History History

Prior to colonization, the history of Mozambique was largely oral. In about 200 AD, the first people to set foot on this southern African land were the Bushmen. As their name suggests, they are bush dwellers. Living in complete harmony with nature, the land is their home, their grocery store, their pharmacy and their garden. The bushmen speak the click language. They have no chief, but experience counts as wisdom. The elders of the village are invited to transmit their knowledge.

Mozambique was still virgin when the North was invaded by the Karanga from Zimbabwe at the end of the first millennium. This is the birth of the Monomotapa Empire. The Karanga, more technologically advanced, maintain relations with the Arabian Peninsula, Asia and China, and dominate the local people. In the present centre of the country, three empires emerged from the 15th century onwards. They are called Maraves.

Then, little by little, the Portuguese arrive by the coast. The navigator Vasco de Gama disembarked in Inhambane, then in Ilha do Moçambique in 1498. From the end of the 15th century, the Portuguese people set up trading posts along the coast. They fantasized about the riches of neighbouring Zimbabwe and tried, in vain, to make their way through Mozambique to gain access to neighbouring empires. But this incursion comes up against the commercial and military powers of the Indians, Arabs and Swahili sultanates elsewhere. It was only at the beginning of the 16th century that a fleet of twenty Portuguese ships took the port of Sofala and the Portuguese finally settled there. In Ilha do Moçambique, they created a dispensary and a church as early as 1507. Fifty years later, they built the island's fort, which is still standing today.

While the Portuguese, the Dutch, the French and the English competed for the gold, ivory and gum trades, the conquest of the New World by the Spanish and then the Portuguese diverted interest towards a servile workforce. Timidly, in the 17th century, human trade begins. While the lack of arms in the Caribbean influenced the "slave trade", the Mascarene Islands and the sugar plantations of Reunion Island were in need of labour. The trade becomes a real economic exchange value.

This new business is booming. In total and at the very least, nearly 10 million Africans, not counting the human losses, were transported to the New World. But the centuries of exploitation finally ended up causing problems of conscience... Between 1794 and 1836, a wave of drought destroyed production. The region gradually lost its balance. In the 19th century, the industrial revolution in Europe pushed the international slave trade to its apogee. Nearly a million people will be uprooted from Mozambique to be sold.

Under English pressure, Portugal undertook to reduce its trade from 1810, then signed a final decree in 1836. But eradicating slavery was no easy task... The Mozambican settlers put pressure on the government and the governor cancelled the ban. It is only in 1857 that the slave trade is officially stopped. However, departures are scattered along the coast in Reunion Island and the status of "hired worker" is created, perpetuating the practice legally. The disguised trade continued until 1859. Slavery in the large farms would take twenty years to disappear, between 1858 and 1878.

Between November 1884 and February 1885, the fate of Africa was disputed at the Berlin Conference. It is a bit like the Yalta of the colonizing nations. Each nation set out its credo: the Portuguese imagined a Portuguese-speaking Africa, from Angola to Mozambique, the English believed in an English-speaking Africa, from Cape Town to Cairo. The Germans see a German-speaking Africa from Tanzania to Namibia. In the middle of these negotiations, Mozambique creates quarrels between Europeans.

After a series of military offensives, the Portuguese crown then occupied a vast territory difficult to control. Colonization is far from being developed, the army is not strong and numerous enough to hold the country. The Niassa region in particular, highly prized by the English because of its key location, slipped through Portugal's fingers little by little. The tone rises and finally, the English issue an ultimatum: if the Portuguese do not withdraw, the English fleet from Zanzibar will head for Mozambique. At the end of the discussion, the honour is safe, but the crazy dream of uniting Angola and Mozambique evaporates.

In Europe and the Americas, the Portuguese economy is in a state of slump. The crown, having lost Brazil in 1822, was unable to replenish its coffers. As a result, its control over Mozambique's administration and trade disintegrated. The question of its usefulness arises: should the territory not rather be sacrificed to better ensure Angola's development? In 1894, Antonio Enes, then governor of Mozambique, proposed a path to development: recourse to foreign capital. His objective: that the colony should not cost an escudo in Lisbon. Thus, the Company of Mozambique was set up and obtained the Sofala region, with France as its main shareholder. Other companies were created and eventually half of the Mozambican territory was subcontracted.

The economic system is taking off again. After Governor Albuquerque came to power in 1896, taxes and customs duties increased considerably. In the wake of this, both railroad tracks are completed. In 1898, the capital was transferred from the island of Mozambique to Lourenço Marques, today's Maputo. But the "majestic" companies, who were mainly concerned with making a profit, found it very difficult to ensure their military control. Even the colonial administration created in 1906 was unable to contain insurrections due to administrative conditions, direct taxes and forced labour.

After an overly expensive war in Angola and German offensives that weakened Mozambique in 1916, Portugal was out of breath. The Republic, shaken by conflicts and strikes, was finally overthrown in 1926 by a military coup d'état led by General Gomes da Costa. Two years later, António de Oliveira Salazar, a professor of economics, joined the government.

Salazar's political inspiration is imbued with fascist ideas. His aim was to ensure the autonomy and economic preponderance of the colonies. In 1930, he produced his Colonial Act, and in 1933 a new Portuguese Constitution was born. The latter discourages all major foreign concessions and directly links each colony to Portugal. It establishes the same laws for all, but the indigenous status remains (it disappears in 1954). The Catholic Church was established as the official religion. The regime systematically uses and abuses censorship and relies on the moral authority of the Catholic religion to legitimize propaganda.

During World War II, Salazar remained neutral. It is therefore in a climate of relative prosperity that Mozambique is experiencing this conflict.

The country is experiencing a major boom in the construction, mining and industrial sectors. In 1949, Portugal abandoned certain fascist principles, moved towards a liberal democratic regime and joined NATO. In the 1950s the term "colony" was changed from "colony" to "overseas province". In 1954, the notion of "indigenous" disappeared. Finally, in 1961, all inhabitants were considered "citizens". In a context of African nationalist demands from the 1950s onwards, Portugal took steps "just in case": the political police (the PIDE) of the Salazarist regime was set up in 1956 and systematically listed the people hostile to the regime.

Despite this censorship, independence is slowly being prepared abroad, led by a certain elite trained outside the country. On 16 June 1960 in Mueda, a peasant revolt, suppressed in blood by army fire, made its mark. Three movements from Rhodesia, Malawi and Kenya-Tanzania finally regrouped in Dar es Salaam in June 1962 to form the Mozambique Liberation Front, the Frelimo. At its head was Eduardo Mondlane, a young radical educated abroad, married to an American member of the United Nations.

A call to arms is launched throughout the country after the attack on the Portuguese base of Chai, in the north of the country: the war begins on September 25, 1964. The PIDE had more than 1,500 Frelimo activists arrested, destroying the movement's bases in the south. In the rest of the country, the situation is not good, but Frelimo scores a few points: the entire Makonde region of the extreme North-East is entirely proclaimed "liberated territory", with rear bases in Tanzania. In the area of Cabo Delgado, then under Portuguese control, the IDP reorganized the geographical distribution of 250,000 people to better keep control of the situation.

The Frelimo is trying to curb the Makedondé influence by organizing the second party congress. It was a success for Eduardo Mondlane, who clearly positioned himself on the socialist side and paved the way for alliances with other similar movements abroad. However, Nkavandane, the main leader of the northern region and opponent of Mondlane, boycotted the congress and then left Frelimo. He was later accused of organizing the assassination of Mondlane in February 1969.

From 1965 onwards, the war - on the Frelimo side - developed a clever propaganda. The PIDE infiltrated Frelimo and played on ethnic and ideological conflicts to encourage the defection of leaders. Investments increased in education, health and religion. Efforts to stall the insurgency were in vain. In May 1970, Mondlane was succeeded by Samora Machel, who would become the first president of independent Mozambique between 1975 and 1986.

In Portugal, Salazar was ill and was replaced by Marcello Caetano. He presented himself as the one who would win the war in Mozambique and neutralize the independence movement. To do this, a massive operation was launched in the north of Mozambique in May 1970 and the city of Mueda, and then the entire surrounding plateau, were taken over by the Portuguese. The Frelimo troops took refuge in neighboring countries where they were supported. But the costs of the war on the Portuguese side continued to rise and the offensive had the opposite effect to that expected: Frelimo reorganized itself abroad.

From 1971 onwards, trade relations with Europe and South Africa formed the bulk of Portugal's trade. As a result, Lisbon's business community curbed its pressure on politics in Mozambique. Mozambique thus obtained statehood in 1972, in a smooth manner.

In April 1974, a revolution put Portugal under pressure. Two months later, the first negotiations took place between the Mozambican state and Frelimo, which refused a ceasefire. Finally, on September 7 in Lusaka, the Portuguese state bowed out and ceded power to Frelimo. A ceasefire was declared on September 8, 1974. The war claimed almost 65,000 lives on the Mozambican side, many of them civilians.

The independence of Mozambique is proclaimed, thirteen years after the formation of Frelimo.

Led by Samora Machel, the Frelimo is seeking to make its influence felt in the country. But the party comes up against exiled opponents who form the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo) in the South African Transvaal, where they enjoy the support of the government. Supported by the coming to power of Ronald Reagan, it gains the classic support of the United States. Solidly armed and trained, Renamo took action in cities and rural areas and triggered the sabotage of Mozambican government institutions, even extending its influence throughout the country as early as 1984.

In the early 1980s, Mozambique experienced floods and droughts leading to famine and the collapse of the rural economy. Poverty affected the entire country. Externally, Mozambique's debt grew at a dizzying rate. Samora Machel re-established diplomatic relations with the Western bloc and brought the country to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 1982. Then he announced a radical change in Frelimo's policy at the party's Fourth Congress in 1983, tending towards greater economic liberalization.

In September, Machel travelled to Malawi with Robert Mugabe, then president of Zimbabwe, to try to convince the country's president to stop the transit of South African arms to Renamo. On his return, the plane crashes and Machel is killed. Frame-up? The attack will create a wave of sympathy for the Frelimo.

The civil war led to a wave of terror throughout the country. At the time, Mozambique was one of the poorest countries in the world, and the escalation of violence since the early 1980s between Frelimo and Renamo was unprecedented. Nearly a million people died in the war, and a third of the country's population fled to neighboring countries.

As communism collapsed in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, Frelimo was forced to significantly amend its constitution in November 1990. The new text includes a system of multi-party elections, freedom of the press, the right to strike, and opens the country to a market economy. The "People's Republic of Mozambique" becomes the "Republic of Mozambique".

It was on 15 October 1992 in Rome that a peace agreement was finally reached, after the capital and then the provincial towns found themselves immobilised by strikes calling into question the lack of opposition.

Elections were then held under the supervision of the United Nations (UN), and Joaquim Chissano - Frelimo - was elected President of the Republic with 53% of the votes. The assembly has 129 Frelimo and 112 Renamo deputies, with the remaining 9 deputies coming from minor parties.

In the years following the end of the war, the country rebuilt itself and left on an encouraging economic footing. However, the wounds are deep, both in terms of the destroyed infrastructure and in terms of mentalities. The state's reaction, international aid, the return of South African and Zimbabwean investments, the discovery of natural resources and the opening up to tourism mean that the country is showing encouraging signs of development. However, in 2000, the country faced devastating floods.

In the 1999 national elections, Joaquim Chissano won by 4 points over his Renamo opponent, Alfonso Dhlakama, and Frelimo won four seats in the Assembly. Renamo then cried fraud and cheating and took the matter to the Supreme Court, which, echoing international observers, nevertheless declared the 1999 elections valid. Five years later, Mozambique is preparing for new presidential and legislative elections in December 2004. Once again, Frelimo and Renamo remain the two main players. Some opposition parties are meeting within the Democratic Union to try to counterbalance the duopoly formed by the two main political forces. Frelimo is the big winner of the elections, installing Armando Guebuza in supreme power.

On February 23, 2006, an earthquake measuring 7.5 on the Richter scale struck 530 km north of Maputo. This earthquake seems to have had a domino effect, and from 2006 to the present day, natural disasters have struck the country every year. On Thursday February 22, 2007, Cyclone Favio from Madagascar hit Vilankulos with full force. At the same time, two consecutive January floods in the Zambezi Valley in 2007 and 2008 displaced more than 100,000 people. The 2008 floods claimed 72 lives (mainly due to crocodiles taking advantage of the rising waters), and almost 1,300 people subsequently contracted cholera. Material damage is estimated at over $100 million.

In March 2008, cyclone Jokwe, which had originated in Madagascar, hit the north of the country, near Ilha de Moçambique, killing 10 people.

October 2009: Armando Guebuza is re-elected president with 76.3% of the votes. But in September 2010, three days of riots against the high cost of living take place. Result: 13 dead and many wounded. At the same time, the country continues to show a strong growth rate (7%) and the tourism sector jumped 27.1% in 2011 compared to the previous year, according to the state television TVM.

The opposition party criticizes the government for taking all the wealth of the country. Tension is rising between the Renamo rebels and the army. They denounce the peace agreement signed in 1992. Violent confrontations break out in the central province of Sofala. But the signing of a peace agreement in 2014 puts an end to the armed clashes and paves the way for the legislative and presidential elections on 15 October. The Frelimo party candidate and current president of Mozambique, Filipe Nyusi, was elected.

The huge gas project off the coast of Cabo Delgado was initiated by large multinationals, Enni, Exxon and Total, in 2017. An armed rebellion spontaneously opposes this project, which includes relocations of populations left behind. In 2019, it became affiliated with Daesh. The terror sown by the armed groups of the Islamic State, composed of mostly foreign mercenaries who kill violently by enlisting child soldiers, causes the death of 6,500 people and the flight of 800,000 refugees in the rest of the province.

Mozambique, although bearing the heavy scars of the Dando, Fuso and Irina storms of 2012, the cholera epidemic in 2013, Cyclone Helen in 2014, the floods and the new cholera epidemic of early 2015, the floods of January 2017, did not escape the cyclones that hit the country in 2019. First, Cyclone Idai hit the central region of Beira, which was 90% destroyed, and then a second cyclone hit Cabo Delgado. This disaster highlights the poverty of the region, and also hurts tourism.

Filipe Nyusi's re-election to a second term as president in October came as no surprise. Despite violence by dissident members of the Renamo party and EU accusations that the ruling party used public funds for its election campaign, the country enjoys a reputation for political stability.

Rwanda, which leads the Southern African Development Community (SADC) African armed coalition, recaptures the town of Mocimba da Praia from Daesh jihadists for a year. A bubble of security and an encouraging victory, and an innovative "African solution to African problems."

To support the ailing SADC military coalition, a new Tanzanian contingent has taken up position in northern Cabo Delgado. At the same time, a Rwandan army unit has been redeployed to Pemba to prevent attacks by armed groups. The UN says it wants to support the coalition in Mozambique.

Cyclone Freddy hit the northern coast of Mozambique, causing severe flooding and exacerbating the already ongoing cholera epidemic. In April, the epidemic spread to ten of the country's eleven provinces, killing nearly 150 people and infecting nearly 30,000, the largest outbreak in over a decade.