Overview of Mozambique

Below you find a chronological overview of Mozambique's past based on information found in Lonely Planet guidebook:

Bantu-speaking people arrived 3000 years ago from Niger Delta in West Africa during one of the greatest population migrations on the African continent. Kingdoms were formed, most organized of them was Karangu or Shona who by the 11th century AD were grouped into a loose confederation with it's centre at Great Zimbabwe (present day Zimbabwe). Other Karanga kingdoms - most notably Manica, along the current Mozambique-Zimbabwe border - continued to thrive as late as the 19th century. In northern Mozambique, Maravi peoples controlled the ivory trade, in far north near Lago Niassa were various Yao chiefdom's.

From around the 8th century AD, sailors from Arabia began to arrive along the East African coast. Most important trading post along Mozambican coast was at Sofala, which by the 15th century was the main link connecting Kilwa with the old Shona kingdoms and the inland gold fields.

Europeans were attracted to Mozambique due to the tales of legendary gold fields ruled over by Monomotapa kingdom. In 1498 Vasco da Gama landed at Ilha de Mocambique en route to India, within a decade the Portuguese had established themselves on the island and gained control of numerous other Swahili-Arab trading posts. Over the next 200 years the Portuguese busily set up trading enclaves and forts along the coast, making Ilha de Mocambique the capital of what they called Portuguese East Africa. By the mid-16th century, ivory had replaced gold as the main trading commodity and by the late 18th century, slaves had been added to the list, with close to one million Africans sold into slavery through Mozambique's ports.

The first major journey inland was made around 1511, by the 1530s the Portuguese had occupied settlements which had been established earlier by Arab traders in the Zambezi River Valley at Tete and Sena. Portuguese attempted to strengthen their control in the area twice: first in the 17th century by setting up 'praros' or enormous agricultural estates and then in the late 19th century with the establishment of charter companies. Both attempts were failures in a bigger scale and did little to consolidate Portuguese control.

In 1891 a British-Portuguese treaty was signed, which set the boundaries of Portuguese East Africa and formalized Portuguese control in the area. 1899 new labour law as paned which divided the Mozambican population into non indigenous with full Portuguese citizenship rights, and indigenous who were subject to the provisions of colonial law and forced to work and pay a poll tax. For an African to acquire non indigenous status, it was necessary to demonstrate Portuguese 'culture' and a level of education.

In the late 19th century Portuguese transferred the capital to Lourenco Marques (as Maputo was then known) due to the strengthening ties with South Africa and this location was also becoming a major port in the region. In the late 1920's Antonio Salazar came to power in Portugal. To maximize the benefits that Portugal could realize from its colonies, he sealed them off from non-Portuguese investment, terminated the bases of the various concession companies in the north, abolished the remaining 'praros' or agricultural estates and consolidated Portuguese control over Mozambique. Overall conditions for Mozambicans worsened considerably.

Discontent with the situation grew and a nationalist consciousness gradually developed. In June 1960, at Mueda in northern Mozambique, an official meeting was held by villagers protesting peacefully about taxes. Portuguese troops opened fire on the crowd, killing large numbers of demonstrators. From this point onwards, the Mozambican liberation movement began to grow.

In 1962 Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo) was formed in Dar Es Salaam (Tanzania), first president of the organization was Eduardo Chivambu Mondlane. On 25th of September 1964, Mondlane proclaimed the beginning of the armed struggle for national independence which Frelimo initiated by attacking Portuguese base at Chai, in Cabo Delgado province. Mondlane was assassinated in 1969, he was succeeded by Samora Moises Machel. He sought to extend its area of operations to the south. Struggles within Portugal's colonial empire and increasing international criticism sapped the government's resources for resistance. The final blow for Portugal came in 1974 with the overthrow of the Salazar regime. In 1974 at a ceremony in Lusaka (Zambia), the Portuguese government agreed to had over power to Frelimo and a transitional government was established.

On 25 June 1975, the independent People's Republic of Mozambique was proclaimed with the wartime commander Samora Machel as president and Joaquim Chissano, a founding member of Frelimo's intellectual elite, as prime minister. The Portuguese pulled out virtually overnight, leaving the country in a state of chaos with few skilled professionals and virtually no infrastructure. Frelimo established ties with the USSR and East Germany, private land ownership was replaced with state farms and peasant cooperatives. Schools, banks and insurance companies were nationalized. Education assumed a high priority. Frelimo's socialist programme proved unrealistic and by 1983 the country was almost bankrupt.

Mozambique National Resistance or Renamo arrived - this ragtag group had been established in the mid-1970's by Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) as part of its destabilization policy. It was kept alive in later years with backing from the South African military and certain sectors in the West. Renamo, which had been created by external forces rather than by internal political motives, had no ideology of its own beyond the wholesale destruction of social and communications infrastructure within Mozambique and destabilization of the government.

It has been pointed out that the war which went on to ravage the country for the next 17 years was thus not a 'civil' was, but one between Mozambique's Frelimo government and Renamo's external bakers. Recruitment to Renamo was sometimes voluntary but frequently by force. Roads, bridges, railways, schools and clinics were destroyed. Villages were rounded up and anyone with skills - teachers, medical workers etc. - was shot. Atrocities were committed on a massive and horrific scale.

The drought and famine of 1983 crippled the country. Faced with this dire situation and the reality of a failed socialist experiment, Frelimo opened Mozambique to the West in return for Western aid. In 1984 South Africa and Mozambique signed the Nkomati Accord, under which South Africa undertook to withdraw its support of Renamo, and Mozambique agreed to open the country to South African investment. While Mozambique abides by the agreement, South Africa exploited the situation to the full and Renamo activity did not diminish.

Samora Machel died in a plane crash in 1986 under questionable circumstances, and his place was taken by a more moderate Joaquim Chissano. The war between the Frelimo government and the Renamo rebels continued, but by the late 1980s political change was sweeping through the region. The collapse of the USSR altered the political balance, and the new president of South Africa, FW de Klerk, made it more difficult for right-wing factions to supply Renamo.

By the early 1990s, Frelimo had disavowed its Marxist ideology, announcing that Mozambique would switch to a market economy, with privatization of state enterprises and multiparty elections. After protracted negotiations in Rome, a ceasefire was arranged, followed by a formal peace agreement in October 1992 and a successful UN-monitored disarmament and demobilisation campaign. With a long-running banking and corruption scandal dominating the headlines, Frelimo is now working to polish its public image, while Renamo is still striving to prove itself as a viable political party.

AIDS infection rates are highest in the south and centre of the country where they exceed 20% in some areas. About 80% of Mozambicans are involved at least part time in subsistence agriculture - growing cassava, maize or cashew trees, mangoes or having tea plantations. Along the coast, fishing is a major source of livelihood. Mozambique's main social security system and welfare net is the community and extended family. If one family member is lucky enough to have a good job, it is expected that their good fortune will filter down to even distant relatives.

There are 16 main ethnic groups or tribes, the largest is the Makna, comprising about 25% of the total population. Life expectancy is about 40 years. About 35% of Mozambicans are Christians, about 25% to 30% are Muslims, and the reminder are adherents of traditional religions.