What we are undertaking here in the town of Manica, Central Mozambique is certainly not new in terms of its intellectual grasp nor is it revolutionary in terms of originality. However, compared to the prevalent social dynamic "the experiment of trying to renovate a building and building a social club that is not profit driven" is an exciting and inspiring breeze that is starting to stir leaves that has not been stirred for a long time.

"The principle purpose of any object is community building. All things material are tools to build relationships. Be it the sharing of a sandwich, the buying of a gift, the opening of a door or the passing of a cup; we humans can use visible items to build invisible bonds. You say that one can not buy friendship, sure, but without paying and giving there can never be a real friendship. Sharing is the central tool to build friendships- we share our food, time and money. Is ‘building relationships through sharing' the exclusive paradigm through which you look at all things material ? Or are you still trapped in the illusions of private property and individual wealth? " - Matrix Moerkofi

The building of a community and the buiding of a physical structure does not merely have much in common, but can become mutually generative when combined in a spirit of what Freire called consciencialização.

What we are undertaking here in the town of Manica, Central Mozambique is certainly not new in terms of its intellectual grasp nor is it revolutionary in terms of originality. However, compared to the prevalent social dynamic "the experiment of trying to renovate a building and building a social club that is not profit driven" is an exciting and inspiring breeze that is starting to stir leaves that has not been stirred for a long time.

Long gone are the naive myths of African communal living. Today, being integrated into the global economy and mastered by the market, most people in rural Africa wearing their Beckam or Ossama shirts and Nike shoes view themselves as competitors for the scarce resources and rare opportunities that is needed to make it to the top. The communal myth has made place for a dog-eat-dog realism. The rich ‘Westerner' and the poor ‘African' share a common love-hate relationship with the material: the material world (or the need to posses) is a feared and aweful enemy that most people try to beat through a proccess of ameliorisation! In Manhattan the struggle might be for wealth and prestige, in Africa the struggle is for survival.

In this context, for a Manica resident to buy a bag of cement (225MTn) and give it freely for the renovation of a social or sport club, is unigue and counter cultural. Now once one mentions a term like counter cultural one invites ideas like Long's ‘actor-oriented' approach or Guevara's social activism to be considered as relevant and practiced world-views. No longer are men and women doomed to be the products of their cultural environment like a programmed computer, but people become agents of change through reflection and shared experiment. Yesterday six people each gave one bag of cement. Their motives probably differed, but what is starting to stir is a vibration fueled by the idea of being part of a success story, the idea of being part of something fun and worthwhile- contributing and being valued for your contribution. Needless to say that for these cement donors the bags of cement corresponds to a very significant portion of their monthy income.

Thus her in our town we stand at the beginning of a new era: the comeback of ‘Grupo Desportivo de Manica'. We need to build a wall, replace the roof, redo the ceiling, tile the floors, renovate the toilets, get thing operational, manage the football team, empower entrepreneurs and contruct sound administrative structures. What drives it is the idea that many members of the society is willing to act in a way that is diametrically opposed to the status quo of individualistic self-gain that as a reality and concet has spread of our globe from London and new York to Manica and Machipanda.

We stand at this crossroad, in anticipation- not of where we will go, but in anticipation to see who will join us! I'ts a matter of freedom, an invitation to freedom.