Songo,Tete,Cahora Bassa has a queen

Joana is queen of Songo village,home to the Cahora Bassa dam.Joana,queen of Songo says she does not have much memory of the stories that her father told about his first encounter with the Portuguese during the period of colonisation in Mozambique.

But she remembers at least one of the reports made by King Songo Chirenga:''The Portuguese told what they wanted to do and my father warned h them that it was necessary to go and ask the spirits first,to see if they would let them construct a bridge(hidroelectric­ power plant).

He put tobacco under the trees and the spirits authorised the construction''.

Thus according to Joana,who succeded her father after his death in 2007,it was the way that the Madema,the natives of Songo,agreed with the construction of the Cahora Bassa Hidroeletrix power plant.

The name of the dam is,in fact,from the Madema language and means''work is over''. 

When the construction of the bridge begun in 1969,Joana Songo was only two years old.She saw the birth of a gigantic energy plant and other infrastructure too,considered luxury not only in Mozambique,but also the world over.

There are modern houses with electricity,running water,tiles,swimming­ pools,tennis courts,basketball,al­though they are still confined to the workers of HCB company.

There are individually owned state of the art houses too.Songo is developing and a faster rate and construction of houses seems to be the norm now.

The roads are all well mantained and tarred,but before,when the Power plant used to be the property of Portugal,it is said Songo was left undeveloped.The Madema mostly continue to live in huts,plant corn,raise livestock and continue to be subsistence farmers.

They cant irrigate their crops as there are no irrigation facilities.The Madema and all the other people of Songo,who come from all the ten provinces of Mozambique have access to clean water and cheap,almost free electricity.

 Songo,Hidroeletrica de Cahora Bassa, the local power giant turned housekeeper, keeps Songo clean. Garbage does not dwell in Songo.