Welcome to Mozambique

Although I am re-entering the country of Mozambique for the second time on my African overland journey, the first entry was a brief pass-through the northwestern corner en route to Malawi, so I delayed my welcome overview to this second and longer visit. Again, as with the other countries I have visited, it is worth sharing a few factoids about this country to put things in better context and to educate myself (and you, if needed) a little about this corner of the world. Here is what I learned from my research.

• As you can see in the map above, Mozambique is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west, and Eswatini and South Africa to the southwest between the latitudes 11-27 degrees south, which in terms of distance from the equator is the southern hemisphere equivalent to most of central America in the northern hemisphere.
• Roughly 3 times the size of Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah combined.
• Roughly 34 million people, compared to ~332 million in the U.S..
• Portuguese is the official languages, but only about half the people speak it; the remainder speak a variety more than 40 tribal languages.
• Government is described as a unitary dominant-party semi-presidential republic under an authoritarian government, with both a president and prime minister appointed by the president, an elected legislative assembly, and a judiciary, so in many ways similar to the US form of government, but with more power invested in the president – unless Trump gets elected and has his way!
• Currency is the Metical.
• Major exports include aluminum, coal (in the form of briquettes), coke, and natural gas (particularly liquid nitrogen gas).
• Like most of the region, it was occupied by humans for probably 10,000 years until it was “colonized” by the Bantu people in the 5^th century from west Africa. The Kingdom of Mutapa Empire or “Wene we Mutapa” (Shona) was a medieval kingdom (approx. 1450-1629) which stretched between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers of what is now the modern states of Zimbabwe and Mozambique. Its founders were culturally and politically related to the Shona kingdom of Great Zimbabwe. The empire was mostly peaceful and built their wealth through trade. Imports included such luxury goods as silk, ceramics and glassware. Exports included cotton cloth, gold, copper, salt and silver. Trade was centrally regulated, with weights and measures controlled by the court. The Mutapa also regulated “the volume of local produce on the international market” to maintain “a favorable balance of trade.” Because the Mutapa had access to gold, they were able to buy livestock and luxury goods like beads. They mostly traded with the Portuguese, who had a growing presence on the coasts of Africa. To protect their trade network and growing economy, the Mutapa relied on a well-trained military force to maintain the security of the empire.
• Suffered the sad, but typical, European colonization history. The Portuguese were the first Europeans to explore and colonize Mozambique between 1500-1700. After that, the Portuguese continued to rule, but their rule was continually challenged by the Arabs, mostly from Oman, through the mid-twentieth century. Eventually, the native people rebelled against the Portuguese in a sporadic war that eventually, by 1975, ousted the Portuguese and left control of the country in the hands of a communist regime supported by Russia and China. Soon after, however, between 1975-1992 a prolonged bloody civil war ensued between the communists in rule and the capitalist reform party, resulting in over a million people killed. The civil war ended in 1993 and a democratic government was created that has remained in place to the present. Like most East African countries, it should be noted that Mozambique was heavily involved in the East African slave trade under the rule of the Portuguese and Arabs. Although slavery was legally abolished in Mozambique at the end of the 19th century, the chartered Portuguese companies enacted a forced labor policy and supplied cheap—often forced—African labor to the mines and plantations of the nearby British colonies and South Africa.
• Remains one of the poorest and under-developed countries in Arica.
• In 2013, the last rhinos in Mozambique were killed by poachers making them extinct in the country. Additionally, Mozambican poachers regularly cross into Kruger National Park in South Africa to kill rhinos.
• Roughly half the population is under 15 years in age. Bodes well as a potential work force but without better education it means dire poverty in the future.
• Bearing the brunt of unprecedentedly fierce cyclones in recent years. Climate scientists are not in doubt that the warming climate played a significant part in creating these mega-storms which the Mozambicans had never ever experienced before. In 2019, torrential rains and flash floods caught many people by surprise and more than 1,000 people died as a consequence. Mozambique will bear the brunt of the climactic changes that come with global warming. The sad truth is that the people who have contributed the least to the climate crisis are the ones who will suffer the most from it.
• Fossil fuels have now been discovered off the northern coast of Mozambique and big oil companies are now scrambling to secure rights to extract gas (LNG, liquid natural gas) there to make a pretty penny. The projects are still in the exploration phase, but already thousands of people are being forcibly relocated. Important habitats like the Quirimbas National Park, a UNESCO biosphere reserve that includes areas of pristine coral reefs, mangroves, and seagrass beds are under severe threat. Ironically, extracting gas from these deposits to help the economy will also serve to accelerate and exacerbate the climate change crisis that is so adversely affecting them.
• Has ~30% of its total land area devoted to national parks, reserves and wildlife management areas. This is truly impressive and hopefully the wildlife populations and ecology of these areas can be recovered and sustained after being decimated by is the countries long civil war. But at the same time, don’t let this impressive figure impress you too much, because we saw at Mwabivi, some of the Reserves are little more than a line on the map. If this 30% was all managed like Majete and Mwonde, then this would indeed be impressive and bode well for the future of wildlife in this corner of Africa.