A 22-year-old Malawian young man who has recently returned from Mozambique is reportedly stranded in Lilongwe.
Antonio Juwawo, who was in the hands of the Lilongwe Police Station’s Victim Support Unit on Sunday, narrated the grim story that he is stranded and is desperately looking for his roots in Malawi.
Unfortunately, Antonio only speaks Portuguese and deep Lhomwe, with a thick Mozambican accent such that many people who wanted to interview him were prevented by language barrier.
The youngman’s story is that he was taken to Mozambique, from Malawi, when he was only six years old, by a Mozambican national Augustine Juwawo who had been working as a mechanic in Lilongwe.
He explains that when Juwawo, who has since died, was critically ill recently, he revealed to Antonio that he had taken him across the border, from Malawi. The youngman was told that his Malawian name is Chisomo Maulidi.
“Your father has a plot in Area 24 [township] in Lilongwe,” is all the now 22-year-old knows about his family tree.
“We hope the youngman will get the family connections he craves. Otherwise, we have very scanty information to work on,” Lilongwe Police Station spokesperson Kingsley Dandaula told The Nation in Lilongwe on Sunday. n
