Mozambique
Travels in Mozambique:
Mozambique Safari (17 days)
4X4 Explorer from Johannesburg to Johannesburg
Quick Facts:
Official Name: |
Republic of Mozambique |
Capital: |
Maputo |
Area: |
309,475 square miles (801,590 km²) |
Languages: |
Portuguese is the official and most widely spoken language of the nation, because Bantus speak several of their different languages |
Currency: |
Mozambican Metical (Mtn) |
Population figure: |
21,397,000 (2007 census) |
Ethnology: |
Bantu people comprise 99.66% of the population, the remaining 0.34% include Europeans 0.06% (largely of Portuguese ancestry), Euro-Africans 0.2%, and Indians 0.08% |
Religions: |
24.2% identified themselves as Roman Catholic; 24.25% claimed to not be affiliated with a religion; 18.7% adhering to Zionism (a |
Government type: |
Mozambique is a multi-party democracy |
History
When Portuguese explorers reached Mozambique in 1498, Arab commercial and slave trading settlements had existed along the coast and outlying islands for several centuries. From about 1500, Portuguese trading posts and forts became regular ports of call on the new route to the east. Later, traders and prospectors penetrated the interior regions seeking gold and slaves. Although Portuguese influence gradually expanded, its power was limited and exercised through individual settlers and officials who were granted extensive autonomy. As a result, investment lagged while Lisbon devoted itself to the more lucrative trade with India and the Far East and to the colonisation of Brazil. Guerrilla activity began in 1963. A cease-fire was signed in Sept. 1974, and after having been under Portuguese colonial rule for 470 years, Mozambique became independent on June 25, 1975. The first president, Samora Moises Machel, died in a plane crash in 1986 and was succeeded by his foreign minister, Joaquim Chissan?. On Jan. 25, 1985, after a decade of independence, the government was locked in a paralyzing war with antigovernment guerrillas, the Mozambique National Resistance (MNR, or Renamo), who were backed by the white minority government in South Africa. The guerrilla movement weakened President Chissan?'s attempts to institute socialism, which he then decided to abandon in 1989. A new constitution was drafted calling for three branches of government and granting civil liberties. A cease-fire agreement signed in Oct. 1992 between the government and the MNR ended 16 years of civil war. In multiparty elections in 1994, President Chissan? won. In Nov. 1995 the country was the first nonformer British colony to become a member of the British Commonwealth. The president's disciplined economic plan was highly successful, winning the country foreign confidence and aid.
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