Mozambique

Official name: Republic of Mozambique

Capital city: Maputo

Internet country code: .mz

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

National anthem: “Moçambique nossa terra gloriosa!” (Mozambique, our Glorious Land - first line of chorus)

Geographical description: Southeastern Africa, bordering the Mozambique Channel, between South Africa and Tan­zania

Total area: 309,494 sq. mi. (801,590 sq. km.)

Climate: Tropical to subtropical

Nationality: noun: Mozambican(s); adjective: Mozambican

Population: 20,905,585 (July 2007 CIA est.)

Ethnic groups: African (Makhuwa, Tsonga, Lomwe, Sena, and others) 99.66%, Europeans 0.06%, Euro-Africans 0.2%, Indians 0.08%

Languages spoken: Emakhuwa 26.1%, Xichangana 11.3%, Portuguese 8.8% (official; spoken by 27% of population as a second language), Elomwe 7.6%, Cisena 6.8%, Echuwabo 5.8%, other Mozambican languages 32%, other foreign languages 0.3%, unspecified 1.3%

Religions: Roman Catholic 23.8%, Muslim 17.8%, Zionist Christian 17.5%, other 17.8%, none 23.1%

(Mozambique; People’s Republic of Mozambique), a state in southeastern Africa. It borders on Tanzania to the north, the Republic of South Africa and Swaziland to the south, and Malawi, Zambia, and Southern Rhodesia to the west. It extends eastward to the Indian Ocean. Area, 783,000 sq km; population, 8.5 million (1972, estimate). The administrative center is the city of Maputo (formerly Lourengo Marques). It is divided into ten provinces.

Mozambique is a republic. Under the present constitution, which went into effect on June 25, 1975, the president is the head of state and of the government, and executive power is vested in the National Assembly, which consists of 210 deputies.

Natural features The total length of the coastline is about 3,000 km. North of the city of Mozambique the coast is indented by many small bays; the shores are low but rocky and steep. Coral reefs and sandbars make navigation difficult. In the south the shores are low, flat, and swampy in places. The ports of Beira and Maputo have good natural harbors. The northern part of the country is occupied by the plains of the East African plateau (Mount Namuli, 2,419 m), which descends in steps from west to east toward a narrow coastal lowland. In the west, between the Zambezi and Save rivers, the border with Southern Rhodesia runs along a ridge of the Inyanga fault scarp, with elevations of more than 1,000 m (Mount Binga, 2,436 m, the highest point in Mozambique). The volcanic Lebombo Mountains rise south of the Save, along the border with the Republic of South Africa. The Gorongosa Mountains (1,856 m) stretch in front of the Inyanga scarp. Much of eastern Mozambique is occupied by the rolling and swampy coastal Mozambique lowland (width, 80–400 km).

Most of Mozambique’s territory is composed of Lower and Middle Proterozoic metamorphic and granitized rocks of the Mozambican system, which are synchronous with the shales and quartzites of the Umkondo system that are developed along the northeastern edge of the Rhodesian massif on the right bank of the Zambezi River. The Precambrian foundation of Mozambique was split into blocks by fractures in the late Paleozoic period. The submerged blocks correspond to the Urema trough (the southern continuation of the East African Rift Valley), the Zambezi and Limpopo grabens, and the Mozambique depression. The platform cover that is localized within the Mozambique depression is represented by the Upper Carboniferous Dwyka tillites, the Lower Permian coal-bearing Ecca series, the Upper Permian-Triassic red Beaufort series, the Triassic molasse-like and then aqueous deposits of the Stormberg series and basalt lavas, and the mainly marine deposits of the Jurassic, Cretaceous, and Cenozoic periods. In the Mozambique depression in the south of the country, the Jurassic, Cretaceous, and Cenozoic strata are more than 3.5 km thick. The most important minerals are coal (total reserves, 700 million tons), deposits of which are associated with the Ecca series (coal basins on the Zambezi River near the city of Tete, at Lake Nyasa, and in the valley of the Limpopo River); uranium and iron ores; asbestos; phosphorites; and mica and gold, which are confined to Precambrian rocks. In the east of the country there are deposits of ores of beryllium, niobium, tantalum, and lithium, which are associated with pegmatites. There are also bauxite deposits in the region of Tete.

The climate of the northern part of Mozambique is subequatorial; that of the southern part, a tropical trade-wind climate. In the Mozambique lowland the average temperature is 26°–30°C in January and 15°–20°C in July. On the plateau the temperature is 3°–5°C lower in both winter and summer. The annual precipitation ranges from 750–1,000 mm on the plateau and in the southern part of the Mozambique lowland to 1,500 mm or more in the northern part of the lowland and on the windward slopes of the East African plateau, the Inyanga scarp, and the Lebombo Mountains.

The major rivers are the Zambezi, Limpopo, Save, and Ruvuma, which are deep and navigable in the lowland. The eastern shore of Lake Nyasa (Malawi) and Lake Chilwa are in Mozambique.

Vegetation consists of sparse forests on the northern tableland, moist savanna in the northern part of the coastal zone, and park savanna south of the Zambezi. Along the banks of the large rivers there are evergreen fringing forests with fine wood, such as ebony, Persian parrotia, and rosewood.

The fauna is rich and varied. Many animals that live only in preserves and national parks in other parts of southern Africa are found in the wild in Mozambique. Among them are the African elephant, antelope, zebra, rhinoceros, lion, leopard, jackal, and hyena. The forests are inhabited by monkeys. There are many snakes and birds and an abundance of insects, including gnats, mosquitoes, and termites.

The large Gorongosa National Park is in Mozambique.

(geologic structure and mineral resources)

Population More than 98 percent of the population consists of peoples of the Bantu language family. The northern part of Mozambique is inhabited by eastern Bantu peoples—the Makua (Makwa) and Lomwe, Malawi, Yao, Makonde, and Swahili. In the southern part live the southeastern Bantu peoples—the Thonga, Mashona, Zulu (Shangana), Angoni, and Swazi. There are about 220,000 Europeans, Asians, Arabs, and mulattoes (as of 1970).

The official language is Portuguese. About 80 percent of the inhabitants profess traditional local beliefs, and most of the rest are Christians or Muslims. The official calendar is the Gregorian calendar.

In the period from 1963 to 1970, the annual population increase was 3.1 percent. The average population density is about 11 per sq km (as of 1972); it is highest in Maputo Province. The economically active population numbers 2,248,000 (1970), of whom 72 percent are engaged in agriculture and 3 percent in industry. The urban population accounts for 5.7 percent of the total (1970). The major cities are Maputo (population 384,000 in 1970, including suburbs), Beira (85,000 in 1968, including suburbs), and Quelimane (20,000 in 1968).

Historical survey The first inhabitants of Mozambique were Bushmen and Hottentots. They were later displaced by tribes of the Bantu language family, who had moved in from the southern Sudan and who engaged mainly in livestock raising and farming. The population had known from ancient times the techniques of mining gold and iron and copper ores.

Early class states arose in Mozambique in the late first and early second millennia A.D.; the largest of them was Mwene Matapa. Arabs began their penetration of Mozambique in the eighth century; they founded numerous trading stations on the East African seaboard and tried to consolidate their economic and political influence in the region. In 1498, Vasco da Gama’s Portuguese expedition made a stop in Mozambique en route to India. In the early 16th century the Portuguese, attracted by reports of Mwene Matapa’s wealth, landed on the coast and moved into the interior of the country. They built a fort at Sofala in 1505 and the fortress of Mozambique in 1508. Their attempts to penetrate deeper into Mozambique encountered the stubborn resistance of the Karanga people, who inhabited Mwene Matapa. In 1629 the Portuguese forced the ruler of Mwene Matapa to sign an oppressive treaty, in which he acknowledged himself to be a vassal of the king of Portugal.

In the 17th and 18th centuries the Portuguese colonialists conducted a brisk slave trade in Mozambique, exporting slaves to Brazil to work on sugar plantations. In 1752, Portugal’s possessions on the East African seaboard, which up to that time had been administered by the viceroy of Portuguese India, were made a separate colony, and a separate colonial administration headed by a captain general was set up in Mozambique. In 1781 the Portuguese built the fortress of Lourengo Marques, which became the administrative center of the colony in 1897.

In the early 19th century the Portuguese controlled only the fortresses and trading stations on the seaboard. Their attempts to establish effective control over the interior regions led to a long war with the African state of the Vatua, which was founded in the early 19th century between the Limpopo and Púngwè rivers. The ruler of the state, the general and diplomat Gungunhana, inflicted several defeats on the colonialists in 1894–95. In late 1895 the Portuguese succeeded in breaking the resistance of the Vatua and capturing Gungunhana. The armed struggle continued for about two more years. Gungunhana is revered as a national hero in Mozambique.

In the early 20th century, after conquering the interior regions of Mozambique, the Portuguese colonialists introduced forced labor. In 1909, Portugal signed a convention with the South African authorities on the recruitment of Mozambique’s local population for work in the coal and gold mines of the Transvaal. After World War I, at the division of German East Africa, the territory south of the Ruvuma River (called the Quionga, or Kionga, triangle) was made part of Mozambique.

Portugal’s economic weakness opened the way for the penetration of Mozambique by other foreign capital (mainly British before World War II and North American after the war). The Companhia de Mozambique, which was founded in 1891 with broad participation of foreign capital and in which the Portuguese government owned 10 percent of the stock, received exclusive rights to the exploitation of the Manica e Sofala region (present-day Beira and Vila Pery provinces). After the war, foreign monopolies were in control of the production of sugar, sisal, cotton, tobacco, coffee, and peanuts and the construction of railroads and ports. In 1948 the Gulf Oil Company (USA) concluded a contract with Portugal and opened a branch in Mozambique. At the same time, Portuguese monopoly capital began a more active penetration of Mozambique’s economy. Cotton became the leading Portuguese import from Mozambique.

In 1920 a group of African students from Mozambique formed a patriotic organization, the African League, in Lisbon. The African Association, the Association of the Native-born of Mozambique, and other organizations that set for themselves the goal of struggle against colonialism were founded later. Large-scale actions by the proletariat took place: there was a strike of transportation workers and longshoremen in 1925, strikes of longshoremen and workers in Lourengo Marques in 1949 and 1951, and disturbances among plantation workers in Muedas Macondes in 1960.

An armed uprising broke out in Mozambique on Sept. 25, 1964. It was headed by the Mozambique Liberation Front (FRELIMO), a patriotic party consisting of the peasantry, as well as the urban workers and the revolutionary intelligentsia, that was founded in 1962 under the leadership of E. Mondlane. Mondlane was assassinated in 1969, and Samora Machel became party leader in 1970. In the armed struggle against Portuguese troops, FRELIMO raised its own army and inflicted several defeats on the colonialists. At first the party operated in the two northern districts of Cabo Delgado and Niassa, but in 1968 it opened military operations in Tete District. In 1972–73, FRELIMO carried out several successful military operations near the dam that was under construction in Cabora Bassa, and also in Niassa and Cabo Delgado districts. Although by late 1972 the Portuguese had deployed an army of 70,000 men in Mozambique, and although they received aid from NATO, the Republic of South Africa, and Southern Rhodesia, they suffered heavy losses. By early 1973, FRELIMO controlled more than one-fourth of the country’s territory, with a population of more than 1 million. FRELIMO has set up bodies of people’s power in the liberated territories and is carrying out social and economic transformations that are in the basic interests of the people of Mozambique. After the overthrow of the fascist dictatorship in Portugal (Apr. 25, 1974), the Provisional Government of Portugal took steps toward a political settlement in Mozambique.

On Sept. 7, 1974, representatives of the Portuguese government and FRELIMO signed an agreement in Lusaka (Zambia) setting a date for the proclamation of Mozambique’s independence. A provisional government consisting of FRELIMO and Portuguese representatives was formed.

The People’s Republic of Mozambique was declared independent on June 25, 1975. FRELIMO chairman S. Machel became the first president of the sovereign state. Mozambique’s government, which consists of members of FRELIMO, has advanced an extensive program of profound social and economic reforms in the interests of the people. The foreign policy of the government enunciates the pursuit of nonalignment and the struggle against imperialism, colonialism, and racism, and also the strengthening of cooperation with socialist countries.

The government’s revolutionary democratic program enjoys wide popular support. However, the imperialist states of the West, the Republic of South Africa, and Southern Rhodesia have continued their provocations in an attempt to exert political and military pressure on the People’s Republic of Mozambique.

Economy Mozambique is an agrarian country whose economy was, until 1975, dominated by foreign capital. Since 1975 the structure of the economy has been changing gradually. The land and mineral resources have been declared the property of the nation. Until 1975, agriculture accounted for about 45 percent of the gross national product. Agricultural land makes up 60 percent of Mozambique’s territory; 3.4 percent of this is occupied by plowland and orchards, and more than 56 percent by meadows and pastures. A considerable portion of the agricultural area is irrigated. The farms that belonged to foreign companies and European planters produced the bulk of the agricultural commodities. The main export crops grown on plantations are sugarcane (56,000 ha; 370,000 tons of raw sugar in 1972); coconut palm, on the lower course of the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers, in the coastal zone, and south of the Zambezi up to the mouth of the Save River (412,000 tons of coconuts in 1972; 68,000 tons of copra in 1972, first place in Africa); tea, in the northwest (15,400 ha; 19,500 tons in 1972; fourth place in Africa, after Kenya, Uganda, and Malawi); and sisal, in all regions (50,000 ha; 24,000 tons in 1972). For export, the Africans grow cotton (364,000 ha; 44,600 tons of raw cotton in 1972) and gather cashew nuts (200,000 tons in 1972; second place in the world after India). The main consumption crops are cassava (440,000 ha, 2.1 million tons in 1972), maize, peanuts, and sorghum.

The development of animal husbandry is hampered by the widespread occurrence of the tsetse fly. Cattle (2.2 million head in 1972), goats (900,000 head), sheep, and pigs are raised on European plantations, mainly in Maputo, Gaza, and Tete districts. The procurement of round timber was 8.4 million cu m in 1971. There is fishing, mainly in the coastal waters (10,400 tons in 1971).

The manufacturing industry accounts for only about 14 percent of the gross national product. The main branches are petroleum refining and the processing of agricultural goods. The mining industry is poorly developed. The minerals produced are coal (336,000 tons in 1972, in Tete Province and northwest of Beira), bauxites, uranium and beryllium ores, salt (29,000 tons in 1971), and asbestos (1,400 tons).

In 1971, electric power output was 551 million kilowatt-hours, about one-half of which was produced by hydroelectric power plants; about one-fourth of the electric power is transmitted to Southern Rhodesia, and about one-tenth to the Republic of South Africa. The international consortium ZAMCO, which includes companies of the Federal Republic of Germany, France, the Republic of South Africa, and Portugal, is building the large Cabora Bassa Hydroelectric Power Plant on the Zambezi River (1974). An oil refinery in Maputo, which uses imported oil, produced 729,000 tons of petroleum products in 1971, most of which was exported to the Republic of South Africa. The major enterprises for processing agricultural products are factories for processing cashew nuts (eight of them belong to the Anglo-American Corporation; there are also large factories in Inhambane and Vila de Joao Belo), four sugar refineries, and flour mills. Mozambique has plants producing peanut oil, cotton-ginning plants, breweries, a tobacco-curing factory, wood-products, furniture and plywood production, and a cement plant (468,000 tons in 1972). Several enterprises are under construction: a pulp and paper plant in the region of Vila Pery (1974), a large textile factory in the city of Nampula, and a sugar refinery in the region of Dondo.

The country has 3,700 km of railroads and 38,400 km of highways (1972); the Maputo-Beira highway was under construction as of 1974. The main ports are Maputo (freight turnover, 12.9 million tons in 1971) and Beira (freight turnover, 2.56 million tons). The Zambezi, Limpopo, Save, Lurio, and Ruvuma rivers are navigable. There are international airports in Maputo, Beira, and Lumbo. Mozambique’s transportation system is used to a considerable extent for transit of foreign-trade cargo of the Republic of South Africa, Southern Rhodesia, Malawi, and Swaziland. Transit and transportation services (including the export of labor) account for a considerable part of the gross national product.

Export goods include cashew nuts (21.5 percent of total export value in 1971), cotton (14.2), sugar (14.9), petroleum products (7), tea (6), copra (5), timber and lumber, and sisal; among import goods are machines and equipment (20 percent of total import value in 1970), transportation equipment (15), food and beverages (14), textile products (11.5), metals and metal products (11), and petroleum.

Mozambique’s main trade partners (as of 1971) were Portugal (38 percent of the exports and 27 percent of the imports) and the Republic of South Africa (9.5 percent and 14.9 percent, respectively). Since the declaration of independence, the geography of foreign trade has changed. The republic’s trade partnership extends to socialist countries, including the USSR. The monetary unit is the Portuguese escudo.

Medicine and public health In 1965–70 the average annual birthrate was estimated at 43.3 per thousand, and the death rate, 22.9 per thousand. Infant mortality is high (92.5 per thousand live births). The average life span is 41 years. Pathology is dominated by infectious diseases, particularly malaria, which exists throughout the country and affects more than 50 percent of the children, and by intestinal infections (dysentery and epidemic hepatitis). Tuberculosis, leprosy, and urinary and intestinal schistosomiasis are also common. Cases of smallpox are recorded every year. In the middle course of the Zambezi and in the north of the country are prime sites of Rhodesian trypanosomiasis; its carriers (tsetse flies) are absent only south of the Save River. The most frequent helminthiases are ancylostomiasis and ascaridiasis; in addition, rural inhabitants are often affected by several types of parasites simultaneously. These factors, as well as an insufficiency of protein in the diet, explain the predominance among neoplasms of primary cancer of the liver.

In 1968 the country had 989 medical institutions, with 13,000 beds, or 1.8 beds per thousand; the institutions are concentrated mainly in the cities, whereas the rural areas have virtually no hospital services. Outpatient services are provided in the cities by polyclinic divisions of hospitals and, in rural areas, by public health centers and stations. In 1969 there were 502 doctors (one doctor per 14,000 inhabitants), of whom 253 worked in state services. There were 169 pharmacists and about 2,300 secondary medical personnel.

Secondary medical personnel are trained in Mozambique.

A. E. BELIAEV and T. A. KOBAKHIDZE

VETERINARY SERVICES. Mites and tsetse flies spread disease among farm animals. Trypanosomiasis, rickets, piroplasmosis, theileriasis, and helminthiases are causing great damage to animal husbandry and retarding its development. Veterinary service is organized only near big cities. Veterinary and sanitation control is implemented in some slaughterhouses. Mozambique has 54 veterinarians (1972) and a veterinary research center.

Cultural affairs and scientific institutions As a result of the colonial regime, more than 95 percent of the population is illiterate (according to 1970 data). Europeans and Africans study in separate schools. Compulsory education of children between the ages of seven and 13 has been introduced for the Europeans. The school system for them is the same as in Portugal: the six-year primary school is followed by the seven-year secondary school (five plus two years). Africans are essentially admitted only to a five-year primary school; the majority study for two years at “adaptation schools” (escolas de adaptação). An insignificant proportion of Africans enter a five-year secondary school (two plus three years). Instruction in the African schools is in Portuguese. In the 1970–71 academic year there were 613,900 students in all schools, including more than 10,000 in secondary schools. Vocational training is provided by schools that admit primary school graduates; the course of study is three to six years. In the 1968–69 academic year there were 14,200 students in vocational schools. Maputo is the site of a university (founded in 1962), which had more than 2,000 students in the 1972–73 academic year.

In the liberated areas of Mozambique, a great deal of attention is devoted to education and the training of national cadres; work on the elimination of illiteracy has been expanded, and schools for African children are being set up.

Maputo is the site of the National Library (founded in 1961; more than 95,000 holdings), the Municipal Library (more than 8,000 holdings), and the Alvaro de Castro Museum (founded in 1911), which has collections of exhibits on ethnography and natural history.

V. Z. KLEPIKOV

Maputo is also the location of the Mozambique Institute of Scientific Research (founded in 1955), which has departments of biology, geography, and geology, and also an astronomical and meteorological observatory (founded 1907), the Cotton Research Institute (founded 1962), the Public Health Institute (founded 1955), and the Geology and Mining Service (founded 1930; in the early 1970’s most of the prospecting was done by geologists from the Republic of South Africa).

Press and radio In 1972 there were about 12 periodicals in Mozambique. The most important daily Portuguese-language newspapers are Diário (founded 1905; circulation, 12,000), published in Maputo; Diário de Moçambique (founded 1950; circulation, 12,000), the organ of Catholic circles, published in Beira; Noticias da Beira (founded 1915; circulation, 10,000), published in Beira; Noticias (founded 1926; circulation, 27,000), published in Maputo; and A Tribuna (founded 1962; circulation, 15,000) published in Maputo.

FRELIMO publishes the Portuguese-language magazine A voz da Revolucão and the English-language bulletin Mozambique Revolution.

The Mozambique Radio Club, a private service under government control located in Maputo, broadcasts programs in Portuguese, English, and African languages.

Literature The folklore of the peoples of Mozambique, although rich in genres and languages, has been little studied; however, it has influenced many writers. The first manifestation of Mozambique’s cultural and social consciousness was journalism, which began at the turn of the 20th century as a reaction against the Portuguese colonialists’ policy of assimilation. O Brado Africano, a weekly published by the African Association, is marked by an anticolonialist orientation. Its contributors have included the brothers João and José Albasini and the journalist E. Dias—the founders of Mozambican literature—and, in the 1960’s, the progressive journalist D. Aruca. The weekly publishes material in Portuguese and Chironga.

Fiction originated in the second decade of the 20th century. There were two distinct trends in fiction: a procolonialist trend, which is far removed from the pressing problems of the country’s life (its representatives are mostly writers of Portuguese extraction), and a truly popular anticolonialist trend. The latter includes João Albasini’s prose work Book of Sorrow (1925). The pro-Portuguese works include B. Camacho’s Wild Tales (1934) and many novels by Rodrigues Júnior (born 1902). Early Mozambican poetry was characterized by exoticism and imitation of Portuguese models (F. Ferrerinha, first quarter of the 20th century). The first important Mozambican poet with a clearly pronounced anticolonialist orientation was R. de Noronha (1909–43).

After World War II (1939–5), realistic tendencies and the desire to reflect important aspects of reality gained strength in literature; this is characteristic of the poems of J. Craveirinha (born 1922). The theme of the poetry of Noémia de Sousa (born 1927) is proud and unsubdued Africa. The poetry of M. dos Santos (born 1929), a leader of the national liberation movement, is marked by a passionate journalistic quality and revolutionary and anticolonialist enthusiasm. The collection of short stories Godido by J. Dias (1926–49), in which he called on the Mozambicans to throw off slavish humility and submission to fate, was published in 1952. L. Bernardo Honwana (born 1942) presented a truthful portrayal of daily life in the collection of short stories We Killed Mangy Dog (1964).

At the present time, poetry occupies the dominant place in literature. The main theme of the works of A. Guebuza (born 1935), J. Rebelo (born 1940), and S. Vieira (born 1941) is the reordering of the sensory world. Mozambican writers tend to write more often in local languages of the Bantu group or in pequeno portugues, which is a Mozambican variety of Portuguese.

Architecture and art Two types of construction predominate in Mozambican popular dwellings. On the coast there are rectangular houses on frames of poles braided over with twigs and smeared with clay, with gabled roofs covered with grass. In the interior regions there are round frame houses with a central pole; the roofs are either conical and covered with straw and reeds or cup-shaped and covered with grass. The main types of Mozambican decorative and applied art are wood carving, weaving from twigs, and the making of calabashes.

(Mozambique), a city in Mozambique. Population, 12,500 (1960). It is a port on the Mozambique Channel, situated on a coral island. Cotton, sisal, oil seeds, and timber are exported through Mozambique; the freight turnover was 300,000 tons in 1969. The city was founded in 1508.