Interview by Geoffrey Macnab, Business Doc Europe
It’s a badly neglected episode in recent German history. Before the Berlin Wall came down, thousands of Mozambicans travelled to the GDR to work and study. Many started families. Both countries were socialist and they seemed like natural allies. But then, after reunification, the contract workers discovered they were no longer wanted or needed in the new Germany. Impoverished and without any chance of work, they were forced to head back to Africa, often leaving wives and children behind them. They had been very badly exploited.