Maputo

On February 24, 1979, Erich Honecker and Samora Machel signed the “Agreement on the temporary employment of Mozambican workers in socialist enterprises of the GDR” in Maputo. On this basis, 22,161 Mozambican workers, women and men, had entered the GDR by the end of 1989. They did not come of their own accord. The GDR had requested them because its enterprises were short of workers. Mozambique, economically devastated after the end of Portuguese colonial rule and in the midst of civil war, provided them. The selection was made by the Ministry of Labor in Maputo. It was looking for young women and men between 18 and 25, in good health and with at least four years of schooling.

Training as a promise

Officially, the agreement served the purpose of qualification. The young Mozambicans were to work in the GDR, receive vocational training at the same time and, after their return, use this knowledge to help build socialist Mozambique. In practice, things usually looked different. The enterprises mostly employed them as unskilled laborers, for heavy physical work in rolling mills, mining, slaughterhouses, vehicle manufacturing or the textile industry. Only a few received recognized vocational training.

Equal pay, but not in their hands

On paper, the Mozambican workers were on an equal footing with their German colleagues. For the same work, they were to receive the same pay. In reality, they were paid only a base amount of at least 350 marks in cash in the GDR. The state withheld between 25 and 60 percent of their net wages. This money was to be transferred to Mozambique and paid out to the workers in local currency after their return, as savings for their future.

In most cases, that never happened. The withheld portions of their wages were offset between the governments against Mozambique’s debts to the GDR, for example for machinery, consumer goods and military aid. Without knowing it, the workers were thus financing their own country’s national debt. Those who returned found no savings waiting for them.

Control instead of friendship between peoples

The agreement spoke of solidarity and friendship between socialist states. Everyday life was marked by segregation. The Mozambican workers lived in company-owned dormitories with strict house rules and visiting regulations. They were not allowed to bring their families. Their stay was temporary and tied to their job. Women who became pregnant faced a choice between terminating the pregnancy and returning to Mozambique. Contact with the local population was possible but not encouraged, and often monitored.

The end in 1990

With the collapse of the GDR, most Mozambican workers lost their jobs. The enterprises dismissed them, and the return journey was organized. Many returned to a country at civil war, without training and without savings. Whether their years of employment in the GDR would later count toward a pension remained unclear for a long time and depended on the individual case. Some reached individual solutions after years; many came away empty-handed. Some stayed in Germany and experienced open racism and right-wing violence in the years after reunification.

In Maputo, the returnees call themselves Madgermanes. Since 1990, they have gathered every Wednesday to demonstrate and demand their withheld wages. To this day, they have received no compensation, neither from Mozambique nor from Germany.