Mozambique

• 1. Introduction

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  In 1995, Mozambique joined the Commonwealth of Nations. At the time, it was the only member that had never been part of the British Empire. Its traffic even keeps to the left, like that of its Commonwealth neighbours, although no British government ever ruled it. Mozambique lies on the southeast coast of Africa, facing the Indian Ocean, with Maputo as its capital and largest city. Its history raises some odd questions. How did a coastline of trading towns become a Portuguese colony, then a Cold War battleground, then a country hoping to live off natural gas? And why does a land with such rich natural resources still rank among the poorest in the world? The answers begin with an island, a trader, and a name.

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• 2. Island Name, Gold Roads

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  A small coral island at the mouth of Mossuril Bay, on the Nacala coast, gave the country its name. The Portuguese called it Moçambique, after the Island of Mozambique. The island, in turn, seems to carry the name of an Arab trader who first visited it and later settled there. Sources disagree on how to spell him, offering versions such as Mussa Bin Bique and Mussa Ibn Malik. He was still alive when Vasco da Gama's ships called at the island. For centuries it served as the capital of the Portuguese colony, until the seat of government moved south in 1898 to Lourenço Marques, today's Maputo.

  Long before any of that, Bantu-speaking peoples had been moving into the land, as early as the 4th century BC. Between the 1st and 5th centuries AD, waves of migrants from the west and north passed through the Zambezi River valley. They spread onto the plateau and the coast. They settled as farmers and cattle herders, and they brought the technology of smelting and smithing iron.

  At Chibuene, an ancient port near present-day Vilankulo, archaeology shows how far the Indian Ocean trade reached. From the 9th century, growing involvement in that trade produced port towns along the entire East African coast. Most were largely autonomous, and they shared in the early Swahili culture. Islam was often adopted by urban elites, which made trading easier. By the 15th century, Sofala, Angoche and Mozambique Island had become regional powers. Merchants from Somalia, Ethiopia, Egypt, Arabia, Persia and India all frequented these towns.

  The richest goods came down from the interior along gold and ivory caravan routes. Inland states, including the Kingdom of Zimbabwe and the Kingdom of Mutapa, supplied the gold and ivory. Traders then shipped it up the coast to larger cities such as Kilwa and Mombasa. A buyer from far to the west was about to notice where that gold came from.

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• 3. Portuguese Rule

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  In 1498, Vasco da Gama sailed around the Cape of Good Hope, and the Portuguese entered the trade, politics and society of the region. Arab trading settlements had already lined the coast and nearby islands for several centuries. From about 1500, Portuguese trading posts and forts displaced Arab commercial and military dominance. They became regular stops on the new European sea route to the east. Colonisation began in earnest in 1505. Early in the 16th century, the Portuguese gained the Island of Mozambique and the port city of Sofala. By the 1530s, small groups of traders and prospectors hunting gold had pushed inland. They set up garrisons and trading posts at Sena and Tete on the Zambezi.

  To secure these gains, the Portuguese created land grants called prazos. The grants tied emigrants to their settlements. Lisbon cared more about its possessions in Asia and the Americas, so inland Mozambique was largely left to the grant holders, known as prazeiros. Slavery had existed before Europeans arrived. African rulers first dealt in enslaved people with Arab Muslim traders, and later with Portuguese and other Europeans. Prazeiros enforced their authority through armies of enslaved men, who became known as Chikunda. Because of intermarriage and isolation from Portugal, many prazos grew into African-Portuguese or African-Indian households.

  Portuguese power stayed thin and depended on settlers and officials who enjoyed wide autonomy. Between 1500 and 1700 they wrested much of the coastal trade from Arab Muslims. Then, in 1698, Arab Muslims seized Fort Jesus on Mombasa Island, a key Portuguese foothold in what is now Kenya. Investment lagged as Lisbon turned to the more lucrative trade with India and the Far East, and to colonising Brazil. The Mazrui and Omani Arabs reclaimed much of the Indian Ocean trade and forced the Portuguese south.

  By the early 20th century, the Portuguese had handed administration of much of Mozambique to large private firms. They included the Mozambique Company, the Zambezia Company and the Niassa Company. British financiers such as Solomon Joel controlled and financed most of them. The firms built railways to neighbouring colonies, including South Africa and Rhodesia, plus roads and ports. Slavery was legally abolished, yet the companies enforced forced labour at the end of the 19th century. They supplied cheap, often coerced African workers to mines and plantations in nearby British colonies and South Africa. The Zambezia Company was the most profitable, and it built a railroad linking present-day Zimbabwe with the port of Beira.

  Under the corporatist Estado Novo regime of Oliveira Salazar, Portugal moved toward tighter state control of its imperial economy. The Niassa Company's concession was ended in 1929, and the Mozambique Company's followed in 1942. In 1951, the colonies were rebranded as Overseas Provinces of Portugal. A killing of protesters nine years later would show how little that new label had changed.

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• 4. Independence and War

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  On the 16th of June 1960, Makonde protesters died in the Mueda massacre. The killings provoked the struggle for independence from Portuguese rule. Clandestine movements had already formed as anti-colonial ideas spread across Africa. They argued that development plans mainly served Mozambique's Portuguese population, while native communities faced discrimination and heavy social pressure. In September 1964, the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique, known as FRELIMO, began a guerrilla campaign. It became one front of the Portuguese Colonial War, which also reached Angola and Portuguese Guinea. The regular Portuguese army held the population centres. Guerrillas worked to undermine its influence in rural areas of the north and west.

  The Carnation Revolution of April 1974 ended Portugal's authoritarian Estado Novo, and FRELIMO took control after ten years of sporadic warfare. Mozambique became independent on the 25th of June 1975. Within a year, most of the roughly 250,000 Portuguese in the country had left. Some were expelled and others fled possible reprisals. A law promoted by a then little-known FRELIMO figure, Armando Guebuza, ordered the Portuguese out within 24 hours, with only 20 kg of luggage each. Unable to save any assets, most returned to Portugal penniless.

  The new government under President Samora Machel built a one-party state on Marxist principles. It won diplomatic and some military support from Cuba and the Soviet Union, and it cracked down on opposition. From 1977 to 1992, a bitter civil war pitted FRELIMO against the anti-communist rebel militias of RENAMO. Rhodesia and later apartheid South Africa backed RENAMO. Mozambique, for its part, sheltered rebel movements from South Africa and Zimbabwe. Sabotage, failed central planning and nationalised industries pushed the economy into collapse, and famine spread.

  For most of the war, the central government could not exert effective control outside the cities, and many were cut off from the capital. In several provinces RENAMO held up to half of the rural areas, and health services there went unreached for years. Both sides terrorised civilians. The government executed tens of thousands of people and sent many to re-education camps, where thousands died. At one point RENAMO proposed splitting off its northern and western territories as the Republic of Rombesia. FRELIMO refused. An estimated one million Mozambicans died, 1.7 million fled to neighbouring states, and several million more were displaced. Between 300,000 and 600,000 starved.

  On the 19th of October 1986, Machel was flying home from a meeting in Zambia when his plane crashed in the Lebombo Mountains near Mbuzini, in South Africa. He and thirty-three others died, including ministers and officials. In a minority report to a United Nations commission, the Soviet delegation argued that a false navigational beacon had diverted the plane. It suggested the signal came from technology supplied by South African military intelligence.

  Machel's successor, Joaquim Chissano, turned the country from Marxism toward capitalism and opened peace talks with RENAMO. A new constitution in 1990 allowed several parties, a market economy and free elections, and the word people's from the country's name was dropped. The Rome General Peace Accords ended the war in October 1992. The Christian Council of Mozambique first brokered the talks, and the Catholic association Community of Sant'Egidio later took them over. United Nations peacekeepers supervised the peace.

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• 5. Ballots and Insurgents

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  Mozambique has held elections since 1994 as part of the accords that ended the war. FRELIMO won under Chissano, and RENAMO, led by Afonso Dhlakama, became the official opposition. Most parties accepted that first vote as free and fair. Later accounts describe growing evidence that every election since 1999 was fraudulent, with rigging carried out by the state apparatus. They also report that opponents are regularly assassinated or imprisoned.

  By mid-1995, over 1.7 million refugees who had sought asylum abroad had come home, in the largest repatriation seen in sub-Saharan Africa. Another four million displaced people had returned to their homes. That same year, Mozambique became a founding member, and the first president, of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries.

  In December 1999, FRELIMO won again, and RENAMO alleged fraud and threatened to return to war. It backed down after taking the matter to the Supreme Court and losing. In early 2000, a cyclone brought widespread flooding that killed hundreds and wrecked fragile infrastructure. Many suspected that powerful FRELIMO leaders had diverted foreign aid. Carlos Cardoso, a journalist investigating those suspicions, was murdered, and his death was never satisfactorily explained.

  In the elections of 1-the 2nd of December 2004, Armando Guebuza won 64% of the vote to Dhlakama's 32%. FRELIMO took 160 parliamentary seats, and a RENAMO-led coalition took the remaining 90. Guebuza was inaugurated on the 2nd of February 2005 and served two five-year terms. Filipe Nyusi became the fourth president on the 15th of January 2015.

  From 2013 to 2019, RENAMO waged a low-intensity insurgency, mainly in the central and northern regions. On the 5th of September 2014, Guebuza and Dhlakama signed the Accord on Cessation of Hostilities. After the October 2014 elections, RENAMO rejected the results and demanded control of six provinces: Nampula, Niassa, Tete, Zambezia, Sofala and Manica. About 12,000 refugees fled to Malawi between 2013 and 2016. The UNHCR, Doctors Without Borders and Human Rights Watch reported that government forces were the chief aggressors. They described burned villages, summary executions and sexual abuse, contradicting state-owned media that blamed RENAMO.

  In October 2019, Nyusi won re-election in a landslide. FRELIMO took 184 seats, RENAMO 60 and the MDM party the remaining 6. The opposition alleged fraud, and the two-thirds majority let FRELIMO rewrite the constitution without opposition consent.

  A separate threat has grown since 2017, an insurgency by Islamist groups. In September 2020, Islamic State insurgents captured and briefly occupied Vamizi Island. In March 2021, rebels seized the city of Palma, killing dozens of civilians and displacing 35,000 others. That December, nearly 4,000 people fled their villages in Niassa after attacks intensified. On the 15th of January 2025, Daniel Chapo was sworn in as the fifth president, though the opposition rejected the result.

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• 6. Land and Storms

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  At about 309,000 square miles, Mozambique is the 35th-largest country in the world. It stretches between latitudes 10 and 27 degrees south. The Zambezi River splits it into two regions. North of the river, a narrow coastal strip gives way to hills and low plateaus. Farther west rise rugged highlands, including the Niassa, Angonia and Tete highlands and the Makonde plateau, covered in miombo woodlands. South of the Zambezi, the lowlands broaden, and the Lebombo Mountains stand in the deep south.

  Five principal rivers drain the country, and the Zambezi is the largest and most important. Four notable lakes lie in the north: Lake Niassa, also called Malawi, Lake Chiuta, Cahora Bassa and Lake Shirwa. Beside Maputo, the major cities include Beira, Nampula, Tete, Quelimane, Chimoio, Pemba, Inhambane, Xai-Xai and Lichinga.

  A wet season from October to March and a dry season from April to September shape life here. Annual rainfall runs from 500 to 900 mm, with an average of 590 mm, and it is heaviest along the coast. In Maputo, July temperatures run from 13 to 24 C. February temperatures run from 22 to 31 C. Cyclones are common in the wet season.

  In 2019, cyclones Idai and Kenneth brought floods and destruction. It was the first time two cyclones had struck the country in a single season. In February and March 2023, Tropical Cyclone Freddy hit Mozambique twice. The floods affected more than 22,000 houses, flooded 60 health units and damaged 1,265 km of roads. Tens of thousands of hectares of crops were also affected.

  The country's wildlife is just as varied. Mozambique has 740 bird species, 20 of them globally threatened. It also has over 200 endemic mammal species, including the critically endangered Selous' zebra and Vincent's bush squirrel, along with 13 other endangered or vulnerable species. Protected land includes thirteen forest reserves, seven national parks, six nature reserves, three frontier conservation areas and three wildlife or game reserves. One of those parks, Gorongosa, is now a tourist draw.

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• 7. Wealth and Want

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  Between 1994 and 2006, Mozambique's economy grew at an average of about 8% a year. In 2007, the World Bank spoke of its blistering pace of growth, and a joint donor-government study called it generally considered an aid success story. Yet it remains one of the poorest and most underdeveloped countries in the world. Since 2014/15, household real consumption has fallen significantly and inequality has risen sharply. The IMF classifies Mozambique as a heavily indebted poor country. The minimum legal salary is around US$60 per month, and in October 2023 one US dollar bought roughly 64 meticals.

  In 2013, about 80% of Mozambicans worked in agriculture, mostly small-scale subsistence farming held back by poor infrastructure. In 2012, more than 90% of arable land was still uncultivated. The government privatised more than 1,200 mostly small state-owned enterprises and introduced a value-added tax in 1999.

  Corruption scandals have repeatedly shaken the economy. In July 2011, the government proposed new anti-corruption laws against embezzlement, influence peddling and graft. Two former ministers have been convicted. Transparency International ranked Mozambique 116th of 178 countries. A 2005 USAID report said bluntly, "the scale and scope of corruption in Mozambique are cause for alarm." In Inhambane province, an official of the Provincial Anti-Drugs Office and an accountant were found to have stolen over 260,000 meticais between 2008 and 2010.

  Natural gas offers a way out, at least on paper. In 2010-2011, Anadarko Petroleum and Eni found the Mamba South gas field in the Rovuma Basin, off Cabo Delgado Province. Estimated reserves reach 4,200 billion cubic metres. Developed fully, they could make Mozambique one of the world's largest liquefied natural gas producers. In 2019, the Mozambique LNG Project raised $19 billion from a consortium of investors, and most of the work went to TotalEnergies.

  Tourism is expanding too. Divers come to Inhambane Province for its whale sharks and manta rays. Remote northern beaches in the Quirimbas Islands and the Bazaruto archipelago draw others.

  The human cost of poverty is stark. In 2015, literacy stood at 58.8%, with 73.3% of men and 45.4% of women able to read. In the early 21st century there were 3 physicians per 100,000 people. HIV prevalence among adults aged 15 to 49 stood at 11.5% in 2011, and in Maputo and Gaza provinces it ran more than twice as high.

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• 8. Voices and Traditions

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  By 2024 estimates, Mozambique had 34,777,605 people, belonging to more than 2,000 ethnic groups. Bantu peoples make up 97.8% of the population. Portuguese is the only official language, and it is spoken by 50.3% of people. In cities, it often serves as the shared tongue of young people with schooling. Glottolog lists 46 languages, one of them Mozambican Sign Language. Among the languages of the eMakhuwa group, a lost initial k means many nouns begin with a vowel. The word epula, for example, means rain.

  The 2007 census found that Christians made up 59.2% of the population and Muslims 18.9%. Another 7.3% followed other beliefs, mainly animism. Muslims are especially numerous in the north, where they are organised in brotherhoods called tariqa. The United Methodist Church says it has tripled in size since 1998.

  The Makonde are known for wood carving and elaborate dance masks. They make two kinds of carving. Shetani, meaning evil spirits, are tall, curved figures cut from heavy ebony. Ujamaa are totem-like carvings of lifelike faces, often called family trees because they tell the stories of many generations. Late in the colonial period, art became a symbol of resistance. The best-known contemporary artists are the painter Malangatana Ngwenya and the sculptor Alberto Chissano.

  Dance takes many forms. The Chopi act out battles dressed in animal skins. Makua men dance for hours on stilts, wearing colourful outfits and masks. In the north, groups of women perform the tufo to celebrate Islamic holidays. The Chopi are also famous for the marimba, a xylophone-like instrument. Musicians also play drums of wood and animal skin, and the lupembe, a woodwind made from animal horn or wood.

  Portuguese influence is clearest in the kitchen. Settlers brought cassava, cashew nuts, maize, rice, sugarcane and spices such as garlic, paprika and chili peppers. Mozambique was once the largest producer of cashews. Dishes such as whole chicken in piri-piri sauce, steak rolls and battered shrimp are still eaten widely.

  Sport offers its own surprise. Football is the most popular, yet the national roller hockey team came in fourth at the 2011 FIRS Roller Hockey World Cup. The calendar also carries the country's history. Each the 4th of October, Mozambique observes a national holiday of Peace and Reconciliation, marking the agreement signed in Rome.

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