From, “Travellers and Migrants”, by Andrea Witcomb. A publication produced by Community Access Gallery, Fremantle History Museum.
Magucha’s “Biography” based on an oral history interview, as recorded by Andrea Witcomb on 24th September 1997.
{I have made minor corrections with spelling}.
Maria Augusta Bandeira de Lima Campbell-Watt (Magucha) was born in Lourenco Marques (now called Maputo), the capital of Mozambique on 9th May 1953. Her parents were both Portuguese. Her family had always travelled between the Portuguese colonies as her father’s family had been in the army and therefore they were frequently transferred from one place to another.
Her parents met when Magucha’s mother came to visit her sister in Nampula, in Mozambique. She was 25 years old. Magucha’s father was doing his military service in the same town of Nampula. They decided to live in Lourenco Marques where her mother developed her career as a radio announcer as well as an actress – both on radio and on the stage.
When Magucha was seven years old they went to Portugal for six months for a holiday. This was quite usual for colonial families. They met their grandparents for the first time. Her own father had not seen his family for twenty-two years and her mother had not been back to Lisbon for ten years.
Magucha recalls that, “When we got to Portugal, my mother decided she did not want to return to Mozambique. My father arranged a new job with an Angolan iron ore
company which belonged to some cousins and then we transferred to Angola.
The problem had been that my mother had ten years of fame while my father put his profession to one side to give my mother a chance to do well. My father worked at Sonape, a petroleum company. His work was really from nine to five so he could look after us and what was happening at home. We had maids, everyone had maids in Africa. But there was a need for someone to take responsibility because my mother worked all hours, it could be late at night or really early in the morning. So it was thought that it was my father’s turn to develop his career and for my mother to take a step back in hers. When we got to Angola she arranged some work as a radio announcer but only part-time. She didn’t work so many hours again.”
Magucha did her primary school in Mozambique, Portugal and Angola. Her high school was all in Angola. She decided she did not want to go to university so she went to Escola Industrial e Commercial (Industrial and Commercial School) where she took a secretarial course. She specifically chose not to do educacao feminine (feminine education). She wanted to go to work as soon as possible.
“When I finished I wanted to go to work but because I was very young my father did not let me. He sacked the maids and made me stay at home where I cleaned. I stayed for six months, for I did not like it. I said no, I am going back to school. So I did an exam and gained admission to the Industrial and Commercial Institute. I only did a year for I was offered a good job as ground hostess in what, at that time, was called the DTA. My father let me work this time as he knew the people involved and knew where I would be. Later in the same place I was offered a job as air-hostess which I accepted. It was really to teach Angolan people how to be hostesses. The airline had become an Angolan one. This was in 1971, 1972.”
After the revolution (1974), everyone was optimistic. But of course, problems soon began appearing: According to Magucha, “the principal problem in Angola was the fact that there were three different parties. No one knew who said what. If you wanted to remain together it was better not to belong to any group. It began to get a bit violent. We had to leave. I knew that there was a pilot who was going to escape with a plane. Our routes were Mocamedes, Windhoek, Sa da Bandeira, Luanda. So, his intention was to go to Mocamedes, Windhoek and not return. We arranged to fill the plane with family members. I escaped on that plane with my mother and youngest brother.”
When the plane reached Portugal they were put in a kind of prison for having hijacked the plane until the plane was returned to Angola and everything was all right. Magucha herself became sick and they used to let her out to get nursed. She stayed in Portugal for a while. In the meantime, her father and eldest brother made their way in a car convoy to South Africa. They eventually ended up in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) where the Rhodesian government paid for their family to join them.
Rhodesia became Zimbabwe. At first it seemed to be a controlled changeover but the situation became threatening. Magucha herself was beaten on the street for being on the wrong side of the road when some guerrillas came through. This prompted her and her husband Andrew (a Scot* born in Durban, who grew up in Rhodesia) to leave Rhodesia. Magucha’s family had already left for Portugal as they did not want to go through a civil war again.
Andrew visited Sydney, Melbourne and Perth. He thought Perth was the most similar to Salisbury, the capital of Rhodesia. They decided to come. In the meantime they had put their names forward to return to Portugal, go to Brazil, to America and to Australia. They resolved that whatever came first they would accept. They began to study the atlas and read books about Australia. As it happened they were offered a place in Australia.
Magucha liked Perth immediately. She was particularly taken by all the water here: “I liked it a lot the moment I arrived in Perth. For I like water and Perth had water all around it. There were beaches. For me it was my liberation. It was here that I learned to drive a car. I became more independent with my own friends. It was completely different. Of course I already knew how to speak English because of my husband. I can’t say it was all easy. As soon as we arrived my daughter burned herself badly. I wasn’t used to kitchens in the middle of the living room. In Africa they are a separate room and one can shut the door. Babies don’t go into them. Here, Carolina managed to touch a cup of hot coffee which went all over her. She was only one year old. She had to stay in hospital … it was fairly serious.”
The Australian government provided the family with accommodation at Noalimba …They had two rooms and the bathrooms were outside. It was a migrant hostel for English speakers only. They were sent there because her husband was Scottish. The Portuguese always went to Graylands. However, she was frequently called to translate for Portuguese families. She is still friends with the first family she helped in this way.
They were allowed to stay at Noalimba for a few months, longer than usual because of Carolina’s condition. They received unemployment benefits until Andrew got a job. This was welcomed because they could now pay for their meals at Noalimba giving Magucha the time to be with Carolina in the hospital. Their other child Robin, went to school very near Noalimba. The other families helped look after Robin until Magucha came back from the hospital.
Although the family only had ninety dollars when they arrived, Andrew found work fairly soon. Their first home was a unit in Booragoon which they rented for seventy dollars a week. Magucha wanted a clean place because of Carolina’s injuries. Noalimba lent them all the furniture they needed until their furniture eventually arrived from Africa.
After learning to drive, Magucha found a period of employment at Mount Lawley College. Jocelyn Vieira, a teacher of Portuguese, employed Magucha both for her administrative skills and as an assistant teacher. Unfortunately that language program was closed and Magucha took work at the “Trots” in town, in a restaurant washing dishes. Later she was employed at Fremantle Hospital were she helped to cook food and serve it to the patients. This was good job – she worked part time, five hours a day and earned six hundred dollars a fortnight. She had holidays and the conditions were good. She stayed for ten years.
“My professional life was never the same. Life changed completely. But I have helped many people and done other things. I’ve helped to teach Portuguese, I’ve helped at the Fremantle Women’s Health Centre. Now I am a volunteer – part of the work I do is paid and the other part is not. I’ve helped many Portuguese people with the doctors and so on.”
In 1990 Magucha returned to Portugal for holidays. While there she realized how Australian she had become. While she liked Portugal she realized she did not live in the same manner. She did not have the same “saudades” (longing for Portugal) that her parents have. As she says, “Of course I like eating Portuguese food, I like being around Portuguese people, eat chourico and those things. But if I don’t have them I am not going to die. That is, I am well adapted. I don’t feel the same anguish as my parent’s do … They are going to return to Portugal, because they really feel the anguish of not being amongst Portuguese people, of not speaking Portuguese, of not having the history close by, of living the life of Lisbon which they like and want … My life s here. My children are Australian.”
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*NB: I am not a Scot! Never been there. My grandfather was a medical doctor, born in Glasgow.
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