Manhica, Mozambique, Dec. 23, 2025 (Lusa) - Lina Machava, a “badjias” seller in the Mozambican town of Manhica, hopes to "make money" this Christmas by selling pastries at makeshift stalls that survived the post-election protests, a business that feeds families facing unemployment in that region of Maputo province.
At 52, having spent the last six years making and selling these Indian-inspired pastries, which are popular in Mozambique, made from nhemba bean flour and served in bread, she explains to Lusa that the business in Manhiça, about 80 kilometres north of Maputo, "has no fixed timetable" and is profitable all year round, with each one sold for 2.5 meticais (€0.03 cents).
Even so, it grows with the end-of-year festivities and heavy traffic on the road, as the town is a mandatory stop for those celebrating outside the capital.
A mother of three, she wakes up every day at 5 a.m. to mix nhemba beans, garlic, onion, salt and "fresh leaves" of spring onion in her bowl, and then fry the “badjias”. Two hours later, they are on sale on the corner of her house, on a makeshift stall. Before midday, business is done and she can return home with the day's earnings of around 300 badjias.
The seller says that she waits the rest of the year for this festive period to increase sales of these snacks on the street: "it's the time when I make the most money".
Her husband is out of work and Lina relies on the pastries, which earn her almost 2,000 meticais (€27) to help out at home.
"It's worth it, yes. It's enough to get by," says Lina, about the business and her "reasonable" profit, which she tries to save up to buy a bag of beans for 2,500 meticais (€34).
The business surrounding these pastries takes centre stage in the streets and central areas of Manhiça, as well as in the suburbs of Maputo, in a market dominated mainly by women who are escaping unemployment, winning over customers, from the casual to the executive - who seek to satisfy their hunger with the popular “matabicho” (breakfast) before starting work.
"Dona Lina makes good “badjias”,’ Aurélio, 24 years old, one of her loyal customers, tells Lusa, while enjoying the “badjias” to accompany his tea for breakfast.
In the heart of Manhiça, next to the National Road 1 (EN1), is the Nwancacana market, where, less than 300 metres from Lina, at one of the main entrances, Azerda Joaquim, 44 years, has set up her stall. It is there that she has been making and selling “badjias” for 23 years, using cleanliness to win over customers.
"This requires good hygiene, the way you prepare it. So, as I am aware of how to do this job, I do it because I like it and see that it benefits me," Azerda tells Lusa, with the charcoal stove already lit to fry the “badjias” for the second time on the day.
With her face burned by the heat of the stove, Azerda still resents, one year later, the riots that followed last October's elections, with death, destruction and businesses at a standstill across the country.
"There was no way to stop. (...) this is my foundation, [it is] my livelihood," she recalls, saddened by the situation.
Today, she asks a friend who sells bread, the complement to the “badjias”, for help with the business. She also tries to attract customers on the trains that pass through the largest district station in the area on Saturday and Sundays.
She says she is still looking forward to the days of the festive season, Christmas and the New Year, to feel the comfort of customers who come there to enjoy her “badjias”, served in that busy market. Even so, she assures us: "regardless of whether there is Christmas or not, I will always do it".
"It's a product that gives me the quickest return," she says of her main source of income, which earns her at least 400 meticais [€5.48] for each mug of nhemba beans.
Using only low-cost ingredients, she ensures she has enough to feed her five children and sustain her stall, which she now supplements with the sale of tomatoes, onions and tea.
"It means I make a profit, (...) sometimes I make 3,000 to 3,500 [meticais, €41 to €48] depending on the quantity [of beans]," she says.
Susana Bila, 62, works without a fixed stall, living off “mbenga” - a bowl in which she has been making “badjias” pastries for eight years - and going to the “machamba” (farm). She recalls that she started in the business when she went through difficulties that were exacerbated by her husband's retirement.
"I started later, when I saw that things were getting bad, I made up my mind, [thinking] if I do this [selling “badjia”], I might be able to feed myself," she recalls to Lusa, as she takes the first batch of pastries out of the brick-adapted stove.
Susana also resented the post-election protests.
"Nothing came of it, [everything] turned out negative, but even so, life goes on," Susana assures us, recalling that she resorted to her “machamba” to do business. For now, it's time to wait for customers during the Christmas season: "I hope to continue, because if I don't continue, if I stand still, no one will give me any money while my children are not working."
During the rest of the year, the pastries earn her €4 a day. With the holidays just around the corner, she expects more business, keeping a secret in the preparation of her “badjias”: "I only add salt, spring onions, onions and garlic. That's how I prepare it, I fry it without adding water. With just those ingredients, it's easier for the “badjia” to be fortified".
For now, all that remains is to wait for the days of the Christmas and New Year celebrations, when the “badjia” business gets a boost, along with the families that depend on it.
VIYS/AYLS // AYLS
Lusa
