History

Recent History

In December 2004, prominent businessman and long-time Frelimo insider Armando Guebuza was elected to succeed Chissano. With a long-running banking and corruption scandal dominating the headlines, Frelimo is now working to polish its public image, while Renamo is still struggling to prove itself as a viable political party. Progress has been interrupted by natural calamities, including severe flooding in 2000 and 2001. Yet Mozambique has a remarkable ability to rebound in the face of adversity. Tourism is taking off, the economy is slowly but surely growing, and most observers count the country as one of Africa's rising stars.

Modern Day History

In the early 20th century, expansion of the nearby Witwatersrand gold mines and oppressive Portuguese labour laws led to a mass labour migration from southern Mozambique to South Africa and Rhodesia. Mozambicans had had enough, and a resistance movement grew. In 1964, shots fired in the unlikely northern village of Chai set off the struggle that finally culminated in independence in 1975. Mozambican independence - organised as the Mozambican Liberation Front or Frelimo - was helped along by a series of charismatic leaders, including Eduardo Mondlane (assassinated in 1969) and Samora Machel, who became independent Mozambique's president.

The Portuguese pulled out virtually overnight, leaving the country in a state of chaos with few skilled professionals and virtually no infrastructure. Frelimo, which found itself suddenly faced with the task of running the country, threw itself headlong into a policy of radical social change. Ties were established with the former USSR and East Germany and private land ownership was replaced with state farms and peasant cooperatives.

However, Frelimo's socialist program proved unrealistic, and by 1983 the country was almost bankrupt. Onto this scene came the Mozambique National Resistance or Renamo - a ragtag group established in the mid-1970s by Rhodesia as part of its destabilisation policy, and kept alive in later years with backing from the South African military and certain sectors in the West. Renamo had no desire to govern - its only objective was to paralyse the country - and for the next decade atrocities and destruction were committed on a massive scale. In 1992, peace accords finally brought a halt to this, helped along by the collapse of the USSR, winds of change in South Africa and growing international pressures.

Since then, Mozambique has gone about rebuilding itself with gusto. Renamo was transformed into a fledgling political party led by Afonso Dhlakama, and in 1994, stood in elections against Frelimo, under the leadership of Joaquim Chissano (who had taken the reins following Samora Machel's 1986 death under suspicious circumstances). Despite a strong showing by Renamo in the central heartlands, Frelimo won, and the work of rebuilding the country went forward at full steam.

Pre 20th Century History

The first people to see Mozambique's Indian Ocean sunrises were small, scattered clans of nomads who were likely trekking through the bush as early as 10,000 years ago. The real story begins around 3000 years ago, when Bantu-speaking peoples began migrating into the area from the distant Niger Delta, bringing iron tools and weapons with them. Soon scattered kingdoms began to arise, including those of the Karanga or Shona, which extended from present-day Zimbabwe into Mozambique, and the legendary kingdom of Monomotapa, southwest of present-day Tete. Meanwhile, from around the 8th century AD, sailors from Arabia began to arrive along the coast. One of the most important trading posts was at Sofala, near present-day Beira, which by the 15th century was the main link connecting Kilwa with inland gold fields. Other early coastal ports and settlements included those at Ilha de Mocambique, Angoche, Quelimane and Ilha do Ibo. These were all ruled by local sultans until Vasco da Gama sailed onto this scene in 1498, and over the next centuries, the Portuguese built forts and set up trading points along the coast.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.

The Portuguese never quite managed to get the grip over their vast hinterlands that they hoped for. In the 17th century, they divided much of the interior into vast agricultural estates, nominally under the Portuguese crown, but actually run as private fiefdoms with their own slave armies.