Mozambique

The Republic of Mozambique is located on the southeastern African coast along the Mozambique Channel and the Indian Ocean. Bordering five nations and across from the islands of Madagascar and Comoros, Mozambique spans a land mass of approximately 800,000 square kilometers and is prone to droughts, flooding, and storms. Mozambiqu e became an independent nation in 1975. The national language is Portuguese, a legacy of five centuries of colonial rule and trade relationships with Portugal. Portuguese migration to Mozambique led to Catholic mission stations being established, oppressive assimilado policies of citizenship afforded to “civilized” Africans who were literate and “acted Portuguese,” and backbreaking labor for many Africans forced to work in mining industries under colonial pressure. The indigenato system of racial preference aroused the ire of the people and caused an African backlash on White residents, who were exiled from the country after it gained independence. Today, African ethnic groups constitute 99% of the population and include the Makhuwa, Tsonga, Sena, and Lomwe. In addition to Portuguese, the languages of Emakhuwa, Xichangana, Elomwe, Cisena, and Echuwabo are spoken in Mozambique.

Civil war and political unrest from 1977 to 1992 caused mass emigration, violence, and national instability, exacerbated by drought and widespread poverty. Military service registration is currently required for all legal-age Mozambicans, though without major threats internally or abroad, citizens are experiencing relative peace and stability. A form of African Marxism was used in government until 1989. The current political system in Mozambique, a republic using multiparty elections, was constitutionally adopted in 1990.

[Page 833]After being the leader for nearly two decades, Joaquim Chissano stepped down from office in 2004; Chissano worked to expand free market trade and improve the national economy through exporting agricultural products, surplus electricity, and aluminum. Mozambique's primary trade partners today include South Africa, the Netherlands, China, and India. Much of the current nation's gross domestic product relies on foreign assistance, and debts still unpaid have left the country scrambling to stave off inflation and the AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) crisis, with an estimated one in eight Mozambicans testing positive for HIV (human immunodeficiency virus)/AIDS. The current president, Armando Guebuza, was reelected in 2009 for a second 5-year term.

According to the 1997 census, the nation's religious makeup includes 41.3% Christians (23.8% Catholics and 17.5% Zionist Christians), 17.8% Muslims, and 40.9% who identified as other or none, most of whom are practitioners of various African Christian denominations or African traditional religions. Under the Portuguese, Catholicism was the official religion of the colony and was used in the mission education system, though K. E. Sheldon notes that of all European colonies in Africa, rates of illiteracy were among the highest and frequency of school attendance the lowest for Portuguese Africans. Marxist ideologies postinde-pendence promoted a secular state, but presently religious freedoms are upheld and promoted by government and citizens alike. Today, Sunnī Muslims are the majority population in the north, while in the nation's central and southern provinces, many denominations of evangelical Protestants, Catholics, and African Independent Churches predominate.