Mozambique

/moh'zam beek", -zeuhm-/, n.

1. Formerly, Portuguese East Africa. a republic in SE Africa: formerly an overseas province of Portugal; gained independence in 1975. 18,165,476; 297,731 sq. mi. (771,123 sq. km). Cap.: Maputo.

2. a seaport on an island just off the NE coast of this republic. 55,000. Portuguese, Moçambique.

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Mozambique

Introduction Mozambique -
Background: Almost five centuries as a Portuguese colony came to a close with independence in 1975. Large- scale emigration by whites, economic dependence on South Africa, a severe drought, and a prolonged civil war hindered the country's development. The ruling party formally abandoned Marxism in 1989, and a new constitution the following year provided for multiparty elections and a free market economy. A UN- negotiated peace agreement with rebel forces ended the fighting in 1992. Geography Mozambique
Location: Southern Africa, bordering the Mozambique Channel, between South Africa and Tanzania
Geographic coordinates: 18 15 S, 35 00 E
Map references: Africa
Area: total: 801,590 sq km water: 17,500 sq km land: 784,090 sq km
Area - comparative: slightly less than twice the size of California
Land boundaries: total: 4,571 km border countries: Malawi 1,569 km, South Africa 491 km, Swaziland 105 km, Tanzania 756 km, Zambia 419 km, Zimbabwe 1,231 km
Coastline: 2,470 km
Maritime claims: exclusive economic zone: 200 NM territorial sea: 12 NM
Climate: tropical to subtropical
Terrain: mostly coastal lowlands, uplands in center, high plateaus in northwest, mountains in west
Elevation extremes: lowest point: Indian Ocean 0 m highest point: Monte Binga 2,436 m
Natural resources: coal, titanium, natural gas, hydropower, tantalum, graphite
Land use: arable land: 3.98% permanent crops: 0.29% other: 95.73% (1998 est.)
Irrigated land: 1,070 sq km (1998 est.)
Natural hazards: severe droughts; devastating cyclones and floods occur in central and southern provinces Environment - current issues: a long civil war and recurrent drought in the hinterlands have resulted in increased migration of the population to urban and coastal areas with adverse environmental consequences; desertification; pollution of surface and coastal waters; elephant poaching for ivory is a problem Environment - international party to: Biodiversity, Climate
agreements: Change, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements
Geography - note: the Zambezi flows through the north- central and most fertile part of the country People Mozambique -
Population: 19,607,519 note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected; the 1997 Mozambican census reported a population of 16,099,246 (July 2002 est.)
Age structure: 0-14 years: 42.5% (male 4,162,413; female 4,176,295) 15-64 years: 54.7% (male 5,313,511; female 5,407,052) 65 years and over: 2.8% (male 227,761; female 320,487) (2002 est.)
Population growth rate: 1.13% (2002 est.)
Birth rate: 36.41 births/1,000 population (2002 est.)
Death rate: 25.13 deaths/1,000 population (2002 est.)
Net migration rate: 0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2002 est.)
Sex ratio: at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female under 15 years: 1 male(s)/female 15-64 years: 0.98 male(s)/female 65 years and over: 0.71 male(s)/ female total population: 0.98 male(s)/ female (2002 est.)
Infant mortality rate: 138.55 deaths/1,000 live births (2002 est.) Life expectancy at birth: total population: 35.46 years female: 34.65 years (2002 est.) male: 36.25 years
Total fertility rate: 4.71 children born/woman (2002 est.) HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate: 12.6 to 16.4%, estimates vary (2001) HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/ 1,546,643 (2001)
AIDS:
HIV/AIDS - deaths: 114,111 (2001 est.)
Nationality: noun: Mozambican(s) adjective: Mozambican
Ethnic groups: indigenous tribal groups 99.66% (Shangaan, Chokwe, Manyika, Sena, Makua, and others), Europeans 0.06%, Euro-Africans 0.2%, Indians 0.08%
Religions: indigenous beliefs 50%, Christian 30%, Muslim 20%
Languages: Portuguese (official), indigenous dialects
Literacy: definition: age 15 and over can read and write total population: 42.3% male: 58.4% female: 27% (1998 est.) Government Mozambique -
Country name: conventional long form: Republic of Mozambique conventional short form: Mozambique local short form: Mocambique former: Portuguese East Africa local long form: Republica de Mocambique
Government type: republic
Capital: Maputo Administrative divisions: 10 provinces (provincias, singular - provincia), 1 city*; Cabo Delgado, Gaza, Inhambane, Manica, Maputo, Maputo City*, Nampula, Niassa, Sofala, Tete, Zambezia
Independence: 25 June 1975 (from Portugal)
National holiday: Independence Day, 25 June (1975)
Constitution: 30 November 1990
Legal system: based on Portuguese civil law system and customary law
Suffrage: 18 years of age; universal
Executive branch: chief of state: President Joaquim Alberto CHISSANO (since 6 November 1986); note - before being popularly elected, CHISSANO was elected president by Frelimo's Central Committee on 4 November 1986 (reelected by the Committee 30 July 1989) head of government: Prime Minister Pascoal MOCUMBI (since 17 December 1994) cabinet: Cabinet elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term; election last held 3-5 December 1999 (next to be held NA 2004); prime minister appointed by the president election results: Joaquim Alberto CHISSANO reelected president; percent of vote - Joaquim Alberto CHISSANO 52.29%, Afonso DHLAKAMA 47.71%
Legislative branch: unicameral Assembly of the Republic or Assembleia da Republica (250 seats; members are directly elected by popular vote on a secret ballot to serve five-year terms) elections: last held 3-5 December 1999 (next to be held NA 2004) election results: percent of vote by party - Frelimo 48.54%, Renamo-UE 38.81%; seats by party - Frelimo 133, Renamo-UE 117 note: Renamo-UE ran as a multiparty coalition; none of the other opposition parties received the 5% required to win parliamentary seats; in September 2000, Renamo-UE member Raul DOMINGOS was expelled from the party, he continues to hold his parliamentary seat as an independent
Judicial branch: Supreme Court (the court of final appeal; some of its professional judges are appointed by the president and some are elected by the Assembly); other courts include an Administrative Court, customs courts, maritime courts, courts marshal, labor courts note: although the constitution provides for the creation of a separate Constitutional Court, one has never been established; in its absence the Supreme Court reviews constitutional cases Political parties and leaders: Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (Frente de Liberatacao de Mocambique) or Frelimo [Joaquim Alberto CHISSANO, president]; Mozambique National Resistance- Electoral Union (Resistencia Nacional Mocambicana-Uniao Eleitoral) or Renamo-UE [Afonso DHLAKAMA, president] Political pressure groups and Institute for Peace and Democracy
leaders: (Instituto para Paz e Democracia) or IPADE [Raul DOMINGOS, president]; Etica [Abdul CARIMO Issa, chairman]; Movement for Peace and Citizenship (Movimento para Paz e Cidadania); Mozambican League of Human Rights (Liga Mocambicana dos Direitos Humanos) or LDH [Alice MABOTE, president]; Human Rights and Development (Direitos Humanos e Desenvolvimento) or DHD [Artemisia FRANCO, secretary general] International organization ACP, AfDB, C, CCC, ECA, FAO, G-77,
participation: IBRD, ICAO, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM (observer), ISO (correspondent), ITU, MONUC, NAM, OAU, OIC, OPCW, SADC, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNTAET, UPU, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTrO Diplomatic representation in the US: chief of mission: Ambassador Armando RANGUENE FAX: [1] [phone] telephone: [1] [phone] chancery: Suite 570, 1990 M Street NW, Washington, DC 20036 Diplomatic representation from the chief of mission: Ambassador Sharon
US: P. WILKINSON embassy: Avenida Kenneth Kuanda 193, Maputo mailing address: P. O. Box 783, Maputo telephone: [258] (1) 492797 FAX: [258] (1) 490448
Flag description: three equal horizontal bands of green (top), black, and yellow with a red isosceles triangle based on the hoist side; the black band is edged in white; centered in the triangle is a yellow five-pointed star bearing a crossed rifle and hoe in black superimposed on an open white book Economy Mozambique
Economy - overview: At independence in 1975, Mozambique was one of the world's poorest countries. Socialist mismanagement and a brutal civil war from 1977-92 exacerbated the situation. In 1988, the government embarked on a series of dramatic macroeconomic reforms designed to stabilize the economy and reduce government participation. These steps combined with the political stability that has prevailed since the 1994 multi-party elections have led to dramatic improvements in the country's growth rate fueled by foreign and domestic investments and donor assistance. Inflation was brought to single digits during the same period, although it has returned to double digits in 2000 and 2001. Foreign exchange rates have remained relatively stable. Fiscal reforms, including the introduction of a value-added tax and reform of the customs service, have improved the government's revenue collection abilities. In spite of these gains, Mozambique remains dependent upon foreign assistance for much of its annual budget, and the majority of the population remains below the poverty line. Subsistence agriculture continues to employ the vast majority of the country's workforce. A substantial trade imbalance persists, although it has diminished with the opening of the MOZAL aluminum smelter, the country's largest foreign investment project. Additional investment projects in titanium extraction/ processing and garment manufacturing should further close the import/ export gap. Mozambique's once substantial foreign debt has been reduced through forgiveness and rescheduling under the IMF's Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) and Enhanced HIPC initiatives, and is now at a manageable level.
GDP: purchasing power parity - $17.5 billion (2001 est.)
GDP - real growth rate: 9.2% (2001 est.)
GDP - per capita: purchasing power parity - $900 (2001 est.) GDP - composition by sector: agriculture: 33% industry: 25% services: 42% (2000 est.) Population below poverty line: 70% (2001 est.) Household income or consumption by lowest 10%: 2.5%
percentage share: highest 10%: 31.7% (1996-97) Distribution of family income - Gini 39.6 (1996-97)
index: Inflation rate (consumer prices): 10% (2001 est.)
Labor force: 7.4 million (1997 est.) Labor force - by occupation: agriculture 81%, industry 6%, services 13% (1997 est.)
Unemployment rate: 21% (1997 est.)
Budget: revenues: $393.1 million expenditures: $1.025 billion, including capital expenditures of $479.4 million (2001 est.)
Industries: food, beverages, chemicals (fertilizer, soap, paints), petroleum products, textiles, cement, glass, asbestos, tobacco Industrial production growth rate: 3.4% (2000) Electricity - production: 7.017 billion kWh (2000) Electricity - production by source: fossil fuel: 3.56% hydro: 96.44% other: 0% (2000) nuclear: 0% Electricity - consumption: 925.81 million kWh (2000)
Electricity - exports: 5.7 billion kWh (2000)
Electricity - imports: 100 million kWh (2000)
Agriculture - products: cotton, cashew nuts, sugarcane, tea, cassava (tapioca), corn, coconuts, sisal, citrus and tropical fruits, potatoes, sunflowers; beef, poultry
Exports: $746 million (f.o.b., 2001 est.)
Exports - commodities: prawns 40%, cashews, cotton, sugar, citrus, timber; bulk electricity (2000)
Exports - partners: South Africa 12.7%, Zimbabwe 12.2%, Spain 10.6%, Portugal 10.0% (2000)
Imports: $1.254 billion (c.i.f., 2001 est.)
Imports - commodities: machinery and equipment, mineral products, chemicals, metals, foodstuffs, textiles (2000)
Imports - partners: South Africa 33.5%, Portugal 4.8%, US 4.2%, Australia 3.8% (2000)
Debt - external: $1 billion (2001 est.) Economic aid - recipient: $632.8 million (2001)
Currency: metical (MZM)
Currency code: MZM
Exchange rates: meticais per US dollar - 23,314.2 (January 2002), 20,703.6 (2001), 15,447.1 (2000), 13,028.6 (1999), 12,110.2 (1998), 11,772.6 (1997) note: effective October 2000, the exchange rate is determined as the weighted average of buying and selling exchange rates of all transactions of commercial banks and stock exchanges with the public; meticais is the plural form of metical
Fiscal year: calendar year Communications Mozambique - Telephones - main lines in use: 90,000 (December 2001) Telephones - mobile cellular: 100,000 (June 2001)
Telephone system: general assessment: fair system but not available generally (telephone density is only 3.5 telephones for each 1,000 persons) domestic: the system consists of open-wire lines and trunk connection by microwave radio relay and tropospheric scatter international: satellite earth stations - 5 Intelsat (2 Atlantic Ocean and 3 Indian Ocean) Radio broadcast stations: AM 13, FM 17, shortwave 11 (2001)
Radios: 730,000 (1997) Television broadcast stations: 1 (2001)
Televisions: 67,600 (2000)
Internet country code: .mz Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 11 (2002)
Internet users: 22,500 (2000) Transportation Mozambique -
Railways: total: 3,131 km narrow gauge: 2,988 km 1.067- m gauge; 143 km 0.762-m gauge (2001)
Highways: total: 30,400 km paved: 5,685 km unpaved: 24,715 km (1996)
Waterways: 3,750 km (navigable routes)
Pipelines: crude oil 306 km; petroleum products 289 km note: not operating
Ports and harbors: Beira, Inhambane, Maputo, Nacala, Pemba, Quelimane
Merchant marine: total: 3 ships (1,000 GRT or over) totaling 4,125 GRT/7,024 DWT ships by type: cargo 3 note: includes some foreign-owned ships registered here as a flag of convenience: Belgium 2 (2002 est.)
Airports: 166 (2001) Airports - with paved runways: total: 22 over 3,047 m: 1 2,438 to 3,047 m: 3 1,524 to 2,437 m: 10 914 to 1,523 m: 3 under 914 m: 5 (2001) Airports - with unpaved runways: total: 144 2,438 to 3,047 m: 1 1,524 to 2,437 m: 16 914 to 1,523 m: 37 under 914 m: 90 (2001) Military Mozambique -
Military branches: Army, Naval Command, Air and Air Defense Forces, Special Forces, Militia Military manpower - availability: males age 15-49: 4,711,318 (2002 est.) Military manpower - fit for military males age 15-49: 2,720,583 (2002
service: est.) Military expenditures - dollar $35.1 million (2000 est.)
figure: Military expenditures - percent of 1% (2000 est.)
GDP: Transnational Issues Mozambique - Disputes - international: none
Illicit drugs: Southern African transit point for South Asian hashish, South Asian heroin, and South American cocaine probably destined for the European and South African markets; producer of cannabis (for local consumption) and methaqualone (for export to South Africa)

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officially Republic of Mozambique formerly Portuguese East Africa

Country, southeastern coast of Africa.

Area: 297,846 sq mi (771,421 sq km). Population (2002 est.): 18,082,000. Capital: Maputo. About half of the people are Bantu-speaking Africans. Ethnolinguistic groups include the Makua, Tsonga, Malawi, Shona, and Yao peoples. Languages: Portuguese (official), Bantu, Swahili. Religions: traditional beliefs, Christianity, Islam. Currency: metical. Mozambique may be divided into two broad regions: the lowlands in the south and the highlands in the north, separated by the Zambezi River. It has a centrally planned, developing economy based on agriculture, international trade, and light industry. Several industries were nationalized after 1975. Mozambique is a republic with one legislature; its head of state and government is the president, assisted by the prime minister. Inhabited in prehistoric times, it was settled by Bantu peoples с the 3rd century AD. Arab traders occupied the coastal region from the 14th century, and the Portuguese controlled the area from the early 16th century. The slave trade later became an important part of the economy, and although outlawed in the mid-18th century, it continued illegally. In the late 19th century private trading companies began to administer parts of the inland areas. It became an overseas province of Portugal in 1951. An independence movement became active in the 1960s, and after years of war the country was granted independence in 1975. A single-party state under the Frelimo, or Mozambique Liberation Front party, it was wracked by civil war in the 1970s and '80s. In 1990 a new constitution ended its Marxist collectivism and introduced privatization, a market economy, and multiparty government. A peace treaty was signed with the rebels in 1992.

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▪ 2009

Area:

799,379 sq km (308,642 sq mi)

Population

(2008 est.): 21,285,000

Capital:

Maputo

Head of state and government:

President Armando Guebuza, assisted by Prime Minister Luisa Diogo

      Heavy rains in January 2008 caused severe flooding in the Zambezi Valley, but prompt action by the government and aid workers enabled thousands of people to be relocated in camps on higher ground. Some of the camps were threatened by rain in February, and by the end of that month, 100,000 people were still homeless and more than 200,000 needed humanitarian assistance. An additional 55,000 people were driven from their homes in early March when a cyclone struck the northern coast.

      Mozambique's reputation for economic and political stability stood the country in good stead. Aid for a variety of projects in the fields of education, science, technology, agriculture, and management training was made available by The Netherlands, Cuba, Vietnam, Japan, Portugal, and South Korea, and the pipeline carrying natural gas to South Africa promised to offer future benefits for 25 years.

      In spite of these initiatives, the effect of the floods meant that the country faced shortages of corn (maize) and rice, and there was a shortfall too on the import of wheat. The country's GDP was falling, and the balance of trade was worsening. Riots erupted in Maputo in February over the sharp rise in fares on public transport, and early in the year criminals were lynched in various locations. Pres. Armando Guebuza responded by dismissing the transport minister and the justice minister, the latter's department having been subjected to frequent criticism for its inefficiency. The environment minister was dismissed owing to anxiety over deforestation and illegal logging, and the foreign minister was demoted.

      Following the unexpected return in May of thousands of Mozambicans from South Africa, a state of emergency was called. The local population in South Africa had turned on the Mozambican immigrants, who, they believed, were taking work from South African nationals.

      These various setbacks did not affect the ruling Mozambique Liberation Front's ( Frelimo's) hold on power. Despite a reshuffle of senior officials in January, the main opposition party, Mozambique National Resistance/Electoral Union (Renamo/UE), faced a number of challenges after the party's leader, Afonso Dhlakama, withdrew his support in August from Daviz Simango, the popular and successful mayor of Beira. As a result, Simango said that he would stand as an independent candidate in the municipal elections in November. The National Council of Renamo responded by expelling him from the party. The action caused considerable resentment in Beira; two senior party advisers resigned, and other members voiced similar disquiet. Overall, Frelimo won an overwhelming victory in the municipal elections; Simango was reelected mayor of Beira, but without any party support his task would prove difficult.

Kenneth Ingham

▪ 2008

Area:

799,379 sq km (308,642 sq mi)

Population

(2007 est.): 20,906,000

Capital:

Maputo

Head of state and government:

President Armando Guebuza, assisted by Prime Minister Luisa Diogo

      The year 2007 began in Mozambique with a series of disasters. Floods in January and February left 120,000 people homeless in Manica, Sofala, Tete, and Zambezia provinces, while late in February Cyclone Favia caused serious damage in parts of Inhambane, Manica, and Sofala provinces. In contrast, in the south severe drought and intense heat destroyed 197,000 ha (about 486,800 ac) of crops. Tourism was also affected by both the floods and the heat. As a result of all these problems, the cost of bread soared by 43% in May, while the price of fuel simultaneously rose by 6.1% and then increased by an additional 17.4% in June.

      There was serious concern of a more long-term nature about the threat to the country's forests from the heavy overseas demand for hardwood. China, in particular, was ignoring regulations that were introduced to control the export of timber and to encourage foreigners to help in developing local industry. In April reports of the serious extent of illegal logging induced environmental groups to redouble their efforts to alert the population of the implications for Mozambique's future.

      In spite of these setbacks, Mozambique's reputation for stability and security, together with the government's efforts to wipe out corruption and to increase food production, continued to impress foreign donors. In May 19 donors and funding agencies announced their support for the 2008 budget by offering $385.8 million. In June the World Bank pledged that donors would give another $79 million to help implement the country's education plans for 2008–09, and the U.S. Millennium Challenge Cooperation promised an additional $506.9 million over the next five years in recognition of the government's efforts to boost economic growth and to reduce poverty.

      After lengthy delays and in the face of considerable opposition, teams from the country's National Elections Commission left for the provinces to prepare for the country's first-ever elections to provincial councils. The fixing of a date for the elections was, however, repeatedly postponed.

      In September there was unease when three mosques were burned in Niassa province. The country's reputation for religious tolerance remained strong, and many thought that the crime had been committed by disaffected individuals venting their anger against society rather than as an indication of religious division.

Kenneth Ingham

▪ 2007

Area:

799,379 sq km (308,642 sq mi)

Population

(2006 est.): 19,687,000

Capital:

Maputo

Head of state and government:

President Armando Guebuza, assisted by Prime Minister Luisa Diogo

      The rains that greeted the new year 2006, promising relief to thousands in Mozambique suffering from the effects of prolonged drought, soon brought disaster when January floods in the central Sofala province rendered 12,000 people homeless. There were floods too in the northeastern province of Nampula and in Inhambana province in the south. The country suffered a further setback when, in the early hours of February 23, the worst earthquake in over 100 years struck parts of Mansica, Gaza, Sofala, and Tete provinces. The epicentre of the quake was in a sparsely populated rural area, so casualties were relatively low, but property damage was extensive.

      In February an $80 million contract was signed for the construction by a Portuguese consortium of a 2.3-km (1.4-mi) bridge over the Zambezi River, linking the towns of Caia, in Sofala province, and Chimuara in Zambesia province. Funded by the European Union, Sweden, and Italy, the bridge, due to be completed in 2009, would enable farmers in Zambezi province to export their produce to the coast, where the tourist trade had created a new market but rural areas in general needed a more comprehensive boost. In January the government had launched a “buy Mozambican” campaign, but it lost momentum because foreign food imports were cheaper than local produce. The government reacted by imposing more stringent import duties, but it was still widely believed, often wrongly, that foreign food was of a superior quality to that produced at home. At the same time, local industries could not meet the demand for manufactured goods. A report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development pointed out that the country's commendable economic growth was mainly due to foreign investment in large-scale industrial projects that created few employment opportunities and did not encourage local manufacturing activity. The UN World Food Programme announced in November that it would have to halve its rations to Mozambique because of a serious shortfall in funding.

      Development on all fronts was hampered by the low standard of education in urban and rural areas alike. This situation was exacerbated by a high dropout rate of students and by the acute shortage of teachers. Determined to remedy the latter problem, the government announced that in 2007 the period of training for teachers would be reduced from two years to one. The proposal aroused strong criticism because it was thought that it would seriously undermine the standard of teaching.

Kenneth Ingham

▪ 2006

Area:

812,379 sq km (313,661 sq mi)

Population

(2005 est.): 19,407,000

Capital:

Maputo

Head of state and government:

Presidents Joaquim Chissano and, from February 2, Armando Guebuza, assisted by Prime Minister Luisa Diogo

      On Jan. 20, 2005, the results of the Mozambique elections of December 2004, in which the ruling party, Frelimo, and its candidate, Armando Guebuza, were victorious, were validated by the Constitutional Council. The Council commented, however, that it would like to see greater transparency in the conduct of future elections. The demand of the main opposition party, Renamo, for a rerun of the elections was rejected, Renamo having already agreed, for the sake of the country, not to carry out its threat to boycott the parliament.

      The economic outlook was good, and the country, according to a report from the Bank of Mozambique, had achieved all its targets for 2004. Work on the infrastructure was going well, but the bank recommended that investors place more emphasis on encouraging labour-intensive projects that would have a greater impact on employment prospects for ordinary people. This latter theme was taken up in May by an economist, Manuel Araujo, who, while echoing the growing criticism of the widening gap between the wealthy and the poor, also suggested that foreign investors were linked too closely with industry rather than developing the country's agricultural potential, an area in which the majority of the population was involved. Prime Minister Luisa Diogo also pointed out that tariff barriers set up by wealthier countries seriously restricted Mozambique's trading opportunities.

      Nevertheless, foreign donors remained friendly. On a visit to Mozambique in January, U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown said that Britain would cancel the country's total debt of $154 million. The IMF also promised to support Mozambique's economic-reform program into 2006, and in September the World Bank approved credit to a total of $120 million to assist the government's action plan to reduce absolute poverty. These economic benefits, however, were overshadowed by the impact of prolonged drought, which later in the year threatened hundreds of thousands of people with acute food shortages.

      A strike in April by mine clearers claiming unpaid wages underlined the continuing problems posed by the aftereffects of the civil war and the inefficiency of the administration. In June workers declared that an increase of 14% in the statutory minimum wage was wholly inadequate for meeting the rising cost of living.

      Guebuza's vigorous campaign against corruption, which had won widespread approval from the international community, encountered criticism in September when the replacement of the temporary Anti-Corruption Unit by a Central Office for Combating Corruption was accompanied, without explanation, by the dismissal of the highly regarded head of the unit, Isabel Rupia, under whose leadership a number of high-profile investigations had met with opposition.

Kenneth Ingham

▪ 2005

Area:

812,379 sq km (313,661 sq mi)

Population

(2004 est.): 18,812,000

Capital:

Maputo

Head of state and government:

President Joaquim Chissano, assisted by Prime Ministers Pascoal Mocumbi and, from February 17, Luisa Diogo

      On Feb. 17, 2004, Pres. Joaquim Chissano announced the dismissal of Prime Minister Pascoal Mocumbi, who had held office since 1994. Mocumbi was replaced by Luisa Diogo, minister of planning and finance, an office that she retained.

       Floods in March in the central Sofala province left thousands of families stranded, and the late arrival of rains in the drought-stricken southern districts of the country raised serious concern about the food supply. Although harvests were uneven in different regions, the overall results were better than in the previous three years. In general the corn (maize) harvest was good, and there was an increase in both the quantity and the range of cash crops that provided the growers with money to buy food and other essentials. It was estimated, however, that 200,000 people would require food aid, more than half of them until the next harvest and the rest for an indefinite period. Deaths from HIV/AIDS were also causing a serious decline in the number of agricultural workers who were familiar with the problems of farming in the climatic and soil conditions peculiar to the country.

      Although a considerable number of South African businessmen were working to help stimulate the economy, they provided relatively few secure jobs for local people. Nevertheless, South African investment was broadening the country's revenue base and was providing a more reliable supply of a wider range of goods. On June 21 the Executive Board of the IMF approved a three-year $16.66 million arrangement under the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility for Mozambique to support the government's economic program until 2006. From having been the poorest country in the world, Mozambique had become a popular destination for outside investors.

      In July, however, there were reports of beatings and killings by former Mozambique National Resistance (Renamo) guerrillas, about 150 of whom had been retained as guards to their former leader and presidential candidate Afonso Dhlakama, in Maringue, 150 km (93 mi) northwest of Beira. The attacks were feared to be indicative of continuing distrust between the opposition Renamo and the ruling Frelimo party and were deemed to be a bad augury for the general election to be held in December. In the event, Frelimo's Armando Guebuza (President Chissano had stood down after serving his statutory two terms in office) scored a decisive victory over Renamo candidate Dhlakama. In only the country's third presidential and parliamentary election since independence in 1975, observers from independent monitoring agencies deemed the election fair but noted a low voter turnout of less than 50%.

Kenneth Ingham

▪ 2004

Area:

812,379 sq km (313,661 sq mi)

Population

(2003 est.): 18,568,000

Capital:

Maputo

Head of state and government:

President Joaquim Chissano, assisted by Prime Minister Pascoal Mocumbi

      In 2003 external investors continued to respond favourably to the Mozambican government's liberal trade policy. The Mozal aluminum smelter began exporting in April, ahead of schedule, and additional investments to expand operations promised a doubling of output by 2004. Also contributing greatly to the country's economic growth were other projects funded by external investors and the progress made by the South African company SASOL in the construction of a pipeline that would carry natural gas from Mozambique to South Africa when completed in 2004. These initiatives, however, did not benefit the vast majority of the population, who relied exclusively on agriculture for their subsistence and for additional income. As a result of alternating drought and flooding in recent years, the UN World Food Programme estimated that 788,000 people would need food assistance at least until September and that the number of needy might rise in subsequent months owing to a lack of seed for planting.

      The second summit meeting of the African Union took place in Maputo during July 4–12. As the AU's new chairman, Pres. Joaquim Chissano presided over its deliberations with great skill; his fluency in English, French, and Portuguese enabled him to speak to all the other heads of state in their own official languages. On August 27 he met again with South African Pres. Thabo Mbeki in Pemba, Mozambique, to discuss a number of issues, including bilateral cooperation for migrant labour as well as transport and communication. Prominent among the projects they considered was one to which the World Bank had already given its support in principle—South Africa's role in rehabilitating the Sena Railway linking the Mozambican port of Beira with the interior and with neighbouring Malawi. In October the World Bank Consultative Group pledged $790 million in assistance for the project.

      The local government elections, scheduled for October, were postponed until November owing to a lack of funds. A grant of $3.7 million pledged by the UN Development Programme failed to arrive in time for the registration process, but Antonio Carasco, director general of the electoral administration secretariat, was unfazed by the delay. Presidential and party elections were to be held in 2004, and Chissano would be stepping down after having served two consecutive terms in office. The ruling Frelimo party had selected its secretary-general, Armando Guebuza, as its presidential candidate to run against Afonso Dhlakama, the leader of the Mozambique National Resistance (Renamo) opposition movement.

Kenneth Ingham

▪ 2003

Area:

812,379 sq km (313,661 sq mi)

Population

(2002 est.): 18,083,000

Capital:

Maputo

Head of state and government:

President Joaquim Chissano, assisted by Prime Minister Pascoal Mocumbi

      During the eighth annual congress of the ruling Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo), held in Matola on June 13–17, 2002, Armado Emilio Guebuza, former minister of transport and communication, was elected secretary-general of the party. It was announced that he would be Frelimo's candidate in the 2004 presidential elections, and the decision was later endorsed by Pres. Joaquim Chissano in a televised address. While the congress was taking place, Antonio Palanje announced the formation of the Congress of United Democrats, a new party that would promote economic freedom and interethnic understanding.

      In mid-January the government signed a deal with Spoornet, South Africa's public railways, that would allow Spoornet to run its trains from the South African border to Maputo for a payment of $67.7 million; Spoornet would also invest an additional $17.2 million in Mozambique's railways. After the devastating impact of civil war and serious flooding on the country's communications, it was hoped that the agreement would encourage tourism in Mozambique as well as the completion of the Maputo Development Corridor scheme to improve the economy, infrastructure, and general living conditions of the inhabitants of the southern part of the country.

      Any optimism arising from this development was soon muted when severe drought resulted in serious crop shortages; the UN World Food Programme estimated that at least 515,000 people would need food aid until the end of the year. Italy's decision to cancel Mozambique's debt, amounting to $524 million, came as a timely gesture. There was another setback on May 25 when 196 people were killed in the worst rail crash in the country's history on the Johannesburg-Maputo line at Moamba, 65 km (40 mi) northwest of Maputo. (See Disasters.) Another factor militating against the country's economic recovery was underscored in August when the managers of the Maragra sugar plantation complained that the heavy subsidies received by their European competitors made it difficult for the managers to sell their produce and forced them to cut back on employee wages.

 Although Mozambique offered 50-year land leases to a limited number of white farmers who had been expelled from their landholdings in Zimbabwe, President Chissano voiced his full support for Pres. Robert Mugabe's land-reform program while visiting Zimbabwe in September. In December Chissano welcomed Mugabe and South African Pres. Thabo Mbeki to Maputo to sign the treaty officially launching the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park, which linked game reserves in all three countries. (See Map—>.)

Kenneth Ingham

▪ 2002

Area:

812,379 sq km (313,661 sq mi)

Population

(2001 est.): 19,371,000

Capital:

Maputo

Head of state and government:

President Joaquim Chissano, assisted by Prime Minister Pascoal Mocumbi

      When an interview given to a Portuguese newspaper by Afonso Dhlakama, leader of the Mozambique National Resistance (Renamo) opposition movement, was published on Jan. 2, 2001, it added fuel to the dispute between his party and the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo) government that had flared up in the north of the country the previous November. In the interview Dhlakama accused the ruling party of orchestrating violence against opposition supporters.

      The problem was immediately overshadowed when the Zambezi River on January 3 again burst its banks after a week of heavy rains; the downpour continued through February and March. As many as 180,000 people were reported to have been displaced, and the situation was made worse when the floodgates on the Cabora Bassa Dam were partially opened to reduce pressure on the wall and thereby added to the volume of water sweeping over the Zambezi plain.

      Though help was quickly forthcoming from the South African air force, many farmers were reluctant to leave their homes in spite of exhortations, and even threats of arrest, from the government. Donor agencies in Germany, The Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden, the U.K., and the U.S. were quick to respond to the government's appeal for financial assistance, but Mozambique found it difficult to recover from such an overwhelming setback. The annual growth rate of the economy had dropped from 9% in the 1990s to 1.7% in 2000, and the estimated growth rate for 2001 was not expected to exceed 3%. The country was suffering from the general decline in investment in Africa, and though it received $700 million in aid in 2001 in addition to flood-relief payments, that sum represented 90% of all foreign investment in the country and accounted for 60% of government spending, a state of dependency that discouraged enterprise.

      Midyear, Pres. Joaquim Chissano announced that he would not run for reelection in 2004. Under the terms of the constitution, he was entitled to be reelected twice, and since he had been first elected in 1994 and reelected in 1999, there was no reason why he should not run again in 2004. Because, however, he had already been president for eight years before the 1994 election, he considered that to campaign again would be contrary to the spirit, if not the letter, of the law. A final decision on the issue would not be made until the eighth party congress in 2002.

      Relations with South Africa were strengthened when the two countries signed a “protocol of cooperation” on December 6.

Kenneth Ingham

▪ 2001

Area:

812,379 sq km (313,661 sq mi)

Population

(2000 est.): 19,105,000

Capital:

Maputo

Head of state and government:

President Joaquim Chissano, assisted by Prime Minister Pascoal Mocumbi

      The slow but steady improvement in the economy of Mozambique received a serious setback in February 2000, when the worst rains in more than 40 years resulted in flooding that devastated the southern provinces of Maputo, Gaza, and Inhambane. This was accompanied almost immediately by the arrival of Cyclone Eline, which crossed the shore in the neighbourhood of Beira and thus compounded the havoc created by the floods. Some 600 people were killed, and an estimated one million more were rendered homeless; 10% of the country's cultivated area was damaged, and one-third of the corn crop was destroyed. Although the floods did not affect the agriculturally more productive northern regions, the estimate of growth in the economy, which had been expected to be of the order of between 8% and 10% for the year, had to be reduced by 2.3%

      The opposition Mozambique National Resistance (Renamo), defeated by the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo) in the elections in December 1999, tried to regain lost ground by accusing Pres. Joaquim Chissano of the responsibility for what many regarded as the tardy arrival of aid from some quarters because of his slowness in requesting external assistance. Later, police arrested eight members of Renamo on charges of inciting people to commit acts of civil disobedience as part of their continuing protest against the election result. Early in November some 40 people, most whom supported Renamo, were killed in clashes with the police in northern Mozambique. In December President Chissano and Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama met to discuss the strife between the government and Renamo; it was their first meeting in more than a year.

      In mid-March the Southern African Development Community, chaired by Mozambique, called upon the donor community to cancel Mozambique's debts totally. The Paris Club of creditor nations responded by canceling debt service payments pending the reduction of the debt due during the second phase of debt cancellation, which came into effect later in the year. The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund on April 12 also agreed to waive the whole of the debt service for the next 12 months and nine days later approved a credit of $30 million as a contribution to flood relief. As a further step the government approached donors at a meeting in Rome on May 3 with a request for aid amounting to $450 million to assist in reconstruction; donors responded with a total of $452.9 million.

      In June Billiton's Mozal aluminum smelter began production. It was expected to reach full operations capacity by early 2001 at a cost appreciably below the original estimate of $1.3 billion.

Kenneth Ingham

▪ 2000

Area:

812,379 sq km (313,661 sq mi)

Population

(1999 est.): 19,124,000

Capital:

Maputo

Head of state and government:

President Joaquim Chissano, assisted by Prime Minister Pascoal Mocumbi

      The optimism generated in 1998 by the progress made toward the completion of the Maputo “corridor” from the coast of Mozambique to Witbank, S.Af., turned to frustration in 1999. The government's failure to complete contracts for the management of the port of Maputo and to build a “one-stop” common customs post on the border with South Africa to reduce delays in transit angered both would-be contractors and businessmen, who wished to send more of their goods through the Maputo port because facilities in other Indian Ocean ports were congested. Foreign donors, too, were worried lest the delay threaten Mozambique's reputation among potential investors.

      These concerns were partly counterbalanced by the progress made in constructing the toll road between South Africa and Mozambique. It was also claimed that the aluminum smelter being built near Maputo at a cost of $1.3 billion would be operating in July 2000, six months ahead of schedule. A further boost came with the announcement early in May that the Enron oil and gas company had signed an agreement with the government for the construction of an iron and steel project at Maputo port worth $2.5 billion. The plant would be fueled by gas from the Pande field in the south of the country, and the iron ore would be supplied by South Africa. It was expected that about 5,000 people would be employed upon the construction of the plant, which would be one of the biggest in sub-Saharan Africa.

      In light of pressures from some members of the Group of Seven (G-7) leading industrial countries, notably Germany, and from the Jubilee 2000 group of churches, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank agreed in June to increase the amount of debt relief for Mozambique from the $2.9 billion approved in April 1998 to $3.7 billion. Observers inside the country pointed out that the government would nevertheless still be spending more on servicing its debt than on education and health services. There was sympathy for this predicament among some G-7 members, who believed that the IMF and World Bank should take more account of poorer countries' development needs in assessing the level of debt relief. In December the results of parliamentary and presidential elections were disputed by opposition leader Afonso Dhlakama of Members of the Mozambique National Resistance (Renamo), who lost to Pres. Joaquim Chissano. Outside election observers were excluded from the final vote count.

Kenneth Ingham

▪ 1999

      Area: 812,379 sq km (313,661 sq mi)

      Population (1998 est.): 18,641,000

      Capital: Maputo

      Head of state and government: President Joaquim Chissano, assisted by Prime Minister Pascoal Mocumbi

      In a speech on Jan. 1, 1998, Pres. Joaquim Chissano expressed satisfaction with the country's economic achievements in 1997. Gross domestic product grew 6.6% during the year, and inflation fell below 10% (a figure later corrected to 5.8%). Looking forward to 1998, he said that the government hoped to achieve economic growth of 9.5% and keep inflation below 10%, but he did not conceal his concern about the high rate of unemployment and the heavy burden of foreign debt.

      Among the measures adopted by the government to improve the economic situation was a joint initiative with South Africa and Swaziland, announced in May, to attract investment in tourism and agriculture in the border region of the three countries. This initiative involved a commitment to build and improve road communications. Steady progress was also made in opening up the Maputo "corridor" to facilitate the transport of goods between the Mozambican port of Maputo and Witbank, in the industrial heartland of South Africa, and eventually across the continent. (See Sidebar. (Trans-Kalahari Highway ))

      A meeting of the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and other creditors in April brought further hope with the promise of a reduction in the country's foreign debt by $1.4 billion in June 1999, subject to the government's continuing to implement the program of economic and social reform laid down by the IMF. This was intended to reduce the overall debt to what the IMF deemed to be a "sustainable level." Satisfaction with the announcement was quickly muted, however, when it appeared that the IMF had based its proposals on figures that differed from those on which the government had made its own forecast. The IMF had foreseen increased revenue from exports, which seemed unlikely in view of the fall in world prices for cotton and the decline in shipments of cashew nuts. Meanwhile, workers taking part in the May Day parade through Maputo protested that the 13.5% rise in the statutory minimum wage proposed by the government was wholly inadequate. In addition, major industrial projects intended to boost the economy were still on the drawing board. During a visit in October, Portuguese Prime Minister António Guterres agreed to a rescheduling of Mozambique's debt and a loan to renovate the Cuamba-Lichinga railway in the north of the country.

      On the political front, the Mozambique National Resistance (Renamo) and other opposition parties boycotted the local elections held in June. Renamo protested that the government had refused to include opposition party officials in the independent bodies appointed to supervise the voting.

KENNETH INGHAM

▪ 1998

      Area: 812,379 sq km (313,661 sq mi)

      Population (1997 est.): 18,165,000

      Capital: Maputo

      Head of state and government: President Joaquim Chissano, assisted by Prime Minister Pascoal Mocumbi

      Heavy rains early in 1997 caused tens of thousands of Mozambicans to seek refuge in Malawi to avoid floods in their own districts. Supplying the refugees with food presented the government with a severe problem, and a call for aid was made to the international community. The rains also further delayed the inevitably slow minesweeping operations in several provinces. The rains did provide some benefits, however; they helped to maintain the increased production of cereal grains, which was gradually reducing the country's dependence on emergency food assistance. The lack of roads and other transport links between producer and consumer continued to discourage farmers from growing more crops than they needed for their own use, and by the middle of the year 177,000 people still required immediate food aid and would continue to do so for at least four months.

      Nevertheless, donor agencies were pleased with Mozambique's progress. The vast road-building project was progressing, with the restoration of the link between Maputo and Witbank, S.Af., high among the priorities, as too was the construction of major roads that would provide access to the Nacala and Beira regions. The privatization program, launched in 1989, was also advancing steadily, with more than 700 companies privatized by mid-1997 and the probable addition of 300-400 by the year's end.

      In July the International Finance Corp. approved an investment package to establish an aluminum smelter plant near Maputo. The construction of the plant would create 5,000 temporary jobs, and after its completion there would be permanent employment for 900 workers. Eventually the plant would triple the country's output of aluminum, earning annually approximately $430 million in foreign exchange.

      The full development of democracy in Mozambique, strongly urged by the donor countries, continued to be hampered by the difficulty encountered by the main opposition party, Mozambique National Resistance (Renamo), in formulating policies that differed in any essential respects from those of the government. Renamo, with a few exceptions, lacked leaders of proven ability, so many of the donor countries that were stressing the importance of democracy were not anxious to see it in power.

      In July, Prime Minister Pascoal Mocumbi denied reports that arms were being smuggled through Mozambican ports to the opposition National Union for the Total Independence of Angola party. The government, he said, was not involved in any such transactions, nor, to the best of his knowledge, was any private citizen in Mozambique.

KENNETH INGHAM

      This article updates Mozambique, history of (Mozambique).

▪ 1997

      A republic and member of the Commonwealth, Mozambique is located in eastern Africa, on the Indian Ocean. Area: 812,379 sq km (313,661 sq mi). Pop. (1996 est.): 17,878,000. Cap.: Maputo. Monetary unit: metical, with (Oct. 11, 1996) a free rate of 11,141 meticais to U.S. $1 (17,550 meticais = £ 1 sterling). President in 1996, Joaquim Chissano; prime minister, Pascoal Mocumbi.

      The creation of a new and, it was hoped, mutually beneficial relationship with the postapartheid regime in South Africa was one of the important concerns of 1996 in Mozambique. On May 6 Pres. Joaquim Chissano chaired a meeting of investors aimed at obtaining funds to restore the flow of goods between Johannesburg and Maputo, which had declined from 40% of the region's exports to only 5% in the years since Mozambique became independent in 1975. Since Maputo was the nearest port to Johannesburg, it appeared to be a project that would benefit both countries. It would, however, involve much preparatory work, such as dredging the harbour at Maputo, rehabilitating the railway, and building a new toll road to shorten the journey between Maputo and Witbank, S.Af.

      Also on May 6, Chissano and Pres. Nelson Mandela of South Africa signed an agreement that proved to be more controversial. The proposal was to lease 200,000 ha (494,000 ac) of land in northern Mozambique to white South African farmers. Members of the Mozambique National Resistance (Renamo) opposition party, as well as some of the residents in the area, did not agree that the payment of $800 million was adequate compensation for the loss of the land and were concerned that white South Africans might assume a prominent role in Mozambique. In an attempt to reassure critics, South African Gen. Constand Viljoen met the Renamo leader, Afonso Dhlakama, in July and stressed that there was no intention of creating South African colonies in Mozambique. What had been agreed upon, he said, formed part of the framework for the development of the whole southern African region, starting with the reorganization of agriculture.

      South Africa had offered assistance in February to deal with a legacy of the recent civil war, the clearing of land mines. By the middle of the year, 11,000 of these explosive devices had been removed from three provinces, but an additional $460 million was needed to complete the work. (See Special Report (Combating the Land Mine Scourge ).)

      Although the government was no longer engaged in armed conflict, it faced criticism from the Human Rights League, which urged Chissano to dismiss Interior Minister Manuel Antonio because, the league maintained, he had said that detainees who died in police cells had only themselves to blame. Again, in July, the league accused the police of torturing and killing civilians. (KENNETH INGHAM)

      This article updates Mozambique, history of (Mozambique).

▪ 1996

      A republic and member of the Commonwealth, Mozambique is located in eastern Africa, on the Indian Ocean. Area: 812,379 sq km (313,661 sq mi). Pop. (1995 est.): 17,889,000. Cap.: Maputo. Monetary unit: metical, with (Oct. 6, 1995) a free rate of 9,974 meticais to U.S. $1 (15,768 meticais = £ 1 sterling). President in 1995, Joaquim Chissano; prime minister, Pascoal Mocumbi.

      Although Afonso Dhlakama, leader of the Mozambique National Resistance party (Renamo), had accepted the results of the elections in October 1994 while protesting that they had been unfair, relations between Renamo and the governing Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo) were conducted with considerable caution. The fact that the two parties had won virtually all the 250 seats in the national legislature, and that Frelimo had gained fewer than 20 seats more than its rival, led Renamo to expect an audible voice in the government of the country. The tension was already present in December 1994 when Renamo refused to take part in the election of a new chairman of the legislature because the vote was not taken in secret. Again, in February, Dhlakama said he would not join a presidential consultation forum because it was not provided for in the constitution. But he insisted that he had no intention of reviving the armed struggle, a statement made all the more credible by his admission that he himself hoped to be elected president in due course.

      By the end of March, Renamo for the first time had taken part in a vote in the national legislature. In May, however, Pres. Joaquim Chissano said that Dhlakama would not be accorded the title of leader of the opposition because he was not an elected member of the legislature. Nevertheless, he would receive a salary of 10 million meticais a month and various other benefits because he had finished second in the previous October's presidential election.

      In March the Paris Club of donor countries and financial institutions pledged $780 million in loans and grants, and the government hoped for a further $350 million in debt relief. The finance minister, Tomas Salomao, estimated that the budget deficit for 1995 would amount to $1.1 billion. On March 30, acting on the advice of the World Bank, the government announced details of measures to eradicate poverty and to increase the growth rate of gross domestic product. In response to labour union pressure, the minimum wage, including that of the armed forces, was raised 35%. Another financial windfall was announced in May when the European Union High Commissioner for Africa signed an agreement to provide aid amounting to $65 million to assist, among other projects, in the rehabilitation of the Cabora Bassa Dam and the Beira Corridor.

      On May 31 Yusuf Hassan, speaking for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, reported that the last of 100,000 Mozambican refugees had been repatriated from Zimbabwe and that all the 1.7 million people who had taken refuge in southern African countries would have returned home when the remaining 39,000 had been repatriated from Malawi. In August, however, there were disturbing rumours that former Renamo guerrillas in the western provinces, the onetime power base of Renamo, were growing disgruntled by the fact that their party appeared able to wield little influence in spite of holding nearly half the seats in the legislature. Renamo officials insisted, however, there was no intention of resorting to violence. In November Mozambique became the first non-former British dependency to be admitted to the Commonwealth of Nations. (KENNETH INGHAM)

      This updates the article Mozambique, history of (Mozambique).

▪ 1995

      The republic of Mozambique is located in eastern Africa, on the Indian Ocean. Area: 812,379 sq km (313,661 sq mi). Pop. (1994 est.): 17,346,000. Cap.: Maputo. Monetary unit: metical, with (Oct. 7, 1994) a free rate of 6,342 meticais to U.S. $1 (10,087 meticais = £1 sterling). President in 1994, Joaquim Chissano; prime minister, Mario da Graça Machungo.

      Early in 1994 the UN called on Mozambique to hold national elections by November. Pres. Joaquim Chissano responded by announcing on April 11 that the country's first multiparty elections would take place on October 27-28. Afonso Dhlakama, the leader of the main opposition group, Renamo (Mozambique National Resistance), responded with a call for a government of national unity after the elections. His plea met with a mixed reaction from other opposition parties, and in July President Chissano made it clear that he had little sympathy for the proposal. Meanwhile, a National Elections Commission was appointed under the chairmanship of Brazão Mazula, and by mid-July 3.2 million voters had registered throughout the region under the government's control. The registration teams then turned their attention to those areas controlled by Renamo. While admitting that irregularities had occurred in the registration process, Mazula insisted that they were few in number and of no great significance.

      In the weeks before the election, Dhlakama charged that Chissano and his party, Frelimo (Mozambique Liberation Front), were committing fraud by failing to register voters in Renamo areas. On October 27 Dhlakama announced that he and his party would boycott the election, but on the next day he changed his mind, voted, and urged his followers to do so. In the presidential vote he lost to Chissano 53.3-33.7%, while in the contests for the legislature Frelimo won 44.3% and Renamo 37.7%; the balance was won by smaller parties. After reviewing the election numbers, Dhlakama declared that Renamo would accept the results and strive to cooperate with the Chissano government.

      The election was a considerable achievement in view of the continuing dispute over the confinement of government and Renamo troops in concentration centres in preparation for their demobilization. At the beginning of the year, the government was most strongly criticized by the UN, but in May the UN secretary-general's special representative in Mozambique, Aldo Ajello, said that no progress was being made by either party in either confining or demobilizing their forces. Nevertheless, on April 16 a number of agreements were signed by senior miliary officers of both the government and Renamo creating a command structure for the new Mozambique Defense Armed Forces (FADM). By mid-August the government was claiming that its own forces had been dissolved and their command handed over to the FADM. Renamo said that its own troops had also been demobilized, but this was denied by a government spokesman, and in September a number of former Renamo guerrillas maintained that some of those said to have been demobilized by Renamo were, in fact, civilians who had never been soldiers.

      Those working for peace and stability in the country could take encouragement from a variety of offers of external assistance. Early in January the U.K. agreed to reschedule £ 12.5 million of Mozambique's debt and to reduce drastically the interest on the remaining debt. Again, in March, Britain offered an additional £3 million to assist in the repatriation of Mozambican refugees from Malawi and other neighbouring countries. Later in the year the World Food Programme appealed for £ 7 million to feed those threatened with starvation in the aftermath of the civil war. (KENNETH INGHAM)

      This updates the article Mozambique, history of (Mozambique).

▪ 1994

      The republic of Mozambique is located in eastern Africa, on the Indian Ocean. Area: 812,379 sq km (313,661 sq mi). Pop. (1993 est.): 15,243,000 (excluding Mozambican refugees estimated to number about 1.3 million before repatriation began in June). Cap.: Maputo. Monetary unit: metical, with (Oct. 4, 1993) a free rate of 4,415 meticais to U.S. $1 (6,689 meticais = £ 1 sterling). President in 1993, Joaquim Chissanó; prime minister, Marío de Graça Machungo.

      Although inflation had reached 50% in December 1992, the economic situation looked brighter in 1993 after Finance Minister Eneas Comiche announced early in the year that the government's total income for the previous year had exceeded the targeted figure by 1%. Unfortunately, serious tax evasion had led to a 3% shortfall in revenue. In spite of fears that the needs of better-publicized areas of distress might distract potential donors from offering assistance, financial aid from a number of sources was readily available. The OPEC International Development Fund offered a loan of $8.5 million to help in the rehabilitation of hospitals in Maputo and Beira. Shortly afterward, Denmark provided a loan of 146 million kroner to finance health and agricultural programs and to assist in the training of journalists. Britain followed suit with a grant of £7 million of humanitarian aid, which was principally for food but also included seeds and tools to foster agricultural production.

      Serious efforts were made to revive the production of cashew nuts, the country's second most valuable export. The undertaking was greatly assisted by a healthy demand for the nuts and by an additional $30 million in aid granted in April by the African Development Bank to assist in a five-year rehabilitation program. In an attempt to improve the living conditions of 20,000 poorer people in suburban districts of Maputo, the government launched a project to create jobs. The plan was financed in conjunction with the Italian government and the International Monetary Fund.

      The optimism following the October 1992 agreement signed between the government and the Mozambique National Resistance (Renamo) gradually eroded because of delays in fulfilling the terms of the accord. In February, Aldo Ajello, the UN's special representative in Mozambique, suggested that the first multiparty general elections, scheduled for October 1993, be postponed until June 1994. His proposal had the support of the government, Renamo, and other opposition parties. The elections commission outlined in the peace agreement had not yet been appointed, and he urged that it be brought into force. Mutual recriminations between Pres. Joaquim Chissanó and Afonso Dhlakama, leader of Renamo, did nothing to speed the process. Twelve smaller opposition parties joined together as a united front and called for a transitional coalition government to lead the country to elections. The plan was rejected by the government as undemocratic. Ajello announced that two election funds totaling $30 million had been set up; one would be used to subsidize Renamo, and the other would be made available to other opposition parties.

      Another casualty of the prevailing uncertainty was the UN plan to repatriate more than a million refugees, who had fled the country during the civil war. When the troops promised by the UN to oversee the peace process arrived in May, other obstacles arose. Renamo had not demobilized its forces in preparation for the creation of a unified army as had been agreed. Elections could not take place until these terms were implemented, and Ajello postponed elections until October 1994. Although the UN made provision for the repatriation of 24,000 refugees from Swaziland, the continuing distrust between the government and the opposition, together with the absence of basic services and the reputed presence of more than two million land mines, discouraged many refugees in other countries from returning home. Despondent aid workers began to predict that elections would not be held until 1995.

      UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali met in Maputo with Chissanó and Dhlakama on October 20 and announced an agreement on the creation of a 20-member multiparty election commission as well as a schedule for the demobilization of paramilitary forces. The government and Renamo themselves reached agreement and began the disarmament process on December 1. (KENNETH INGHAM)

      This updates the article Mozambique, history of (Mozambique).

* * *

Introduction

Mozambique, flag of   a scenic country in southeastern Africa. Mozambique is rich in natural resources, is biologically and culturally diverse, and has a tropical climate. Its extensive coastline, fronting the Mozambique Channel, which separates mainland Africa from the island of Madagascar, offers some of Africa's best natural harbours. These have allowed Mozambique an important role in the maritime economy of the Indian Ocean, while the country's white sand beaches are an important attraction for the growing tourism industry. Fertile soils in the northern and central areas of Mozambique have yielded a varied and abundant agriculture, and the great Zambezi River has provided ample water for irrigation and the basis for a regionally important hydroelectric power industry.

      Yet Mozambique's turbulent recent history has kept its people from fully enjoying these natural advantages and from developing a stable, diversified economy. A former colony of Portugal, Mozambique provided mineral and agricultural products to its distant ruler while receiving few services in return. Following independence in 1975, Mozambique was torn by internal conflict as the Marxist government, supported in part by the Soviet Union (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) and Cuba, battled anticommunist forces funded by South Africa and the former Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) for control of the country. Marked by countless acts of terror, the ensuing warfare displaced at least four million people and resulted in the death of perhaps a million more as a result of the violence, famine, and disease it engendered. Violence and disunity hindered economic development, especially the broadening of tourism, and discouraged foreign investment. The conflict formally ended in 1992, but its lingering effects are many: in the early 21st century, as many as one million unexploded land mines still remained along the country's trails and roads, and much political strife continued between the major opposition forces and the central government.

      In 2005, as part of a torch relay program to mark 30 years of independence, President Armando Guebuza noted that the torch's flame was a symbol of Mozambique's history and would light the people's path “to the consolidation of independence and construction of their well-being.” As the torch was passed to a Mozambican born in the year that the country gained its independence, Guebuza remarked

Handing this torch over to a youth symbolizes our certainty that the combat we wage against poverty will be continued by our young people, guardians of our glorious political, historical and cultural heritage.

      The capital is Maputo. Known until independence as Lourenço Marques, the city boasts fine colonial-era architecture and an attractive natural setting alongside the deepwater harbour of Maputo Bay (Delagoa Bay). Maputo is the commercial and cultural centre of the country, and its sidewalk cafés, bars, and discotheques offer some of the liveliest nightlife in southern Africa. Other major cities and towns, most of which lie on or near the Indian Ocean coast, include Beira, Quelimane, Chimoio, Tete, Nampula, and Nacala..

Land

 Mozambique is about the size of the combined areas of the U.S. states of Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah; most of its territory stretches along the Indian Ocean coast from Cape (Cabo) Delgado in the north past the capital city of Maputo in the south. It is bordered to the north by Tanzania, to the east by the Mozambique Channel, which separates it from the island of Madagascar, to the south and southwest by South Africa and Swaziland, to the west by Zimbabwe, and to the northwest by Zambia, Malawi (Malaŵi), and Lake Nyasa (Nyasa, Lake).

Relief (Mozambique)

      Lowlands dominate the southern provinces, narrowing to a mere coastal plain north of the cleft where the Zambezi (Zambezi River) River cuts through the country's midsection. The Zambezi valley, the lower section of which is a part of the Eastern (Great) rift valley, is Mozambique's most dramatic geographic feature. Throughout the country the land rises gently from east to west. In the centre and north it slopes steadily into the high plains and ultimately to the mountainous regions on the northwest border with Malawi and Zambia. Four of Mozambique's five highland regions straddle the west and northwest border areas: the Chimoio Plateau on the border with Zimbabwe, the Marávia highlands bordering Zambia, and the Angónia highlands and Lichinga Plateau, which lie, respectively, west and east of Malawi's protrusion into Mozambique. Mount Binga, the country's highest elevation at 7,992 feet (2,436 metres), is part of the Chimoio highlands. The 7,936-foot (2,419-metre) peak at Mount Namúli dominates the Mozambican highland, which constitutes much of the northern interior.

Drainage

      Mozambique's ample water resources have the potential to compensate for the mixed quality of its soils. Major river systems provide alluvial deposits and offer both hydroelectric and irrigation potential. The Rovuma (Ruvuma (Ruvuma River)) River defines most of Mozambique's northern border with Tanzania. The Zambezi River and its tributaries dominate the central region, and the Maputo River forms part of the southernmost boundary with Swaziland and South Africa. Rivers—including the Lúrio, Ligonha, Save (Sabi River) (Sabi (Sabi River)), Changane, and Incomáti (Komati (Komati River))—also define many of the country's local political boundaries. Other important drainage systems include the Messalo River in the north, the Púngoè (Púnguè), Revuè, and Búzi rivers, which enter the Mozambique Channel together just south of the port of Beira, and the Limpopo River in the south.

      The massive Zambezi flows 509 miles (819 km) through the country and drains more than 87,000 square miles (225,000 square km) of the central region. The Rovuma, Lúrio, Save, and Messalo systems follow in size, respectively. Mozambique shares the borders of Lakes Nyasa (Nyasa, Lake), Chiuta, and Chilwa (Chilwa, Lake) with Malawi, but aside from these and the lakes created by the country's hydroelectric dam network—particularly the extensive system created by the Cahora Bassa Dam (Cahora Bassa) at Songo on the Zambezi—the country has no important lakes.

Soils

      Africa's ancient basement complex of granite rock underlies most of northern and west-central Mozambique, whereas the soils of the southern and east-central regions are sedimentary. Mozambique's soils are diverse in quality and type, but the northern and central provinces have generally more fertile, water-retentive soils than does the south, where sandy, infertile soils prevail. The northern soils, whose qualities allow agricultural potential to extend beyond the river valleys, have a higher content of red clay, with a varying range of fertility. In contrast, the central region has a broad expanse of rich alluvial soils along the Zambezi delta. South of Beira, fertility is largely limited to alluvial soils in the valleys of the Save, Limpopo (Limpopo River), Incomáti, Umbelúzi, and Maputo rivers, although several pockets of fertile but heavy soil occur southwest of Inhambane.

Climate

      Mozambique lies largely within the tropics, and much of the coastline is subject to the regular seasonal influence of the Indian Ocean monsoon rains. The monsoon influence is strongest in the northeast but is modified somewhat in the south by the island barriers of Madagascar, the Comoros, and the Seychelles. With the exception of highland areas on the northern and western borders and around Gurue (east of the Malawi (Malaŵi) protrusion into Mozambique), where elevation modifies both temperature and humidity, the climate is seasonal and tropical. Daily temperatures throughout the country average in the mid- to upper 70s °F (lower to mid-20s °C), with the highest temperatures occurring between October and February and the lowest in June and July. Uncomfortably warm average daily temperatures in the upper 80s °F (low 30s °C) are normal only in the upper Zambezi valley and along the northeastern coast, while cool temperatures in the 60s °F (10s °C) occur year-round only in the mountainous areas on the western borders.

      Humidity and precipitation vary widely throughout the country. Again, the sharpest contrast is between north and south. The entire region north of the Zambezi and east of the Shire River valley is humid and warm, as is the coastal plain in the south, while the southern interior and most of the Zambezi valley west of the Shire are quite dry; the south-central area is even considered semiarid. Precipitation is greatest throughout the north and in the central region east of the Shire River, where it ranges between 40 and 70 inches (1,010 and 1,780 mm); the highest precipitation, averaging more than 70 inches, is in the highlands and in coastal pockets around Beira and Quelimane. In the Zambezi valley west of the Shire, however, average precipitation declines to between 24 and 32 inches (610 and 810 mm), whereas in the south, to the west of the coastal plain, average annual precipitation is only about 24 inches. The semiarid southern regions receive only about 3 inches (75 mm) of precipitation per month in the wet season from November to February and almost none in the dry season between April and October. As the annual precipitation figures suggest, west-central and southern Mozambique are subject to periodic drought.

Plant and animal life

 Although Mozambique retains some dense forests in the north-central interior and on the Chimoio Plateau, most of the northern and east-central areas are open forest. In the south the open forest of the east becomes brush and, to the west, savanna grassland. The largest forest reserves are on the Chimoio Plateau west and southwest of Beira and in the northern interior south of the Lúrio River. Mozambique maintains four national parks in the central and southern areas—Gorongosa, Zinave, Bazaruto, and Banhine. A transnational park combines Kruger National Park in South Africa, Gonarezhou National Park in Zimbabwe, and Limpopo National Park in Mozambique to form the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park.

 The country's diverse wildlife populations include water buffalo, elephants, warthogs, leopards, baboons, giraffes, zebras, antelopes, lions, and numerous other species of ungulates and cats. Crocodiles and hippopotamuses are found in slow-moving waterways. Snakes—including pythons and venomous puff adders, cobras, and vipers—live throughout the country. Flamingos, cranes, storks, herons, pelicans, ibis, and other tropical waterbirds exist throughout Mozambique but are more numerous in the moister areas of the northeast. Scavengers include crows, vultures, and buzzards, and game birds include guinea fowl, partridge, quail, and a range of geese and ducks. Game reservations and national hunting areas are located largely in the central and southern areas, with the exception of the important Niassa reserve on the Tanzanian border and the Gilé reserve southwest of Nampula. The largest game areas are just south of the Zambezi bordering the Chimoio highlands. The country's other game reservations are the Marromeu, Pomene, and Maputo reserves.

People

Ethnic groups

 The people of Mozambique are ethnically diverse, but ethnic categories are fluid and reflect the country's colonial history. All inhabitants of the country were designated Portuguese in 1961, and some ethnic classifications such as Makua-Lomwe were created by colonial Portuguese officials themselves. Within the country, in addition to the Makua-Lomwe, live the Tsonga, Sena, Ndau (see Shona), Chopi, Chewa, Yao, Makonde, and Ngoni.

      In terms of cultural organization, the Zambezi valley again provides Mozambique's key marker, roughly dividing groups that trace their heritage according to principles of matrilineality to the north and groups that order themselves along patrilineal lines to the south. In matrilineal groups, authority rests in the senior male of the extended family traced through the female line, whereas in patrilineal groups the senior male is identified through the male line. Throughout the 20th century, however, many matrilineal groups adopted patrilineality and virilocal settlement, with new families settling in a household of the husband's lineage rather than the wife's.

Languages

      Although Portuguese (Portuguese language), the official language, is the main language of only a tiny fraction of the population, it is spoken as a lingua franca by some two-fifths of the country's inhabitants. Portuguese speakers are strongly concentrated in the capital of Maputo and other urban areas.

      The vast majority of Mozambicans speak languages from the Bantu branch of the Niger-Congo language (Niger-Congo languages) group. Within the Bantu group, Makua (Makua language), Lomwe, Tsonga, Sena, Shona, and Chuabo are the most widespread languages, but the country has great linguistic and cultural variety because it shares languages with surrounding countries: Swahili (Swahili language) with many East African countries, Yao with Malawi and Tanzania, Makonde with Tanzania, the Ngoni and Chewa dialects of Nyanja with Malawi and Tanzania, Shona with Zimbabwe, and Shangaan (a dialect of Tsonga) with South Africa and Swaziland. Similarly, small groups in the far south and throughout the country share Nguni languages (Zulu (Zulu language) and Swati) with South African and Zimbabwean peoples as a result of major population movements of the early 19th century. Groups speaking European and Asian languages are largely limited to the port cities of Maputo, Beira, Quelimane, Nacala, and Pemba.

      Makua and Lomwe are spoken by almost half of the population and dominate northeastern Mozambique except in two areas: the coastal strip north of the Lúrio River, where Swahili is typically spoken, and a large pocket on the Tanzanian border that is inhabited predominantly by Makonde speakers. Most of the population speaks Yao in the region that extends westward from the confluence of the Rovuma and Lugenda rivers to the border with Malawi, while Nyanja is commonly spoken in the rough triangle from the juncture of the Shire and Zambezi rivers northwest to the border with Zambia. Shona speakers, more than one-tenth of the population, dominate the region between the Save River and the Zambezi valley. South of the Save, Tsonga is spoken by almost one-seventh of the population.

Religion

 Prior to independence in 1975, almost one-third of the population was nominally Christian (Christianity), and a small number were Muslim (Islāmic world). Christian missionaries were active throughout the country during the colonial era, and after 1926 the Roman Catholic Church (Roman Catholicism) was given government subsidies and a privileged position with respect to its educational and evangelical activities among the African population. Although the Portuguese were generally suspicious of Protestants, Protestant missionaries (Protestantism)—Presbyterian, Free Methodist, African Methodist Episcopal, Methodist Episcopal, Anglican, and Congregationalist—remained active, particularly in the northern interior and in the hinterlands of Inhambane and Maputo, providing Africans with alternative medical facilities and boarding schools. A variety of African Independent Churches developed, but, because of official disdain for their activities, they were unlikely to register publicly.

      After independence the government, led by the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frente de Libertação de Moçambique; Frelimo), presented conflicting messages regarding religion. Although it confirmed a policy of open and free religious affiliation, Frelimo actively persecuted the country's more than 20,000 Jehovah's Witnesses, and its overall political and ideological emphasis discouraged religious expression and organization. By the end of the 1980s, however, Frelimo had changed its approach, and religious organizations began to reemerge as an important popular force.

      Almost half of the people now practice traditional religions, while about two-fifths adhere to some form of Christianity, and fewer than one-fifth are Muslims. Although Islamic communities are found in most of Mozambique's cities, Muslims constitute the majority in only the northern coastal region between the Lúrio and Rovuma rivers.

Settlement patterns

      Mozambique is an overwhelmingly agricultural country, with more than four-fifths of the labour force engaged in farming, and settlement patterns reflect the agrarian focus. The most densely populated areas are those with the best soils and climate, including the Lúrio and Ligonha river valleys in the northeast, the coastal plain between them, and the lower reaches of the Limpopo valley. In most rural areas settlements reflect family residence patterns and are dispersed. In drier areas settlement patterns are shaped by efforts to combine agriculture with pastoralism. Settlements are separated by expanses of grazing area. People in small settlements typically plant several crops in diverse and specific environments to minimize the danger of famine in case of flood, drought, pests, or other natural stressors.

      The Portuguese colonial state developed rural settlement schemes during the late colonial era, and shortly after independence the national government strongly promoted communal village and state farm projects, all of which fostered denser rural settlement, particularly in the south. In most cases, however, such schemes proved largely unsatisfactory, and more-dispersed settlement patterns tended to reemerge when government policy and military security permitted. Although dispersed settlement makes it more difficult for the state to provide security and community services, it is preferred by farmers.

      After independence a great number of people, including many without job skills, moved to the urban areas. In 1983 the government implemented Operation Production in order to reduce the urban population by 100,000. At first it sought volunteers, but by September an estimated 50,000 people had been forcibly removed to rural areas, largely without support or jobs. The program—generally a failure, as many people simply moved back to the urban areas from which they were removed—was discontinued.

       Maputo is the country's principal urban settlement, followed by Matola, Beira, Nampula, Quelimane, Nacala, Tete, and Chimoio. Most of these are port, transportation, and communications centres, which grew in order to service the needs of Mozambique's western neighbours. The development of Nampula, Nacala, and Chimoio, however, dates from the Portuguese colonial state's efforts to decentralize economic and administrative infrastructure as part of a counterinsurgency strategy in the late 1960s and '70s. Prior to that period, investment in Mozambique focused largely on Maputo. Only Maputo and Beira have substantial foreign communities.

Demographic trends

      Mozambique's rate of population growth, though high by world standards, is lower than that of most other African countries. The country's infant mortality rate is among the highest in the world. Moreover, average life expectancy is among the lowest in the world, but comparable to that of other southern African countries. As in most African countries, Mozambique's population is young—more than two-fifths of Mozambicans are under age 15 and almost three-fourths under 30.

      Population movement across Mozambique's borders has been facilitated in many instances by shared language and culture. During the colonial era Mozambicans worked in neighbouring countries as contract labourers and independent migrant workers, particularly in the mining areas of South Africa and in the farms and cities of southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). After the coup in Portugal in 1974 that signaled the end of Portuguese colonial rule in Africa, the Portuguese population in Mozambique plummeted from a high of about 250,000 to fewer than 10,000. Between 1977 and 1992 the antigovernment forces of the Mozambique National Resistance (Resistência Nacional Moçambicana; Renamo) caused great social and economic upheaval, dislocating large rural populations and disrupting rural production and distribution. The situation was aggravated by natural disasters and the government's counterproductive agricultural and commercial policies, which ultimately fueled a general economic collapse. By the end of the 1980s, almost one-third of the country's population had left their fields and herds to flee to refugee settlements in the major cities and in neighbouring countries. Following the peace accord of 1992, nearly all of these people returned to agricultural labour in the rural areas, often to their previous homes; however, land disputes then arose between returning farmers and new settlers.

Economy

      The colonial economy was characterized by private monopolies, central planning, and state marketing of key products—all designed to promote capital accumulation by the state, Portuguese settlers, and Portuguese-based commerce and industry. Colonial policy excluded most Africans from highly skilled and managerial positions until the years immediately preceding independence. After independence the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frente de Libertação de Moçambique; Frelimo) government tried to change the colonial economic patterns by nationalizing key properties, promoting African education and training, and breaking up the Portuguese and South Asian hold on commercial distribution. Despite Frelimo's public stand against ethnic discrimination, Portuguese settlers and South Asian traders—threatened by the government's economic policies—left by the thousands. Settlers anticipating nationalization abandoned their properties, adding by default to the proportion of the national economy that the state controlled, and large-scale state-run farms and communal and cooperative farming replaced the settler and company plantations. Frelimo's agricultural undertakings proved unproductive and unmanageable, however, and, in combination with the flight of South Asian merchants and the instability caused by guerrilla warfare, much of the country's agricultural production, commerce, and distribution system collapsed. In an effort to rebuild the economy, the state ultimately reoriented economic policy in accordance with plans imposed by the International Monetary Fund, which emphasized decentralization and privatization and provided assistance to family farmers.

      Although agriculture has been the most widespread economic activity, remittances from migrant labourers in South Africa and revenues from tourism and the country's port and railway sector have been equally important historically as sources of foreign exchange. While all these sectors declined severely during the 1980s and early '90s because of civil unrest, they rebounded after the 1992 peace accord, and the industry sector —specifically, resource exploitation, aluminum smelting, and electricity production—also expanded. By the early 21st century, Mozambique had attained a significant amount of economic growth.

Agriculture, forestry, and fishing

      Although agriculture employs about four-fifths of the country's workforce, it constitutes only about one-fifth of Mozambique's gross domestic product. Most agricultural production comes from family farming operations, which produce the two staple crops of corn (maize)—in which Mozambique was self-sufficient by 1997—and cassava, as well as beans, rice, and a variety of vegetables and oilseeds such as peanuts (groundnuts), sesame, and sunflowers. Family labour is also responsible for gathering a large part of the cashew nut crop and produces cotton for the local market and for export. Although agricultural output declined in most rural areas during the late 1970s and '80s, greater social and political stability and favourable climatic conditions led to a marked increase in production in the 1990s. Agricultural performance is particularly vulnerable to natural disasters such as droughts and flooding; in 2000, for example, severe flooding in the central and southern part of the country seriously disrupted agriculture and infrastructure in the affected regions.

      Sugar, tea, copra, and sisal, developed as plantation crops during the colonial era, are still produced by private plantations, state farms, government-sponsored cooperatives, and communal villages. Irrigation occurs primarily in the area along the Zambezi River that is irrigated by the Cahora Bassa Dam and in the former settler areas in the south, particularly along the Limpopo River, that are irrigated by schemes developed in the 1950s and '60s. Production of beef and pork, formerly important, has been surpassed by poultry.

      The forests along the Beira railway and in Zambézia province in the north have been exploited since independence as the country's key source of domestic fuel, firewood, and charcoal, though South African investors are interested in Mozambique's potential to provide wood for building materials and pulp for paper industries. The country's forest resources were briefly exploited for both export and local building material during the 1960s and '70s, but significant hardwood forest reserves have survived deforestation for fuel. More timber is cut than replaced by reforestation initiatives, however, and the long-term ecological effects of eucalyptus plantations are a concern.

      Fishing is one area of the economy that is immune to rural insecurity. Mozambique's offshore waters contain lobster, tuna, mackerel, sardines, and anchovies but are best known for the shrimp (prawns) that are an important export commodity. Since 1973 production and marketing of saltwater fish, shrimp, and shellfish have increased steadily.

Resources and power

      Mozambique's natural resources remained largely underdeveloped during the 1980s, but, with greater political stability after the peace accord of 1992, investment increased dramatically in a wide range of resource-development projects. The Tete highlands in the west-central region have large bituminous coal reserves at Moatize. Although exploration for oil has been disappointing, the development of large commercially viable natural gas fields at Pande and Temane in Inhambane province has been successful.

      Key metallic resources include high-quality iron ore and the rare and important mineral tantalite (the principal ore of tantalum), of which Mozambique has what may be the world's largest reserves. Gold, bauxite, graphite, marble, bentonite, and limestone are mined and quarried, and sea salt is extracted in coastal areas. Other development efforts have focused on the production of heavy mineral sands in Zambézia province and on a project to mine ilmenite (a major source of titanium) at Moma in Nampula province. Mozambique's other mineral deposits include manganese, graphite, fluorite, platinum, nickel, uranium, asbestos, and diamonds. Foreign investors have expressed interest in expanding the development of these deposits, especially since the Mozambique government has made foreign investment more attractive.

      On the strength of its resources, Mozambique should now be Southern Africa's most important energy producer and exporter. The country's postindependence security problems, however, undercut production in everything but refining of imported crude oil near Maputo. The centrepiece of Mozambique's energy potential is the Cahora Bassa Dam on the upper Zambezi. Financed and constructed by an international consortium at the close of the colonial era, it was designed in cooperation with South Africa's national power company to produce electricity largely for South Africa, not Mozambique. Upon the completion of the dam in 1974, less than one-tenth of its electrical capacity went to Mozambique, with the rest transmitted to South Africa's industrial heartland. At the beginning of the 21st century, most of its capacity was still exported, primarily to South Africa. Portugal long held the majority share of ownership in the company that operates Cahora Bassa. After much negotiation, an agreement between Portugal and Mozambique that increased Mozambique's share of ownership to 85 percent was implemented in 2006.

      The entire national electrical grid was targeted by Renamo during the years of political conflict, frustrating efforts to make the best use of the country's hydroelectric (hydroelectric power) potential and forcing cities to build and improve self-contained facilities. The country was able to repair much of the national electrical grid in the years after the conflict, and at the beginning of the 21st century almost all of Mozambique's electricity was generated by hydroelectric power. In addition to the Cahora Bassa installation, there are two privately run dams on the Revuè River that produce hydroelectric power.

Manufacturing

      In 1975 Mozambique's industrial and manufacturing sector was typical of much of colonial Africa, being based largely on minimally processed raw materials for export (shrimp, tea, sugar, cashews, citrus, copra, coal, and cotton) combined with processing and light manufacturing of commodities for local consumption. There was a sharp increase in the local manufacturing capacity from the late 1950s to the early 1970s in response to consumer demand from the burgeoning urban population. The limited development of heavier industry, such as the metalworking and railway equipment sector, was linked to trade, service, and transportation agreements with neighbouring countries.

      Although much of Mozambique's skilled labour and managerial class left the country at the end of colonial rule, industrial production increased modestly until the early 1980s, when manufacturing and construction ground to a virtual halt. By 1990 industrial production had declined by almost two-thirds. Internal conflict interrupted the supply of raw materials from within the country, and soaring debt and diminishing exports combined to strangle Mozambique's ability to import spare parts and other materials necessary to sustain production. Sabotage and power outages exacerbated the situation.

      As the country's overall social and economic climate improved in the early 1990s, industrial development resumed. Although production levels for the cement industry have not returned to those reached in the late 1970s, other industries are expanding. An ammonia plant opened in the centre of the country in the late 1990s, and a car assembly plant began operation in 2000. A key factor in Mozambique's economic growth was the opening of an aluminum smelter near Maputo in 2000. It is one of the world's largest smelters of aluminum, which has become an important export for Mozambique.

Finance

      The Banco de Moçambique issues the national currency, the metical (plural meticais). In 1978 Mozambique nationalized most of its banking assets, but by the mid-1990s the banking sector had been privatized. Mozambique borrowed heavily so that it could fund development, alleviate its shortage of foreign exchange, and, eventually, import basic necessities such as food; by the 1990s debt service was consuming one-fourth of annual foreign exchange earnings. In 1984 Mozambique agreed to join the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF), and in 1987 the government adopted reform programs as a condition for new loans and grants. Owing to Mozambique's success with economic reform programs, as well as the considerable amount of money it spent on debt servicing, Mozambique benefited from several debt-forgiveness plans beginning in the 1990s and continuing into the early 2000s.

      Private and international investment were encouraged in the new economic climate, and by the end of the 1990s and into the 21st century the economy was benefiting from a huge growth in foreign investment. There is a stock exchange (Bolsa de Valores de Moçambique) in Maputo. The state monopoly on insurance ended in 1991.

Trade

      Mozambique's most important exports by value include aluminum, electricity, shrimp, and cotton, whereas its most important imports by value include fuel, machinery and spare parts, and food products. South Africa is the country's major trading partner. Other partners include the countries of the European Union. Mozambique's highly unfavourable balance of trade slowly improved during the 1990s and early 2000s.

Services

      Mozambique's pleasant climate, beautiful beaches, and Indian Ocean islands made it an attractive vacation destination for neighbouring Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and South Africa prior to independence. However, tourism was ruined by the continuing political insecurity that came with the end of colonial rule. With the peace settlement of 1992 and the transition to majority rule governments in Zimbabwe and South Africa, tourism rebounded to the point that more tourists visit Mozambique now than before independence in 1975. Game reserves are being rehabilitated, and Mozambique has developed transnational parks and conservation areas with Swaziland and South Africa.

Labour and taxation

      During the colonial period men often left to take paying jobs in neighbouring countries, and women remained behind to grow cash crops as well as crops for domestic consumption. Although women produced a significant portion of the agricultural products, they did not receive equal pay and rights. The Organization of Mozambican Women (Organização da Mulher Moçambicana; OMM) was founded by Frelimo in 1973 to mobilize women around issues of interest to them. After independence many women moved to the cities to take advantage of new economic opportunities.

      Mozambican workers, including women, were guaranteed the right to form trade unions and the right to strike in the 1990 constitution. Numerous trade unions developed, many of which participated in the Organization of Mozambican Workers, a group that has openly criticized the free-market policies of the government.

      Government income is derived from taxes on income and goods and services and from customs duties. Mozambique's tax system was significantly reformed in 1996 and has been modified since then. Such modifications have included the introduction of a value-added tax in 1999 and enhancements made to tax collection and enforcement methods in 2001.

Transportation and telecommunications

 Mozambique's transportation sector reflects the country's historical development in relation to its neighbours. The national road, railway, and port sectors were originally developed by the state and chartered companies primarily to service the trade and transport needs of South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Malawi—Mozambique's western neighbours. Because of this, the country has well-developed east-to-west rail and road systems that link its ports with the key industrial and mining regions of these countries. By contrast, there are few hard-surfaced roads and virtually no railroads oriented north-south.

      Mozambique's potential as a transport centre for the interior is on par with its energy capabilities, with the international ports at Maputo, Beira, and Nacala among the best on the continent. There are also smaller, less developed ports from Pemba in the north to Inhambane in the south. The port and railway complex at Maputo was established at the end of the 19th century in response to the developing gold- and coal-mining industries of Johannesburg and northeastern South Africa. The colonial state managed to link the mining industry's access to Mozambican contract labour with a commitment to export a substantial fixed portion of the region's mineral exports through Maputo, thus guaranteeing service and customs revenues for the port. Subsequent rail lines linked Maputo with Swaziland and, in 1955, with the Gweru mining area of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe).

      Beira provides road and rail access to Zimbabwe through what has come to be called the Beira Corridor. It is also linked by rail to Malawi and to the Moatize coal mines near Tete. The rail links from Beira to Zimbabwe and Malawi were originally developed by the Mozambique Company and taken over by the Portuguese colonial government in 1947. When Zimbabwe became independent in 1980, international investors from the United Kingdom took a renewed interest in rehabilitating and upgrading the corridor, which, though closed briefly during the internal conflict, was reopened in 1987 with support from Zimbabwean military patrols.

      Nacala, although damaged by a cyclone in the mid-1990s, has the country's best natural harbour and newest port facilities and is well placed to serve agricultural development in the north. Malawi developed a railway line to connect with Nacala's port and railway via Zomba, which was refurbished with support from the European Union, Canada, and others and opened in 1993.

      Ferry service is available along the lower Zambezi at both Luabo and Marromeu and above Cahora Bassa between Chicoa and Zumbo, an area that lies near the point where Mozambique meets both Zambia and Zimbabwe. Ferries also serve Lake Nyasa, with Mozambican ports at Metangula and Meponda.

      Private aircraft were the first to fly regularly in Mozambique, but after World War II Portugal's national airline opened a route between Beira and Maputo. Eventually colonial Mozambique developed its own airline. It was replaced in 1980 by Mozambique Airlines (Linhas Aéreas de Moçambique; LAM), the national carrier, which also provides international service. Mozambique has a number of domestic airports and international airports at Beira, Vilanculos, and Maputo.

      Most of the existing network of internal connecting roads and airstrips in the northern and central areas was developed during the 1960s and '70s as part of Portugal's counterinsurgency strategy that emphasized air transportation as an alternate to the less-safe rural roadways. Airline passenger traffic developed in inverse proportion to that of the railways and roads, increasing steadily from the late 1970s as road and railway passage declined in response to the threat of ambush. North-south domestic travel in the country is therefore better served by the airlines than by the more east-west-oriented road or rail system.

      Partly in response to long waits for installation of land phone service, the use of cellular telephones expanded rapidly in the early 21st century; Internet use and access, however, were limited and increased at a far slower pace.

Government and society

Constitutional framework

      The Mozambique Liberation Front (Frente de Libertação de Moçambique; Frelimo) led the armed insurgency against Portuguese colonial rule and came to power in 1975, at which time Mozambique became a people's republic. Under the 1975 constitution, produced by the Central Committee of Frelimo, the party's president served as the president of the country. The president was also the head of the Council of Ministers, the People's Assembly, and Frelimo's Central Committee, as well as the commander in chief of the armed forces. Since membership in Frelimo was a prerequisite for any political office, the most powerful national and provincial offices tended to circulate among a fairly small group of trusted party members.

      Colonial legislation was allowed to stand unless it was specifically judged to contradict the spirit of the new constitution. Legislation and judicial principles and practice evolved piecemeal through the work of popular assemblies and popular tribunals. In the early 1980s, for example, capital offenses were expanded to include political and nonviolent crimes such as hoarding and smuggling, and public flogging was reintroduced.

      A new constitution, which introduced major changes in the government—multiparty elections, universal adult suffrage, and the secret ballot—was adopted in November 1990. Presidential term limits were outlined; a parliament was established with limited ability to veto executive action; the death penalty was abolished; and freedom of the press, the workers' right to strike, and the concept of habeas corpus were confirmed.

      Under the 1990 constitution, which has been amended, the president serves as the head of state and government, is elected to a five-year term through universal suffrage, and can be reelected to a consecutive term only once. The president is assisted by the prime minister and the Council of Ministers. The president may also seek counsel from the Council of State, an advisory body provided for by a 2004 amendment to the constitution.

      Members of the legislature, the Assembly of the Republic, are elected to five-year terms by universal suffrage. Among the Assembly's powers are the ability to ratify the suspension of constitutional guarantees, approve the appointment of the president and deputy president of the Supreme Court, and grant amnesties and pardons.

Local government and justice

      For administrative purposes, Mozambique is divided into 10 provinces (Cabo Delgado, Niassa, Nampula, Zambézia, Tete, Sofala, Manica, Maputo, Inhambane, and Gaza) and the capital city of Maputo; the president appoints the governor of each province. The provinces, in turn, are divided into districts and localities.

      The judicial system consists of the Supreme Court, the Administrative Court, and lower courts. Judges are appointed by the president after consultation with the Superior Council of the Judiciary or the Superior Council of the Administrative Judiciary.

Political process

      After independence the Mozambique National Resistance (Resistência Nacional Moçambicana; Renamo) was created by whites in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and sought to destabilize the Frelimo regime. Internal conflict raged throughout Mozambique from the late 1970s until 1992. Throughout this period Frelimo remained Mozambique's sole political party; however, multiparty elections began in 1994. Frelimo and Renamo continue to be the major parties, but there are a handful of others.

      Universal suffrage is guaranteed by the 1990 constitution. By the early 21st century, women had begun to serve in significant numbers in the Assembly of the Republic and on the Council of Ministers, and in 2004 Luisa Diogo was named prime minister—the first woman to hold the post in Mozambique.

Security

      Mozambique's national army has its roots in the Frelimo army that developed during the anticolonial liberation struggle. Women had been integrated into the Frelimo army during this time, although this action was opposed by many males in the army. After independence the only military challenges Mozambique faced were the result of its support for the independence movements in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and South Africa. In response, both of those countries backed Renamo's guerrilla efforts against the Mozambican government throughout the 1980s. Therefore, necessity dictated that Mozambique's military be larger than those of surrounding countries without such internal strife. After the end of the conflict in 2002, the number of troops dwindled; legislation making military service compulsory was enacted in 1997.

Health and welfare

      Frelimo expanded and altered the health care system to better serve the majority population, establishing rural health care clinics and thus changing the emphasis from curative care designed principally to serve the settler population to preventive care aimed at the majority. However, Frelimo's nationalization of medical services led to an exodus of licensed physicians, and, owing to the shortage of physicians, nurses, technical assistants, and midwives have played an important role in providing health care. Malnutrition, tuberculosis, cholera, measles, a variety of gastrointestinal problems, and tropical diseases such as malaria, leprosy, schistosomiasis, and sleeping sickness are endemic in many parts of the country. At the beginning of the 21st century, the spread of AIDS in Mozambique had also become a problem.

Housing

      Abandoned houses were nationalized in 1975, and those left vacant by Portuguese nationals were given to homeless Mozambicans. Rental property was also nationalized. In most rural areas, people live in mud-walled and thatch-roofed houses that they construct themselves. Though often circular in shape, some are square, and square or rectangular housing is most common in urban and peri-urban neighbourhoods. Mud and wattle construction (where mud is held in place by a frame of crisscrossed sticks) is widely used in rural areas, while in and near urban areas people more often utilize cement bricks. The majority of houses in both rural and urban areas are relatively small, built in clusters around a common yard where most cooking and food preparation takes place.

Education

      The Portuguese educational system was two-tiered—designed to promote rudimentary skills among the majority African population and to provide liberal and technical education for the settler population and a tiny minority of Africans. More than four-fifths of students enrolled in the colonial system were restricted to the rudimentary program. The state, in cooperation with the Roman Catholic Church, provided public education, but private education was also available, mostly through church groups. The language of instruction was Portuguese, but at independence only a tiny proportion of the African population was literate in it. There were also Islamic schools in the capital and along the northern coast.

      The National System of Education, implemented in the early 1980s, created programs for people of all ages, part-time as well as full-time students, to improve both literacy and technical education. Private and parochial school facilities were nationalized to facilitate the reorganization and unification of the educational system. Although the number of primary, secondary, adult educational, and vocational centres increased rapidly, demand for education quickly outstripped the state's capacity. Primary school attendance in 1973 was 643,000 and rose to about 1,500,000 by 1979. The figure declined in the 1980s, however, as Renamo destroyed more than 1,000 schools, but by the mid-1990s attendance was again approaching the 1979 level. Literacy increased considerably in the two decades after independence—to some two-fifths of the population—although the figure for males was more than double that for females. Frelimo's Office of Mass Communications also utilized radio, murals, and a cartoon character (who represented the former colonial secret police) to disseminate information to the illiterate and promote communication among them.

      The national university, established in 1962 and renamed Eduardo Mondlane University in 1976 for the first president of Frelimo, offers courses through a range of faculties, centres, and schools. Other universities include the Catholic University of Mozambique (1995) and Higher Polytechnic and University Institute (1994), both of which have branches in multiple cities.

Cultural life

      Mozambique exhibits a great range of cultural and linguistic diversity, sharing cultural traditions with its neighbours in Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and South Africa. Amid the variety of languages, social relationships, artistic traditions, clothing, and ornamentation patterns is a common theme of dynamic and creative cultural expression in song, oral poetry, dance, and performance. The carved wooden sculpture and mapiko initiation masks of the Makonde people of northern Mozambique and Tanzania are among the best-known artistic traditions.

Daily life and social customs

      Mozambican society has traditionally revolved around the family and the village, with customs and observances that grow from local rather than national influences. Many of its traditional values came under attack during the years of civil strife, for, despite Frelimo's emphasis on pride in African cultural heritage, its ideology of scientific materialism clashed sharply with important components of traditional Mozambican culture. Aspects of that culture, including spirituality, herbal healing, rites of passage, direct criticism of leadership through poetic performance, and lineage authority, conflicted with government efforts to reorder society along socialist lines and to define national culture through government control of the media. Frelimo opposed such traditional practices as polygamy and various initiation rites as well as regulos, chiefs who were put into positions of power by the colonial government. By the end of the 1990s the government had stopped its campaigns against polygamy and initiation rites, implicitly recognizing that such social customs were difficult, if not impossible, to legislate. Regulos and other local authorities came to have a larger role in governance.

      The daily food staple of most Mozambicans is either cassava (manioc), which is cooked and pounded into a soft mound and served with a sauce, or massa, a cornmeal porridge that is similarly served with a sauce. A common sauce called matapa is made from cooking cassava leaves or other greens with ground peanuts or shredded coconut, usually in coconut milk; sometimes shrimp or meat may be added, and there are many local variations. Rice is also the basis of many meals and is often served with beans. Indian influence is seen in the wide varieties of rice pilaf (pilau), where rice is cooked with chopped vegetables or meat, and in the use of curry (caril) as both a flavouring and as a style of cooking. A chili pepper sauce or marinade called piri-piri is a key ingredient in one of the country's best-known dishes, chicken piri-piri, also called frango á zambeziana. Prawns are found in the Mozambique Channel and are a well-known feature of Mozambican cuisine, usually served grilled and often with piri-piri. Portuguese taste has also had an impact, evident in the presence of coffee shops in the urban areas. Local fruit such as mango, papaya, and citruses are widely available.

The arts

      Mozambique has produced some of Africa's most important writers and artists. From the early 20th century, African writers and journalists published their own newspaper in Maputo—O Africano, later O Brado Africano—which, despite colonial censorship, provided a forum for African intellectuals and writers for many decades. Writers used Portuguese to convey the experience of the colonized and to confirm the validity of African cultural expression. Some of Frelimo's leading figures, including Marcelino dos Santos and Sérgio Vieira, wrote poetry and encouraged poetic expression as a form of resistance. One of Africa's best-known poets is José Craveirinha (Craveirinha, José), whose collections of poetry include Chigubo (1964) and Karingana ua karingana (1974; “Once upon a Time”). Other writers in Portuguese include Luís Bernardo Honwana (Honwana, Luís Bernardo), Mia Couto, Lina Magaia, and Orlando Mendes. Bento Sitoe, the author of Zabela (1983), among other works, used Tsonga as the language of his writings. Since the 1990s new authors have emerged who address women's experiences in Mozambican society, including Paulina Chiziane and Lília Momplé, whose novel Neighbours (1995) was later published in English as Neighbours: The Story of a Murder (2001).

      Mozambique's small film industry is represented by directors such as Jose Cardoso (Vento sopra do norte [1987; “The Wind Blows from the North”]) and Licino Azevedo (A arvore dos antepassados [1995; “Tree of the Ancestors”]). The country's best-known film export is Solveig Nordlund's Comédia infantil (1998; “Nelio's Story”), a Portuguese, Swedish, and Mozambican coproduction.

      The painter Malangatana Valente Ngwenya, commonly known as Malangatana, has gained an international following, as has the sculptor Alberto Chissano. Malangatana and the muralist Mankew Valente Muhumana have inspired the formation of artist cooperatives, particularly around Maputo; among the most prominent of these is the Nucleo de Arte, which operates a gallery and offers workshops throughout the year.

      Mozambican popular music combines Western and African influences and includes the work of Alexandre Langa, Xidimingwana, and the Nampula group Eyuphuro. A popular style of music in Mozambique is marrabenta, which originated in the 1950s and was first performed on homemade guitars constructed from oil or gasoline cans and fishing line. The style's lyrics are often political, though subtly so, and the associated dance is widely performed throughout the country. It developed during the colonial period as a way to criticize the government in a manner that would be nonthreatening and is a common musical form in other African societies. The Portuguese fado style, featuring mournful ballads usually sung by women, is also popular. The xylophone orchestral ensemble, common among the Chopi people, is one of the country's best-known musical traditions. The National Song and Dance Company, headquartered in Maputo, offers programs drawing from the country's many musical traditions.

Cultural institutions

      The Association of Mozambican Writers sponsors seminars and public readings and publishes for the national market. Eduardo Mondlane University and the Historical Archive publish scholarly journals, monographs, edited collections, archival guides, and collections of documents.

 Mozambican cultural institutions underwent a fundamental transformation after independence, as the new government sought to eliminate colonial-era influences. Some of these institutions have remained closed, but most eventually reopened in a different form. Gustave Eiffel (Eiffel, Gustave)'s famed Iron House serves as the administrative centre for some of the country's cultural departments. The Historical Archive of Mozambique, the Museum of the Revolution, the National Money Museum, the Museum of Geology, the National Museum of Art, and the Museum of Natural History—all located in Maputo—contain the principal collections, archives, and libraries. The National Museum of Ethnology, located in the northern city of Nampula, also has a large collection of Mozambican artifacts. The Island of Mozambique (Mozambique, Island of) (designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1991), at the mouth of Mossuril Bay in the Indian Ocean, contains a fort built in the early 1500s from stones imported from Portugal. Mosques, palaces, and the Nossa Senhora do Baluarte chapel can also be found there. The town of Manica, located in the mineral-rich province of the same name, has a fine geology museum, and similar collections are being developed elsewhere.

Sports and recreation

      Football (football (soccer)) (soccer) is Mozambique's favourite sport; however, the country's most renowned player, Eusebio, made his name playing in Portugal (1961–75). Known as the “Black Panther,” he led the Portuguese national team to a third-place finish at the 1966 World Cup football championship. Track and field and basketball are also popular and avidly followed in the country. Maria Mutola won Mozambique's first Olympic gold medal, in the 800-metre run at the 2000 Summer Games in Sydney.

Media and publishing

      The government owns and controls most of the printed media, including Notícias, the daily national paper; Tempo, a weekly magazine; and Domingo, the Sunday paper. During the 1990s many smaller independent publications emerged, including Metical and Mediafax, which were noted for their critical assessment of current events. Other independent publications include the daily newspaper O Popular and the weekly newsmagazines Fim de Semana, Savana, and Zambeze.

      The Mozambique Information Agency is the country's official national and international news agency. The government also operates television and radio stations and has granted licenses to many private radio stations.

History

      During the colonial era Mozambique's history was written as though it had begun with the arrival of the Portuguese, but the people of this region had developed complex communities based on agriculture, cattle raising, mining, crafts, and trade long before the first small groups of Portuguese settlers arrived in the 16th century. Archaeological and historical research since 1950 has begun to reintegrate Mozambique's past with that of East, Central, and Southern Africa. For a consideration of Mozambique in its regional context, see Southern Africa.

Precolonial period

Early settlement

      From at least the 3rd century AD, Iron Age people who practiced agriculture and kept both cattle and small livestock moved into Mozambique as part of the migration of Bantu (Bantu languages) speakers from west-central Africa toward the south and east. These people had mastered iron technology and combined the cultivation of some grains with knowledge of root and tree crops. In the process they created such sustained population growth that they needed to expand their territory. In a slow but fairly steady process, one branch of Bantu speakers moved east toward the Indian Ocean and then south along the coast, and another moved more directly south-southeast into the Zimbabwe plateau and highlands of western Mozambique.

      The characteristic social unit was the extended patrilineal household headed by an elder male and consisting of his wives, their unmarried children, adult sons, and the sons' families. Although both social and labour organization varied throughout the area, women were usually responsible for child care, cultivation, gathering of food crops, and food preparation, whereas men were involved in cattle keeping, hunting, toolmaking, and a range of crafts.

      Toward the end of the 1st millennium AD, groups of households called nyika had emerged in south-central Mozambique as social units under the authority of a chief and chiefly household. In the 10th century a settlement known as Mapungubwe, which incorporated many nyika, developed in the upper reaches of the Limpopo River. It was the earliest of the settlements featuring stone enclosures, or zimbabwes.

The rise of the zimbabwe civilizations

      The groups on the Zimbabwe plateau expanded their herds and moved between the plateau and the surrounding Mozambican lowlands in pursuit of seasonal pastures, although the tsetse fly, which causes sleeping sickness, was present in the region. The region's economy was rooted in agriculture and cattle keeping, but its social and political organization became more complex with the development of local industries and trade, specifically the mining of gold, copper, and iron ore and the development of salt pans, tool forges, and potting industries. The civilization of Great Zimbabwe, which dominated the region politically from the mid-13th to the mid-15th century, controlled mining and trade.

      The zimbabwe settlement at Manekweni, about 30 miles (50 km) from the Indian Ocean in southern Mozambique, replicated in miniature the social and settlement patterns of the highland interior. Manekweni was a centre for agriculture, cattle keeping, and the gold trade from about the 12th to the 18th century.

      From roughly the 10th to the 18th century, Great Zimbabwe and the area of Central Africa around Lake Kisale (in present-day Katanga province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo) were the region's centres of production and intra-African trade. Beginning in at least the 1st millennium, however, people of this region traded with various non-Africans. The earliest and most important external trade link for Mozambique was with Middle Eastern and South Asian peoples who traded beads and cloth for gold across the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean.

      By the 14th century, African Arab, or Swahili, trade cities were flourishing along the coast from Somalia in the north to Kilwa in what is now southern Tanzania. Smaller Swahili sultanates developed along the northern coast of Mozambique as far south as Angoche. A series of markets had arisen throughout the region by the 16th century, sustained by intraregional trade in raw materials and long-distance trade in gold, copper, ivory, and slaves.

Arrival of the Portuguese

      The voyage of Vasco da Gama (Gama, Vasco da) around the Cape of Good Hope into the Indian Ocean in 1498 marked the European entry into trade, politics, and society in the Indian Ocean world. The Portuguese gained control of the Island of Mozambique (Mozambique, Island of) and the port city of Sofala in the early 16th century, and by the 1530s small groups of Portuguese had pushed their way into the interior, where they set up garrisons and trading posts at Sena and Tete on the Zambezi River and tried to gain exclusive control over the gold trade. The Portuguese attempted to legitimate and consolidate their trade and settlement positions through the creation of prazos (prazo) (land grants) tied to European occupation. While prazos were originally developed to be held by Europeans, through intermarriage they became African Portuguese or African Indian centres defended by large African slave armies known as Chikunda. Most prazos had declined by the mid-19th century, but several of them survived and strongly resisted Portuguese domination until the last quarter of the 19th century.

      The Portuguese were able to wrest much of the coastal trade from Arabs between 1500 and 1700, but, with the Arab seizure of Portugal's key foothold at Fort Jesus on Mombasa (now in Kenya) in 1698, the pendulum began to swing in the other direction. During the 18th and 19th centuries the Mazrui and Omani Arabs reclaimed much of the Indian Ocean trade, forcing the Portuguese to retreat south. During the 19th century other European powers, particularly the British (British Empire) and the French, became increasingly involved in the trade and politics of the region.

Effects of the slave trade

      By the 18th century, slaves had become an increasingly important part of Mozambique's overall export trade from the East African coast. Yao traders developed slave networks from the Marave area around the tip of Lake Nyasa (Nyasa, Lake) to Kilwa and the Island of Mozambique (Mozambique, Island of). Prazo traders along the Zambezi sold gold and slaves from Zumbo, Tete, and Manica to Portuguese merchants at Quelimane, and Tsonga ivory traders developed routes from the Transvaal region of South Africa and from the Zimbabwe plateau to coastal entrepôts at Inhambane and Maputo. During the 19th century, Mozambicans were sold as slaves (forced labour) in the Portuguese and Brazilian South Atlantic trade, the Arab trade from the Swahili coast, and the French trade to the sugar-producing islands of the Indian Ocean and Madagascar. Although the trade in slaves declined as a result of the mid-19th-century slave-trade agreements between Portugal and Britain, clandestine trade—particularly from central and northern Mozambique—continued into the 20th century.

      During the first three decades of the 19th century, the proliferation of military and raiding groups from the conflicts in the northern Nguni heartland southwest of Mozambique had an important impact on southern and west-central Mozambique. Several military groups, offshoots of the emerging Zulu state, invaded Mozambican territory, seizing cattle, hostages, and food as they went. The waves of armed groups disrupted both trade and day-to-day production throughout the area. Two groups, the Jere under Zwangendaba and the Ndwandwe (both later known as Ngoni) under Soshangane, swept through Mozambique. Zwangendaba's group continued north across the Zambezi, settling to the west of contemporary Mozambique, but Soshangane's group crossed the Limpopo into southern Mozambique, where it eventually consolidated itself into the Gaza state. In the 1860s a succession struggle between the sons of Soshangane caused enormous suffering in the region and weakened the Gaza state.

Colonial Mozambique

Consolidation of Portuguese control

      By the 1880s the Portuguese controlled trade and collected tribute in coastal enclaves from Ibo in the north to Lourenço Marques in the south, but their ability to control events outside those areas was quite limited; that situation, however, was about to change. Increasingly, as neighbours of the Gaza state were raided periodically for refusing to pay tribute, they began to ally themselves with the Portuguese, which the Portuguese both encouraged and exploited. In the 1890s a coalition of Portuguese troops and African armies marched against the state. When the Gaza leadership was finally defeated in 1897, southern Mozambique passed into Portuguese control. Two decades later the Portuguese, who had mounted dozens of military campaigns by that time, directly controlled the Barue of central Mozambique, the African Portuguese of the Zambezi and Maganja da Costa prazos, the Yao of Mataka, the northern Makua chiefdoms, and the northern coastal sheikhdoms of Angoche.

      Trade in ivory, gold, slaves, rubber, oilseeds, and a broad range of European goods continued throughout the 19th century. However, European economic interest and influence in the region changed rapidly by mid-century in response to developments in both Africa and Europe. African labour was needed on the sugar plantations and at South African ports and mines after diamonds (at Kimberley in the 1860s) and gold (at Witwatersrand in the 1880s) were discovered. Because of the need for labour, Europeans were determined to gain greater control over tracts of land and their inhabitants at the expense of African leadership. The combined struggle for access to mineral-bearing lands and the labour force to work them fueled the so-called “scramble” in Southern Africa.

      Portugal claimed a swath of territory from present-day Mozambique to Angola. Although the Germans, whose territory bordered Mozambique to the north, accepted the Portuguese claims—establishing Mozambique's northern boundary—British claims to the region contradicted those of Portugal, leading to prolonged negotiations. However, the Portuguese crown was heavily in debt to British financiers, and the small country was no match for Britain's military; in 1891 Portugal was forced to accept Britain's definition of Mozambique's western and southern boundaries.

      Portugal had little hope of developing the entire region on its own, and so it turned to its familiar colonial strategy of leasing large tracts of land to private companies. Chartered companies were granted the privilege of exploiting the lands and peoples of specific areas in exchange for an obligation to develop agriculture, communications, social services, and trade. The Mozambique Company, the Niassa Company, and the Zambezia Company were all established in this manner in the 1890s. Any economic development and investment in infrastructure was related directly to company interests and usually undertaken at African expense. Sugar, copra, and sisal plantations depending largely on conscripted labour and railways linking Beira with the British South Africa Company territory and British Nyasaland to the west and northwest were all developed and built at a high cost to the African workforce.

      The Portuguese government eventually terminated the charters of the major concession companies, bringing all of Mozambique under direct Portuguese rule. Between the 1890s and the 1930s, Portuguese rule in Mozambique was characterized by the exploitation of African people and resources by private parties, whether they were foreign company shareholders or colonial bureaucrats and settlers. The most egregious colonial abuses—forced labour, forced crop cultivation, high taxes, low wages, confiscation of the most promising lands—occurred regardless of which group of Europeans was in control.

Mozambique under the New State regime

      The 1926 coup in Portugal created a Portuguese regime that came to be known as the “New State (Portugal)” (Estado Novo). Although most of the former abuses in Mozambique continued and in some cases were intensified, the New State consolidated the profit into fewer hands and promoted conditions that would favour capital accumulation by Portugal and the Portuguese over all others. While the administrative and educational systems in Mozambique were unified and developed more coherently under the New State, they were still principally directed toward settlers.

      Colonial investment patterns began to change in the early 1950s, when Portugal set forth a series of development plans designed to extend and upgrade Mozambique's transportation and communications infrastructure. Portuguese who had exploited monopolies and incentives to great profit were encouraged to invest in, expand, and diversify their undertakings. The generally favourable prices for tropical commodities in the post-World War II era fueled the trend, and the colonial economy expanded vigorously. At the same time, the New State retained tight control over the economic and physical mobility of the Africans, and thousands of Portuguese settlers arrived in the 1950s and '60s to take advantage of employment and business opportunities denied to Africans. But in promoting these policies, Portuguese colonial authorities antagonized Africans of all social classes.

      The African leadership that emerged in the late 1950s represented a broad cross section of the population and was able to channel considerable discontent against colonial power. Because the New State dealt with any form of political dissent with imprisonment, deportation, or execution, the formal political challenge to the regime developed among African workers and students living outside Mozambique. In 1962 Mozambican representatives from exiled political groups met in Tanganyika (now Tanzania) and formed the socialist Mozambique Liberation Front (Frente de Libertação de Moçambique; Frelimo), with Eduardo Mondlane as its first president.

      Frelimo's strategy was not immediately clear, but, after serious internal debate, the ascendant leadership committed itself to an armed challenge. Frelimo's guerrilla forces, which had been trained and armed by African and Soviet-bloc supporters, attacked targets in northern Mozambique in September 1964, and the war for independence was launched. Portugal, faced with similar challenges in all its African territories (Angola, Guinea-Bissau, and Cape Verde), responded with enormous military effort. Mondlane was killed in 1969, but the leadership of Frelimo was ably assumed by Samora Machel (Machel, Samora), and the Portuguese remained frustrated and militarily ineffectual against Frelimo's small-scale guerrilla engagements. By 1974 Frelimo forces could move about most of the north in relative freedom and had infiltrated central Mozambique, although the cities, most of the south, and the coastal areas as far north as Nacala remained in Portuguese hands.

      In April 1974 the military in Portugal staged a coup, which was welcomed by those Portuguese who were unhappy with the New State regime, its African wars, and its ideology. Frelimo took advantage of its military position to insist on a cease-fire, which confirmed its right to assume power in an independent Mozambique. A quickly aborted countercoup attempt in Maputo in September and some rioting in October were the only overt challenges to Frelimo's authority. Within a year of the Portuguese coup, most of the settler population had left Mozambique, and on June 25, 1975, Mozambique became an independent, single-party state led by Frelimo, with Machel serving as president.

Independence

Mozambique as a one-party state

      Frelimo's solidarity with other African guerrilla groups fighting for political rights in the region strongly shaped events after it controlled the entire country. Mozambicans widely supported Frelimo's decisions to close the border with Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), to implement international sanctions against the country, and to allow its guerrilla forces to develop bases in Mozambique, but these decisions proved costly when Mozambique suffered major losses of revenue and lives and the destruction of key infrastructure. Frelimo's support for the African National Congress (ANC) brought similar economic and military retribution from the white regime in South Africa.

      Frelimo had mixed success with its social and economic policies during its first decade of rule. Forced cultivation, forced labour, and ethnic discrimination were ended, but the party's commitment to communal, cooperative, and state-run agriculture antagonized many African farmers, who had hoped to see land returned to their families. By 1985 Frelimo recognized the failure of its agricultural policy of moving farmers into communal villages. Under pressure from international creditors, it began de-emphasizing state ownership and control of markets in favour of the family agricultural sector.

      The government's extensive investment in education, health care, and services for the majority population was initially highly successful. Within a decade of independence, however, these gains had been totally undermined by the actions of the Mozambique National Resistance (Resistência Nacional Moçambicana; Renamo), an insurgency group trained, supplied, and supported by Rhodesia, South Africa, former Portuguese settlers, and Mozambicans opposed to Frelimo. Renamo began economic sabotage and a campaign of terror against the rural population shortly after independence. In 1984 the governments of Mozambique and South Africa signed the Nkomati Accord, under which each country would no longer support the other country's opposition movement (ANC in South Africa and Renamo in Mozambique). Because this agreement did little to curb Renamo's activity and was violated by South Africa, Frelimo continued attempts to end the conflict through negotiation. The leaders of Frelimo and Renamo finally accepted a peace agreement in October 1992, whereby Frelimo's leadership agreed to change the constitution and to open the political process to competing parties in exchange for Renamo's promise to end the war. Issues between the two groups were not totally resolved until 1994.

Peace in Mozambique

      The multiparty elections that finally took place in October 1994 were the culmination of years of effort to reach a peaceful end to the war between Frelimo and Renamo. Frelimo, once a self-described Marxist-Leninist vanguard party and still progressive if not clearly socialist, made several important concessions to the peace process. Mozambique joined the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in 1984 and adopted their demands to privatize the economy under a structural-adjustment program. Several years later Joaquim Chissano, who had become Mozambique's president when Machel died in a plane crash in 1986, introduced a new constitution that ended Frelimo's one-party rule and Mozambique's identity as a socialist country. That constitution allowed for multiparty elections, though other goals had to be met before elections could be held.

      Renamo changed its image as an international pariah known for burning schools and health clinics and became a legitimate political party. Renamo's leader, Afonso Dhlakama, met with international political leaders and was accepted as a presidential candidate. During the election campaign the United Nations provided military and civilian police, who supervised the activities of their Mozambican counterparts, while the European Union supplied election materials. Although Frelimo and Renamo were the main contenders in the elections, many other smaller parties also emerged, including several founded by Mozambican businessmen who had been in exile for years. There were a dozen presidential candidates and a similar number of parties fielding candidates for the National Assembly. The elections were considered free and fair by international observers, with Frelimo president Chissano garnering the majority of the votes. Renamo, however, was strongly represented in the national government and the National Assembly.

      The new government faced the lingering effects of the war, notably the presence of up to two million land mines in the countryside. An international operation has cleared some areas of mines, especially along roads, but many rural areas remain endangered. The effort to demobilize both Frelimo and Renamo forces and form a new, unified military also met with delays and difficulties, and in the mid-1990s soldiers waiting in demobilization camps for weeks without food, money, or prospects for work staged scattered violent uprisings.

      In the early 21st century, Mozambique suffered several natural disasters, including drought, an earthquake, and devastating floods. The country's economic growth, though adversely affected by these events, was bolstered by significant debt relief and by economic reform measures enacted by the government. The new century also ushered in a change in leadership: in 2001 Chissano announced that he would not stand in the next presidential election. Frelimo, however, maintained control of the presidency when its candidate, Armando Guebuza, was victorious in the December 2004 presidential election. Earlier that year, Luisa Diogo (also of Frelimo) was named prime minister—the first woman to hold the position in Mozambique.

Jeanne Marie Penvenne Kathleen Eddy Sheldon

Additional Reading

Economist Intelligence Unit, Country Profile: Mozambique (annual), contains accurate, up-to-date information on the economy, resources, and industry. Harold D. Nelson (ed.), Mozambique, a Country Study, 3rd ed. (1985), provides coverage of politics, security, economics, and society. Republica Popular de Moçambique, Ministério da Educação, Atlas Geográfico, vol. 1, 2nd ed., rev. and updated (1986), is a useful geographic tool. Travel guides that provide a good introduction to the country are Mary Fitzgerald, Lonely Planet Mozambique, 2nd ed. (2007); and Philip Briggs and Ross Velton, Mozambique: The Bradt Travel Guide (2002).There are several works that examine different experiences of the Mozambican people. Kathleen Sheldon, Pounders of Grain: A History of Women, Work, and Politics in Mozambique (2002), highlights women's historical gains and their struggles in the face of war and economic collapse. Lina Magaia, Dumba Nengue: Run for Your Life: Peasant Tales of Tragedy in Mozambique (1988; originally published in Portuguese, 1987), is a collection of testimonies of the terror experienced by rural Mozambicans at the hands of Renamo. Ruth First, Black Gold: The Mozambican Miner, Proletarian, and Peasant (1983), is a classic study of the country's historically important flow of migrant labour from southern Mozambique to South Africa's gold mines. Harry G. West, Kupilikula: Governance and the Invisible Realm in Mozambique (2005), is a historical review of sorcery in northern Mozambique.Mozambique's history to independence is chronicled in Malyn Newitt, Portuguese Settlement on the Zambesi (1973), and A History of Mozambique (1995); Allen F. Isaacman, Mozambique: The Africanization of a European Institution: The Zambesi Prazos, 1750–1902 (1972); and Allen F. Isaacman and Barbara Isaacman, The Tradition of Resistance in Mozambique (1976), covering the period 1850–1921, and Mozambique: From Colonialism to Revolution, 1900–1982 (1983). Histories of the colonial era include René Pélissier, Naissance du Mozambique: résistance et révoltes anticoloniales (1854–1918), 2 vol. (1984), the most detailed source for the late slave era and conquest; and Leroy Vail and Landeg White, Capitalism and Colonialism in Mozambique: A Study of Quelimane District (1980), an excellent study of the colonial experience in Mozambique. Keith Middlemas, Cabora Bassa: Engineering and Politics in Southern Africa (1975), is a detailed study of the conceptualization, financing, and construction of one of the world's largest hydroelectric projects, which was completed in the same year that Mozambique gained independence.Works on specific experiences under colonialism include Patrick Harries, Work, Culture, and Identity: Migrant Laborers in Mozambique and South Africa, c. 1860–1910 (1994); Allen Isaacman, Cotton Is the Mother of Poverty: Peasants, Work, and Rural Struggle in Colonial Mozambique, 1938–1961 (1996); Jeanne Marie Penvenne, African Workers and Colonial Racism: Mozambique Strategies and Struggles in Lourenço Marques, 1877–1962 (1995); Merle L. Bowen, The State Against the Peasantry: Rural Struggles in Colonial and Postcolonial Mozambique (2000); and Benigna Zimba, Edward Alpers, and Allen Isaacman (eds.), Slave Routes and Oral Traditions in Southeastern Africa (2005). Thomas H. Henriksen, Revolution and Counterrevolution: Mozambique's War of Independence, 1964–1974 (1983), is the most complete study in English of the independence struggle; and Eduardo Mondlane, The Struggle for Mozambique (1969, reissued 1983), written by the first president of Frelimo, is a classic study of Mozambique's struggle to overcome colonial domination. David Birmingham, Frontline Nationalism in Angola & Mozambique (1992), focuses on the period 1961–75. William Minter, Apartheid's Contras: An Inquiry into the Roots of War in Angola and Mozambique (1994), also discusses the conflicts.Works analyzing the revolution and subsequent events include Joseph Hanlon, Mozambique: The Revolution Under Fire (1984); and John S. Saul (ed.), A Difficult Road: The Transition to Socialism in Mozambique (1985), both offering sympathetic reviews of Frelimo's efforts to build a more egalitarian society; and Hanlon's Mozambique: Who Calls the Shots? (1991), a study of the country's economic and administrative near collapse in the 1980s. Alex Vines, Renamo: Terrorism in Mozambique (1991), contains a complete investigation of the organization; and Alcinda Honwana, Child Soldiers in Africa (2006), discusses the impact of the war on children in Mozambique and Angola.Studies of the peace process, economic changes, and the political events of the 1990s and early 2000s include Richard Synge, Mozambique: UN Peacekeeping in Action, 1992–94 (1997); Hans Abrahamsson and Anders Nilsson, Mozambique: The Troubled Transition from Socialist Construction to Free Market Capitalism (1995); Margaret Hall and Tom Young, Confronting Leviathan: Mozambique Since Independence (1997); M. Anne Pitcher, Transforming Mozambique: The Politics of Privatization, 1975–2000 (2002); and Carrie L. Manning, The Politics of Peace in Mozambique: Post-Conflict Democratization, 1992–2000 (2002). Colin Darch and Calisto Pacheleke, Mozambique (1987), is an excellent annotated bibliography on all aspects of the country.Kathleen Eddy Sheldon

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