Grande Hotel: The Africa’s Biggest Squat
When it opened its doors in the 1950’s, the Grande Hotel was billed as the “Pride of Africa”. Set in the lush Mozambican port of Beira, it was the largest, most modern hotel on the continent, an Art Deco masterpiece filled with parquet, marble, and
glass, surrounded by sweeping views of the Indian Ocean. Yet within a decade, it had shut its doors, unable to turn a profi t. Then, in the late 70’s, civil war broke out in Mozambique, and the hotel became a refugee camp for another decade and a half. But when the war ended, many people stayed on, unable
to return home, and thousands of other landless, unemployed Mozambicans arrived. The Grande Hotel is now the biggest squat in the world, with about six thousand squatters living inside its crumbling walls. Makeshift charcoal cook stoves dot
the once-elegant lobby, lily pads grow in the stagnant swimming pool, and lavish gardens have been replaced by thirsty plots of corn and yucca. Even the elevators have been plundered, the empty shafts are now giant trash bins, as well as a serious danger for residents; in recent years, a handful of
people, including several children, have fallen to their death in the shafts. “Some people think we don’t want to leave,” says Arlindo Wafero, who has been living in the hotel-turned-squat for over thirty years. “We want to leave, but where can we go? We want to work, too, but there are no jobs in Mozambique. We
want to go back to where we once lived, but to do that you need transportation, and money. Every day the prices of those things get higher, and we’re more stuck where we are. Here, there’s no such thing as free will.” In fact, the Mozambican state owns the Grande Hotel, but has done nothing to aid its
residents. Instead, they’re left to scrape by as they can, often clinging to the rituals of everyday life to give shape and order to the chaos of being a squatter.
glass, surrounded by sweeping views of the Indian Ocean. Yet within a decade, it had shut its doors, unable to turn a profi t. Then, in the late 70’s, civil war broke out in Mozambique, and the hotel became a refugee camp for another decade and a half. But when the war ended, many people stayed on, unable
to return home, and thousands of other landless, unemployed Mozambicans arrived. The Grande Hotel is now the biggest squat in the world, with about six thousand squatters living inside its crumbling walls. Makeshift charcoal cook stoves dot
the once-elegant lobby, lily pads grow in the stagnant swimming pool, and lavish gardens have been replaced by thirsty plots of corn and yucca. Even the elevators have been plundered, the empty shafts are now giant trash bins, as well as a serious danger for residents; in recent years, a handful of
people, including several children, have fallen to their death in the shafts. “Some people think we don’t want to leave,” says Arlindo Wafero, who has been living in the hotel-turned-squat for over thirty years. “We want to leave, but where can we go? We want to work, too, but there are no jobs in Mozambique. We
want to go back to where we once lived, but to do that you need transportation, and money. Every day the prices of those things get higher, and we’re more stuck where we are. Here, there’s no such thing as free will.” In fact, the Mozambican state owns the Grande Hotel, but has done nothing to aid its
residents. Instead, they’re left to scrape by as they can, often clinging to the rituals of everyday life to give shape and order to the chaos of being a squatter.