Mody Maleiane

Her name is Módi Adelina Adriano Maleiane but she is best known as Mody. About her nickname we will talk below. She lived with her father since she was two years old and her older brother Dino. However, Mody has five brothers named Dino, Nelton, Rui, Telma and Silvana.

Módi lived in Museu at Maputo city, Mozambican capital. Módi and her brother had an involved father in their childhood. She was challenged by her father in games such as “matacosana” (traditional game) and other children’s games, until she was five. For a long time Mody being a child required high attention and her father found himself unable to move on to anew love relationship because he was a single parent.

Just to have an idea, when she was four years (in 1980), one day she saw her father getting ready and perfuming himself, so Módi discreetly left her brother and went to hide inside the car. Without realizing it, her father got in the car and left the house. Halfway through, Adriano realized that his daughter was in the car and ended up returning home. But at the age of five, Modi had a stepmother named Libania Rocha.

Modi’s story

Módi’s parents have a similar first name: Adriano Afonso Maleiane and Adriana Florêncio Victorino. Her mother was from Inhambane (she died when Módi was 22 years old) and her father was from Maputo. Her parents began their relationship in Beira, Sofala. Adriana’s parents appreciated Adriano very much because he was an intelligent and visionary young man, although poor.

As promised above here is the story of her name: Módi Adelina is the name of Adriano’s mother. The couple decided to give her daughter the name when she was born on 3^rd June, 1976. Then, with her entry into the world of fame in her adolescence, she chose to adopt the nickname Mody.

Despite Módi being a seed of a woman with Inhambane roots and a man with Rhonga roots, her father educated her with Christian faith doctrines. Although she spent more time in Maputo, Módi also lived in Beira’s social environment.

translated by SOTRA

Childhood games

When Módi was nine years old, she used to run on the streets with other children of the neighbourhood, jump the rope and play zoto (traditional game where the object is to target the opponent). It was also a time when children had fun with the idea of picking up pears and blackberries in the neighbourhood. Since Módi could not climb the wall, she stood guard to warn those who went up in case someone approached.

Although her parents were divorced there was a time when her mother became a neighbour of her father. At that time, Módi also started peeking pans and used to go to her mother’s house to see what she had cooked, Módi would eat there in case she liked the food and later also ate at home. She found it fun to ping-pong.

However, Módi was obedient when told not to do something and kept quiet but her brother was a little different because he could not resist the impulse of curiosity. One day she found her brother opening the speakers to figure out where the people who talked were.

Studies

She started her studies at 3 de Fevereiro primary school, then moved to Maxaquene Secondary School and afterward she attended Josina Machel Secondary School. Módi also studied at the College of Civil Aeronautic where she took her 12th grade. Later on she went to South Africa and took the 12th designated matriquic.

Módi ended up interrupting her studies for a long time because of an immobility in her right arm. But she is currently (2019) finishing her degree in Business Management at A Politécnica University. Módi has a banking background and another in marketing.

Adolescence, fame, and challenges

Módi has lived extraordinary moments of fame since her adolescence. She was part of a “Dance Team” that performed in many places. At that time at the age of 15, it wasn’t normal to see girls dancing among them, but Módi was the only girl who danced with boys.

Once Módi went to make a concert at Eduardo Mondlane’s pavilion, and it was so crowded that when she took the stage with her “team” she could only hear the song beginning, although people were clapping and shouting, Módi kept dancing the choreography. It looked like NBA stuff. At that time, people asked for autographs on the street and when she went to the club would sign in t-shirts. What was seen on television she was already living with her 15, 16 years.

Similar to this, but a little earlier, between the ages of 12 and 13, Módi found out her talent for hair care. She took care of her neighbors’ hair for free, organizing hairstyles and more. It was hard to find a neighbor of Módi with disorganized hair. She took care of her own hair too. Módi was one of the first women to appear with collared hair in Maputo City. At that time it was rare to find a woman with blue geeks on her head.

In the midst of these things, Módi got pregnant; she was 17-years-old. At first it seemed to be the end of the world and she found reprehension by her parents. But then she was supported by her family and gave birth to a beautiful girl therefore Mody was born again too.

To help her, Módi’s parents took care of her daughter and launched Módi to life. So it was: two years later, her father helped Módi to set up a hair salon and gave her a car and house and said to her “you’re 19 years old, now you can take care of yourself”.

At that time around 1995, there were few hair salons in Maputo City. On the other hand, Módi had a hairdressing course done in Portugal and contacts with Portuguese stores that sold her certain products, after all she had a very successful salon called Mody.

In her 20s, Mody opened a modelling agency. She was a fan of Fatima Lopes, but as she did not have the suitable height to be a model her dream ended up going down. Then she opened a modelling agency where she prepared models that participated in fashion events to promote clothing of clothing stores. It was also a time of great fame for Mody. She appeared in Mozambican and Portuguese magazines. Then she created an event management company.

However, there was a moment in her life that she decided to rent everything she had to work for other people. This happened when Módi was 27-years-old because she wanted to make her curriculum to engage in the world she’s in today. As Módi already had experience in salon management and event organization, so she wanted to have work experience in various areas such as banking and marketing. The concrete strategy was to work.

By that time, Módi worked in several companies to obtain the know-how. It can be highlighted the CPC (banking sector) and DDB (advertising agency). She would hide her surname and leave her driver halfway.

She decided to create the Group Ideas & Content of Female Entrepreneurship (ICEF). It’s a finance field group where enter thinking women who want to project, women who above money seek to show what they can do.

At ICEF, women enrolled in the group received training on business plan, how to run a business and how to sell. On the other hand, the group itself draws large projects to welcome women who have no ideas but want to work. As a way to help women who have ideas that need minimum values for their implementation, the group has its own bank to finance such projects. It is a group with an innovative concept.

It is a project that screams to the world: come with your dream; we will teach you how to make it come true; “we lend you money to begin with and then you return us with interest” [laughs…].

This concept was not copied; it is an idea that came from Mody’s heart. There is currently about 100 people benefiting from this concept. The ICEF is expanding. Apart from being in Maputo City, it is also in Maputo Province, Municipal district of Boane.

Beliefs

Eliel Silva has a placement that says “We think that son of a believer is a believer but it’s a mistake. The truth is that he will only be a believer when he has his personal experience with God. As long as he doesn’t, he just goes to church to please us.” Maybe Módi identify herself with this placement.

It seemed like everything was going well, she was able to pay her workers as well as the house rent and lived on 100 meticais a day but she was living a hell on earth where everything was going wrong. Módi didn´t have enough strength to communicate her family about the tight conditions she was facing. Her suffering lasted about four years until she had her first experience with God.

Módi’s cook was a believer and offered her a Bible that she still carries, and later on she started looking for a church to congregate. She entered in three churches but she didn´t identify herself with them. It happened that she had to go to Brazil for medical reasons. However, her father left her in one state and went to another to deal with other matters.

While in the hotel room Módi turned on the television and listened to bad news, while searching channels, a channel that was broadcasting the word of God called her attention because the speech described the moment she was going through, Módi got excited and made a post on Facebook with a photo captioned “in Brazil”.

A Brazilian friend reacted and invited Módi for a meeting. She was a friend who had already held personal encounters with her in other countries. So, when they met she invited Módi for a walk but she was already thirsty for Jesus and asked her friend to go with her to church but she wasn’t a person of churches. Her friend’s idea was to show her discos, but Módi replied “I want to go to church.”

Her friend looked for a church but couldn´t find one. On Módi’s last day in Brazil, her friend sent a message at 5:00 p.m. saying that she had found a church and would pick her up. But when Módi left the room her phone lost network and the service was at 6:00 p.m.

Módi started feeling bad in front of the hotel and decided to return to the room. Upon arriving, the network was restored and she received a message from her friend giving her the address of the church. In addition to the address, her friend told her to get a taxi so she wouldn’t be late. Módi did that way and at the same day she opened her heart to Jesus and when she returned to Maputo joined the Maná Church.

For family reasons she had to go to another church a while later. But she moved to a church with the same doctrines. Besides, Módi has a group called “Followers of Christ”. They meet on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays to talk about Jesus in 20 minutes (12:55 p.m. to 1:15 p.m.).

When the project started there were four people and now 40. It is a group that once met outdoors in front of one of their offices in Coop Neighbourhood. But then she was blessed by a sister who gave up a space to the group which brings together people of various denominations and the encounters are a moment of feeding through the word of God.

Módi also has a project called “Mody Responde”, where she joins the spiritual and entrepreneurship component. It is actually a space where people who have some doubt about Jesus, entrepreneurship or relationship put and she posts a video answering. Still in this context, she gives lectures to motivate people to chase their dreams.

Hobbies

Her routine has changed since she accepted Jesus. She lives with her granddaughter and spends more time with her, also goes for a walk with friends and likes cinema but she likes more gospel films because they encourage her to meditate more in the Bible.

It is, in her free time when she also records the videos of “Mody Responde”. She also likes to read but reads books that have to do with the financial world, marketing and management, in addition to the Bible. Módi is not much of reading fables and short-stories, she likes self-help books and usually runs and practices some light exercises. Her usual routine doesn’t run away from these things.