by Justiça Ambiental!
Old age is a stage of life when all of us deserve to rest and find peace in knowing that we did our best to ensure the well-being of our children and grandchildren. Unfortunately, the elderly in the district of Palma will not have that same fortune. In their old age, they continue to be tormented and suffocated by the gas exploration project led by TotalEnergies.
This project, which arrived in the Afungi Peninsula when many of these elderly people were still relatively young and had the strength and energy to work their vast lands, forced them to spend the final stage of their youth caught up in negotiation processes aimed at serving the company’s interests — not those of the communities. These communities tirelessly put forward proposals for conflict resolution, which were largely ignored by the project proponents.
Today, we see families — many of them led by elderly people — who have nearly lost hope of ever receiving justice or reclaiming what is rightfully theirs. The long wait for compensation for their land, and especially for replacement farms (machambas), is now reflected in their wrinkled faces and greying hair — marked by the disappointment and frustration of realizing that, after six long years, they may receive little or nothing at all.
As for the land they once hoped to leave as an inheritance to their children, it has instead become a source of struggle — a struggle that began with the arrival of the project in Palma and continues to this day, with no clear end in sight that meets their real needs.
The testimonies of the elderly, as shown in the videos below, are a reflection of the deep uncertainty that hangs over the Palma district — the result of a resettlement process that has turned people’s lives into a true puzzle, still without a solution for the near future.
