THE HISTORY OF MOZAMBIQUE

Mozambique’s recorded history goes back many centuries and the country has been subject to conquest and exploitation since time immemorial. As early as AD600 Arab traders had established contact with the local people and subsequently established fortified trading posts along the coastline. Via these trading posts slaves, gold and ivory were shipped to the Arab world. The Portuguese first arrived in 1488 and established a firm presence along the coast ousting the Arabs from their impenetrable evil trading stations by 1510.

The Portuguese established their seat of colonial power on Mozambique Island, constructing the imposing Fortress of Saint Sebastian over a period of several decades after 1558. The town survived a number of attacks from Arabs and the United East India Company and remained the chief trading port and capital city of the Portuguese Province of Mozambique up until 1886, when Lourenço Marques (Maputo) replaced it as the territory’s capital.

The fortunes kept in the old fortified trading posts along the Moçambique coast were earned in the horrific slave trade, from ivory and gold. As the routes along which this bounty travelled terminated at these settlements on the Indian Ocean. As a result of this the towns of Ibo; Mozambique; Sofala and Quelimane were established. Instead of things becoming better for the native Africans Powerful family dynasties from Portugal established control over vast areas of the interior; often aligned with local African chieftains and Muslim traders; and controlled the flow of gold; ivory and slaves to the coastal markets. These fiefdoms traded with the ancient empire of the Mwana Mutapa in present-day Zimbabwe and exerted their control and influence over their territories by force of arms; as did the British; French and Belgium’s more recently on Africa’s west coast.

The Portuguese were content to limit their direct colonial control over the trading ports at the coast and exhibited little interest in establishing formal control over the interior regions of the country for more than two centuries after their arrival. Their control of the trading ports ensured that the wealth of the interior was channelled into their coffers. Trading routes were established from present-day Malawi to the coast at Ibo and Moçambique Island and from Tete and present day Zimbabwe to the coast at Sofala; which was ultimately replaced by the modern port at Beira. Similarly in the south trading routes were established from Lourenço Marques to South Africa; purely as a means for the Portuguese to extract the wealth of the interior. Despite the fact that the Portuguese had been the dominant power in Mozambique from 1500 they had never bothered to formalise the extent of their control and the boundaries of the modern state of Mozambique were only finalised in 1891 as a result of the British occupation of present-day Zimbabwe.

The Portuguese Government resisted the tide of African nationalism; which swept Africa after the close of the Second World War and were content with the status of their African colonies as Provinces of Portugal. A guerrilla war ensued during the 1960’s and 1970’s and the 1974 Portuguese revolution, which toppled the dictator Caetano, precipitated a collapse of the Portuguese administration in Mozambique.

Frelimo, the national resistance movement; swept to power as the Portuguese abandoned their colony precipitating the flight of most of the Portuguese inhabitants of Mozambique. The economy of the territory collapsed. Frelimo instituted strict Marxist and Communist policies in the new independent state nationalising commercial farms; mines and commercial enterprises; which exacerbated the decline of the already collapsed economy. A civil war broke out between Frelimo and Renamo; a resistance movement originally established and supported by the Rhodesian and South African Governments to destabilise the hostile Frelimo administration. The civil war, which raged for 17 years until 1994, destroyed the sparse infrastructure of the country and decimated Mozambique’s economy.

Large-scale emigration by whites, economic dependence on South Africa, a severe drought, and a prolonged civil war hindered the country’s development. The ruling party formally abandoned Marxism in
1989, and a new constitution the following year provided for multiparty elections and a free market economy. A UN-negotiated peace agreement with rebel forces ended the fighting in 1992.

The peace treaty concluded in 1994 brought peace to the country and was followed by elections; which gave Frelimo a slender majority in parliament. Frelimo abandoned its former socialist policies and the country embarked on a programme of drastic economic restructuring; resulting in a sustained period of economic growth and political stability. Almost five centuries as a Portuguese colony came to a close with independence in 1975.