every single society it was exported to.
To blame socialism for this would be to completely ignore the desire of people for self governance. You can see examples like this in nearly every nation that was once a European colony, even the ones that transitioned to democratic governments. I don't want to be rude, but I think it's hypocritical to blame the dysfunction of a nation's political system on its chosen ideology, when that regime secured the people right to self governance.
@@customerisalwaysrigh words are always nice, but we have to look at facts and history. And sadly, as much as the radical left attempts to discredit facts and cancel history, both facts and history do not care about narratives and feelings. Every SINGLE society that either voluntarily chose communism and socialism or had to suffer it imposition ended up absolutely destroyed. Remember, facts, not narrative my friend. Facts.
@@customerisalwaysrigh it secured the people the right to self-governance but at what cost? The results are in plain sight
@@cat_pb Please think a moment about what you and many other people in the comments of this video have suggested. It is that the people of Mozambique have evidently failed to govern themselves because their economy is small and some of its citizens live in poverty in buildings which were once grand under European leadership. By this logic, the United States should have remained a British colony to avoid the destruction and poverty caused by the revolutionary and civil wars. Even then it's comparing apples to oranges because rapid economic growth in the early US was largely due to slave labor and natural resource extraction and Mozambique has neither slaves nor massive stockpiles of natural resources to export.
that hotel was not built for Mozambique people and even in its heyday not more than a handful of Africans would have stayed there. They would have used Africans as cleaners, cooks, room service. All the profits would have gone to hotel owners. atleast now its serving as accommodation for 1000's of people free of rent. they should use the money saved from paying rent to start their own enterprise instead of depending on the foreigners for their needs.
Nice video.
What a crying shame that it was not saved😢
We Africans must learn to be more pragmatic
Soon after the British Government handed back the power every thing went into the crap hole. I seen it in Durban. CWA
Same w/Hong Kong, & many other countries. The cultural values are so different. It's too bad. My cousin was in The Peace Corps, went to West Africa to volunteer in the village of Ouagadaugau, in the country of Burkina Faso. They attempted to educate the villagers on hygiene, nutrition, etc. "The people smiled politely at us, but the minute we turned our backs, they'd go back to their traditional ways, & pretty much refused to utilize anything we tried to teach them, to improve their quality of life."
@@suraya1224 The Peace Corps is a way for (mostly white) Americans to join the ranks of state department diplomats or some well-known NGOs. If you think these people are doing anything positive I have some very bad news for you.
Um, the Portuguese were the colonial power in Mozambique.
If there are no tourists to Beira from the Old Rhodesia or now Zimbabwe, Beira cannot grow fully again. It is a bit far for South Africans to travel.
Wonder what happened
Black people is what happened.
Africanese people took control
💭
I wonder how many Mozambicans fondly remember the days of Portuguese rule where there was peace and prosperity where everything actually worked?
Think you answered your own question “rule”
There was no peace for us, when this hotel was working we were cheap labor for it to be running in perfect condition for the Portuguese
@@WhodatLucy No, the fact that Portugal once governed it does NOT answer the question, karen. Go live there in the "hotel" for a year, & give us a report when you get back.
@@fabiodossantos920 Do you live in self- governed, non- Portugese Mozambique now? If so, how is your quality of life? If not, did you emigrate to another white majority country? Btw, I notice you have a Portugese name. Did that help or hinder you? Just curious.
@Kay Kronicals funny thing is that Ian Smith and Rhodesia as a whole are becoming more open about diversification of Africans joining into the government as the bush war is now coming to a close and now Zimbabwe is now a place of trillionaires and yet hunger still thrive
It just be amazin what dem white folks did and how we ruint it.
Malcolm X said the liberal (socialist/ communist/ woke) whites are American black people's worst enemy.
Ruined it ? I'm not white but Rhodesia is a thriving country when they was still ruling it and now look at Mozambique land of trillionaires and still hunger still thrives unlike in Rhodesia in the past
How could the African nation of Wakanda with all it's advanced technology ever let this happen to such a wonderful place.
Happening to parts of US
@@myunknownland9272 WoW does the US has a mythical country that's so advance with technology it's invisible to the rest of the world too?
@@ronf8017 Yes the USA does. It has a mythical version of democracy that is invisible to the rest of the world. 😃
@@GlennMarshallnz Thank god US is a Constitional Republic otherwise we might be in trouble.
@@ronf8017 USA = democracy. LMAO. Two examples:
1. The electoral college voting system whereby often the presidential candidate with several million less votes in total still becomes president.
2. Politicians receive billions in funding from the big corporations via party donations to in sway government policies