Mozambique

Map of Mozambique Republic of Mozambique National name: República de Moçambique President: Armando Guebuza (2005) Prime Minister: Luisa Diogo (2004) Current government officials Land area: 302,737 sq mi (784,089 sq km); total area: 309,494 sq mi (801,590 sq km) Population (2008 est.): 21,284,701 (growth rate: 1.7%); birth rate: 38.2/1000; infant mortality rate: 107.8/1000; life expectancy: 41.0; density per sq mi: 27 Capital and largest city (2003 est.): Maputo, 1,691,000 (metro. area), 1,114,000 (city proper) Monetary unit: Metical Languages: Portuguese 9% (official; second language of 27%), Emakhuwa 26%, Xichangana 11%, Elomwe 8%, Cisena 7%, Echuwabo 6%, other Mozambican languages 32% (1997) Ethnicity/race: indigenous tribal groups 99.66% (Shangaan, Chokwe, Manyika, Sena, Makua, and others), Europeans 0.06%, Euro-Africans 0.2%, Indians 0.08% Religions: Mozambique 24%, Islam 18%, Zionist Christian 18%, none 23% (1997) National Holiday: Independence Day, June 25 Literacy rate: 48% (2003 est.) Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2007 est.): $17.02 billion; per capita $800. Real growth rate: 7%. Inflation: 8%. Unemployment: 21% (1997 est.). Arable land: 5%. Agriculture: cotton, cashew nuts, sugarcane, tea, cassava (tapioca), corn, coconuts, sisal, citrus and tropical fruits, potatoes, sunflowers; beef, poultry. Labor force: 9.6 million (2007 est.); agriculture 81%, industry 6%, services 13% (1997 est.). Industries: food, beverages, chemicals (fertilizer, soap, paints), aluminum, petroleum products, textiles, cement, glass, asbestos, tobacco. Natural resources: coal, titanium, natural gas, hydropower, tantalum, graphite. Exports: $2.731 billion f.o.b. (2007 est.): aluminum, prawns, cashews, cotton, sugar, citrus, timber; bulk electricity. Imports: $3.028 billion f.o.b. (2007 est.): machinery and equipment, vehicles, fuel, chemicals, metal products, foodstuffs, textiles. Major trading partners: Netherlands, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Portugal (2006). Communications: Telephones: main lines in use: 67,000 (2006); mobile cellular: 2.339 million (2006). Radio broadcast stations: AM 13, FM 17, shortwave 11 (2001). Radios: 730,000 (1997). Television broadcast stations: 1 (2001). Televisions: 67,600 (2000). Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 15,231 (2007). Internet users: 178,000 (2005). Transportation: Railways: total: 3,123 km (2006). Highways: total: 30,400 km; paved: 5,685 km; unpaved: 24,715 km (1999 est.). Waterways: 460 km (Zambezi River navigable to Tete and along Cahora Bassa Lake) (2007). Ports and harbors: Beira, Inhambane, Maputo, Nacala, Pemba, Quelimane. Airports: 147 (2007). International disputes: none. Major sources and definitions

Geography

Mozambique stretches for 1,535 mi (2,470 km) along Africa's southeast coast. It is nearly twice the size of California. Tanzania is to the north; Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe to the west; and South Africa and Swaziland to the south. The country is generally a low-lying plateau broken up by 25 sizable rivers that flow into the Indian Ocean. The largest is the Zambezi, which provides access to central Africa.

Government

Multiparty republic.

History

Bantu speakers migrated to Mozambique in the first millennium, and Arab and Swahili traders settled the region thereafter. It was explored by Vasco da Gama in 1498 and first colonized by Portugal in 1505. By 1510, the Portuguese had control of all of the former Arab sultanates on the east African coast. Portuguese colonial rule was repressive.

Guerrilla activity began in 1963 and became so effective by 1973 that Portugal was forced to dispatch 40,000 troops to fight the rebels. 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, had been the head of the National Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (FRELIMO) in its ten-year guerrilla war for independence. He died in a plane crash in 1986 and was succeeded by his foreign minister, Joaquim Chissanó.

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 Chissanó'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 Chissanó 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. While Mozambique posted some of the world's largest economic growth rates in the late 1990s, it has suffered enormous setbacks because of natural disaster, such as the enormous damage caused by severe flooding in the winters of 2000 and 2001. Hundreds died and thousands were displaced.

In 2002 Chissanó announced he would not seek a third term. FRELIMO's candidate, independence hero Armando Guebuza, was elected president and sworn in on Feb. 2, 2005.

See also Encyclopedia: Mozambique.
U.S. State Dept. Country Notes: Mozambique

Information Please® Database, © 2008 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

• • Cite
  • Print