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Version 1.0, Feb. 2001 |
Contents -
General Information
Chronology of History PRE-COLONIAL Generally, the character of the societies that emerged in this region was defined largely by geography. In the south, the Chopi, Tonga, and Tsonga were typically organized into village-sized chiefdoms. In the central region, around the Zambezi River, the Barue, Maravi, Macua-Lomue, Shona, and Tonga lived. These were not homogenous groups. The Maravi, for instance, were composed of a series of decentralized kingdoms, while the Macua-Lomue were organized around clans. 8th century. One branch of the Bantu speakers moved toward the Indian Ocean and then south along the coast and settled in villages. As early as the 8th century Arab traders entered the region, particularly in the north along the Zambezi River. They brought ceramics, cloth, glass, beads, salt and metal goods in exchange for southern African gold, palm oil, rhinoceros horn, amber, valuable skins, and ivory. With the cooperation of the African chiefs, this trade expanded. 10th century. In the upper reaches of the Limpopo River a settlement called Mapungubwe was formed. It was based on the nyika system, which is a group of households under the authority of a chief. It is the earliest known settlement featuring stone enclosures, or zimbabwes. 13-15th century. The Bantu speakers set up a network of kingdoms in southern Africa. The most famous was the Shona Empire, called Zimbabwe, which was located between the Zambezi and the Limpopo River. The region's economy was rooted on cattle (seasonal pasturage between the Zimbabwe plateau and the surrounding Mozambican lowlands), agriculture, and the development of local industries such as the mining of gold, copper and iron, and the development of saltpans and potting industries. The historical monuments, the stone enclosures of Great Zimbabwe, are today's heritage of the political and economic domination of the civilization of Great Zimbabwe over the region. The city of Sofala (south of today's Beira) was described in a written report in the 10th century by an Arab writer, al-Mas'udi, long before the arrival of the Portuguese. Sofala developed as a trade center for gold, and was a city of warehouses and trade between East Africa and India. The zimbabwe heritage in southern Mozambique is the settlement at Manekweni, about 50 kilometers from the Indian Ocean. Manekweni was a center for cattle ranging, agriculture and gold trade between the 12th and the 18th centuries. 14th century. Smaller Arab, or Swahili, trade cities emerged along the northern coast, and extended south to Sofala Province. These can be traced back to Arab trade agglomerations of the 10th century, located to the north of Mozambique. ARRIVAL OF THE PORTUGUESE AND THE COLONIAL PERIOD 1505-10. Portugal occupied Sofala in 1505, established a fort and installed a friendly Arab ruler. The Portuguese seized many of the trading posts along the Swahili coast and extended trading control over to Goa in India and Macao near China. Sofala was not well-suited as a port, so the Portuguese moved their fort north to the Ila de Moçambique (Mozambique Island). Over the years the island developed as an important seaport on the route to India. 16th-17th century. In the beginning of the 16th century the Portuguese began to push their way into the interior of Mozambique, but were still too far behind to control Mozambique by the close of the century. The occupation of the lower Zambezi and the establishment of the two garrisons and trading posts of Sena and Tete brought little towards power control and uniting the country. Despite the Portuguese presence along the Zambezi River, Maravi chiefs had established the powerful chiefdoms of Karonga, Undi, Chipeta, Nyassa, and Lundu in the region north of the Zambezi River. South of the Zambezi River, trade, tribute and production were clustered around Shona polities. The Portuguese crown granted land in Mozambique to Portuguese settlers (merchants, Catholic clergymen, soldiers, and landless). This so-called prazo-system (started in 1629) guaranteed the owners almost total control over the indigenous labor force and built up private armies, also described as slave armies, and virtually independent fiefdoms. The prazos developed into Africanized autonomous kingdoms, ruled by Afro-Guan-Portuguese descendents and sustained by slave armies. 18th and 19th century. This was an era of slavery in Mozambique. Human beings were bought and held by African tribal chiefs, Arab traders, and the Portuguese. In the beginning of the 19th century the prazeros increased the export of slaves. Many were sold to work on plantations in Portuguese Brazil. Even after the abolishment of slavery the prazeros continued to sell human beings. From 1894-1895 the Shangaan warred against the Portuguese military. The Shangaan were defeated and their chief Gungunhana was exiled to the Azores. Southern Mozambique fell under the control of Portugal after the deportation of Gaza leadership between 1895 and 1897. The boundaries for Mozambique were settled in the late 19th century during negotiations with the German and British colonial powers in Africa. Yet Mozambique was far from unified. Like the Gaza state, other groups, such as the Barue of central Mozambique, the Afro-Portuguese of the Zambezi-prazos, the Yao of Mataka, and the Makua chieftains throughout the north, resisted the union under the Portuguese crown. During the whole period, prazo holders and Arab and Portuguese traders tried to advance their positions, resulting in an ever-changing power distribution. Between 1500 and 1700 the Portuguese were able to wrench much of the trade from the Arabs. In the 18th and 19th centuries the Arabs reclaimed much of the Indian Ocean trade and forced the Portuguese to retreat to the south. Other European powers, particularly the British and French, become increasingly involved in the trade and politics of the region. At the Berlin Conference in 1884-1885, Portuguese colonial forces maintained a minimal presence in most of what is Mozambique today. During this period, European companies scrambled for control over African resources, raw material, human labor force and markets. Fearing British or German encroachment, the government conquered the land and gave large concessions to charter companies to occupy it. One famous chartered company is the Zambezi Company, which took over several prazos and linked the port Beira with Zimbabwe. Their power was based on the chibalo system, a forced labor policy, which forced the Mozambicans to work on plantations, cotton fields and on public works projects. Additionally Mozambicans were forced to pay hut taxes that kept them in debt. This form of compulsory labor lasted until 1961. Other important companies, also established in 1890, were the Mozambique Company and the Niassa Company. In summary, the Portuguese rule between 1880 and the 1930s was characterized by the exploitation of people and resources by private parties, whether foreign company shareholders or colonial bureaucrats and settlers. During World War I the Portuguese forced the Mozambicans to fight with their army.This led to opposition and the Zambezi rebellion in 1917. Smaller guerrilla attacks continued into the 1920s, but were not successful. The independence movement continued, and Mozambique finally attained victory over the Portuguese in 1975. During the 1930s, after dictator António de Oliveira Salazar (1932-1968) came to power in Portugal, abuse in Mozambique continued and intensified. A law was passed, forbidding the Mozambicans to trade or to run their own business. The only way around this and the chibalo - the forced labor policy - was to become an assimilado. This status could be gained through education and land ownership or employment outside of the country. Thus, migration to South African mines became a significant characteristic in the Mozambican economy. By the end of the Salazar regime, education, health and skilled employment opportunities for Africans were almost non-existent and repression commonplace. Furthermore, all forms of expressing discontent were met with exile, imprisonment and the death penalty. The colonial investment pattern did not change until 1955, when Portugal set up development plans to increase and improve the transportation and communication infrastructure. The monopolists and others were encouraged to invest their capital and to diversify their business. The economy expanded quite favorably in this period due to generally good prices for tropical commodities. In the 1950s and 1960s thousands of Portuguese settlers arrived in Mozambique to take advantage of businesses that were denied to Mozambicans (27,000 in 1940 and 97,000 in 1964). By the late 1950s African leadership emerged to resist colonial power. Exiled political groups founded the FRELIMO (Frente de Libertação de Moçambique) in 1962, with Eduardo Mondlane as President. In 1964 the first guerrilla attacks took place in northern Mozambique. Portugal answered with enormous military power. Both parties experienced victories and setbacks. In 1969 Eduardo Mondlane was assassinated. Under the leadership of Samora Moïses Machel, the FRELIMO survived the Portuguese counter-offensive. In 1974 FRELIMO forces almost completely infiltrated north and central Mozambique, ultimately claiming them to be "liberated zones". In April 1974 the armed forces staged a coup-d'état in Portugal (Caetano government) and FRELIMO took this opportunity to insist on a cease-fire to confirm its rights for independence. On July 25, 1975, Mozambique became independent under FRELIMO's single party rule. Within one year, explicitly after the coup-d'état and independence, the majority of settlers left Mozambique. SINCE INDEPENDENCE After the independence of Zimbabwe, RENAMO was transferred to South Africa to destabilize Mozambique and to cease FRELIMO's support for the ANC. RENAMO undermined extensive government investment in the health sector, education and services by attacking administrative posts, health centers, schools, and infrastructure projects throughout central Mozambique. In terms of agricultural development the party focused on state farms and communal cooperatives. Both were quite often unpopular and ineffective. Moreover, FRELIMO's opposition to traditional chiefs and to traditions such as witchcraft and spirit mediums antagonized large parts of the society. Under international pressure from creditors, the government altered the agricultural policy by diminishing state ownership and control of markets. The Nkomati Accord was signed in 1984. It was thought that this agreement would undermine the finances of RENAMO, because the agreement included the end of the support of the ANC by the FRELIMO. By the mid-1980s, the economic and social situation had reached a devastating level. In 1986 Samora Machel, the first President of Mozambique, was killed in a mysterious plane crash in South Africa. Graça Machel, his wife and survivor, is a prominent human rights advocate, now married to the former president of South Africa, Nelson Mandela. The next president, Joaquim Chissano, slowly turned the Marxist-Leninist FRELIMO party into a more socialist one, and turned the country towards the West. At the Fifth FRELIMO Congress in 1989, the party officially abandoned its Marxist-Leninist ideology and opened itself to business and religious leaders. The government entered into negotiations with RENAMO in 1990. FRELIMO finally agreed to change the Constitution and open the political process to a multi-party system, with periodic elections and guaranteeing democratic rights. Economically the mid-1980s were characterized by structural adjustment plans (for instance, the Economic Rehabilitation Program in 1987) by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). In 1984 Mozambique joined the IMF. In 1992, Mozambique, like the rest of Southern Africa, experienced the worst drought since the beginning of this century. On October 4, 1992, the Peace Agreement was signed between President Chissano and RENAMO leader Afonso Dhlakama. The agreement called for an immediate cease-fire; demobilization of the militaries; creation of a new and national military; and elections in 1994. In the 1994 elections, FRELIMO won, interpreted by many observers with a surprisingly narrow margin, and Chissano was re-elected as President. The civil war, which lasted almost two decades, resulted in a dislocation of around 6 million people (4 million displaced people and 1.7 million refugees). In December 1999, Chissano defeated RENAMO leader Dhlakama again. Legislative elections held at the same time renewed FRELIMO's hold on the Assembly of the Republic. Dhlakama and RENAMO claimed that electoral fraud had tainted the results of both elections. The Supreme Court of Mozambique disagreed and certified the elections in January 2000. Violent clashes occurred throughout the whole country in November and December 2000. The process of recovering from a weak economy, which was characterized by remarkable annual economic growth rates in the 1990s, is marked by many problems: rising crime rates; corruption; major shipment point for drugs to South Africa; armed banditry; unemployment and increasing living costs; an extremely slow-growing tourism sector; prawn and shrimps as the largest export; and the massive debt of a country that remains dependent upon international donor assistance. Additionally, the economic development was slowed at the beginning of 2000, because of cyclones and the most severe floods ever reported in Mozambique. References and Readings Chan, Steve and Moisés Venâncio. 1998. War and Peace in Mozambique. Basingstoke: Macmillian. Christie, Ian. 1989. Samora Machel: A Biography. London: Panaf. Davies, Robert. 1985. South Africa Strategy Towards Mozambique in the Post-Nkomati Period. A Critical Analysis of Effects and Implications. Uppsala: Research Report 73, Scandinavian Institute of African Studies. Hall, Margaret and Tom Young. 1997. Confronting Leviathan. Mozambique Since Independence. Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press. Hanlon, Joseph. 1996. Peace Without Profit. How the IMF Blocks Rebuilding in Mozambique. Oxford: Currey. Hanlon, Joseph. 1991. Mozambique: Who Calls The Shots? London: Currey. Hanlon, Joseph. 1984. Mozambique. The Revolution Under Fire. London: Zed Books. Henriksen, Thomas H. 1983. Revolution and Counterrevolution. Mozambique's War of Independence, 1964-1974. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press. Isaacman, Allen. 1976. The Tradition of Resistance in Mozambique. Anti-colonial Activity in the Zambezi Valley 1850-1921. London: Currey. Isaacman, Allen and Barbara Isaacman. 1983. Mozambique: From Colonialism to Revolution, 1900-1982. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. J Jorge, Lídia. 1993. Die Küste des Raunens. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp. Manuel da Costa Gaspar and Annababette Wils. 2000. Population Development in Mozambique. Laxenburg, Austria: IIASA, unpublished. Mondlane, Eduard. The Struggle for Mozambique. London: Zed Books. Newitt, Malyn D.D. 1995. A History of Mozambique. London: Hurst. Sinclair, Paul J. 1987. Space, Time and Social Formation: A Territorial Approach to the Archaeology and Anthropology of Zimbabwe and Mozambique c0 - 1700 AD. Uppsala: Societas Archaeologica Upsaliensis, PhD Thesis. UNHCR 1995. The State of the World's Refugees. In Search for Solutions. Oxford: Oxford University Press. UNHCR 1998. Refugees Magazine. Issue 112, http://www.unhcr.ch/pubs/rm112/rm11202.htm U.S. State Department Background Notes 1996: Mozambique. http://dosfan.lib.uic.edu/ERC/bgnotes/af/mozambique9607.html Waterhouse, Rachel. 1996. Mozambique. Rising From the Ashes. Oxford: Oxfam.
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General Information
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International
Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)
A-2361 Laxenburg, AustriaPhone: (+43 2236) 807 0
Fax: (+43 2236) 71 313
Web: www.iiasa.ac.at |