Simple directory > Regional > Mozambique

Country : Mozambique Official name: República de Moçambique (Republic of Mozambique) Head of State: President Armando Guebuza (sworn in 2 Feb 2005) Head of government: Prime Minister Luisa Diogo (from 17 Feb 2004) Ruling party: Frente de Libertação de Moçambique (Frelimo) (Front for the Liberation of Mozambique) (re-elected 1–2 Dec 2004) Area: 799,380 square km Population: 18.58 million (2004) Capital: Maputo Official language: Portuguese Currency: Metical (MT) = 100 centavos Exchange rate: MT19,845.30 per US$ (Nov 2004) GDP per capita: US$239 (2003) GDP real growth: 7.00% (2003) Unemployment: 21.00% (2003) Inflation: 10.80% (2003) Balance of trade: -US$565.00 million (2003) Foreign debt: US$966.00 million (2003)

Historical profile

In the third century, Bantu tribes settled the area. The Shona empire was established by the eleventh century between the Limpopo and Zambezi rivers.

1498 Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama landed on the shores of what is now Mozambique.

Portuguese settlements were quickly established, but full-scale colonisation did not begin until the seventeenth century. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Mozambique served as a major slave-trading centre.

1842 Portugal abolished the slave trade, although the practice continued.

1891 Mozambique's southern and western borders were defined by the British and Portuguese.

1932 Portugal broke up the companies which owned the land and controlled trade and imposed direct rule over Mozambique.

1962 The Frente de Libertação de Moçambique (Frelimo) (Front for the Liberation of Mozambique) was established and launched a military campaign to drive out the Portuguese.

1975 Mozambique gained independence. A one-party system was implemented with Frelimo as the sole legal party. Mozambican support for the independence war in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) and the African National Congress (ANC) in South Africa led to frequent reprisals from the governments of those countries. Independence was followed by 16 years of civil war against the rebels of the Resistencia Nacional de Moçambique (Renamo) (Mozambique National Resistance), a guerrilla army supported first by Rhodesia and later by South Africa and the US.

1977 Frelimo adopted Marxism-Leninism as its official doctrine.

1984 Frelimo reached a deal with South Africa in which it would halt its support for the ANC in return for an end to South Africa's aid to Renamo.

1986 President Machel was killed in an airplane crash; Joaquim Chissano became president.

1989 Frelimo formally abandoned Marxism-Leninism in favour of democratic socialism and a market economy. This decision reduced Renamo's support further – the civil war was already going in the government's favour.

1990 A new consititution was promulgated to allow for a multi-party electoral system.

1992 A cease-fire was agreed, followed by a full peace agreement.

1994 In the first multi-party elections, Frelimo won an absolute parliamentary majority. Joaquim Chissano was re-elected president.

1995 Mozambique joined the Commonwealth, the only member not to have been a British colony.

1998 Frelimo won a majority in the municipal and local councils it contested; Renamo boycotted the poll, in which turnout was about 20 per cent.

1999 President Joaquim Chissano was re-elected and Frelimo increased its parliamentary majority.

2000/01 Mozambique was devastated by a tropical cyclone and severe flooding. There was rioting over Renamo allegations that the 1999 elections were rigged; international observers claimed the elections were free and fair.

2002 Armando Guebuza became Frelimo's general secretary and the party's candidate for the 2004 presidential elections.

2003 In the first three months, Cyclone Delfina and Cyclone Japhet caused extensive damage. On 10 July, President Joaquim Chissano became chairman of the African Union (AU) for the next 12 months.

2004 On 16 January, Renamo accepted the results of the 19 November 2003 municipal elections, as validated by the Constitutional Council. Luisa Diogo was named prime minister on 17 February. Armando Guebuza (Frelimo) won the 1–2 December presidential elections and Frelimo was re-elected in parliamentary elections.

2005 On 2 February, Armando Guebuza (Frelimo) was sworn in as president.

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