Mozambique

The Republic of Mozambique celebrates its Independence Day on 25 June—forgetful of your African geography? It’s on the southeast coast, with Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia northwest, Zimbabwe to the west and Swaziland and South Africa to the south/southwest. Interestingly, in 1996 Mozambique joined the Commonwealth, making it the only nation that had never been a part of the British Empire to do so.

The Bantu people began migrating to the area that is now Mozambique from the first century onward—they came from the west and from the north, through the Zambezi River valley, moving to the plateau and coastal regions.

Arab trading (commercial and slave) had existed along the coast for a number of centuries—since at least 947—when the Portuguese, under the leadership of Vasco de Gama, reached the coast in 1498. From the 16th century, the Portuguese set up trading posts and forts on what became the new route to the East. Though the Portuguese influence expanded, development did not—Portugal spent more of its money and time investing in the Far East and Brazil. In fact, at the outset of the 20th century much of the administration of Mozambique was in the hands of private companies (gosh! Privatisation gone mad!)

When the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique initiated a guerrilla campaign against Portguese rule, the ensuing conflict became part of what is called the Portuguese Colonial War—also being fought in Angola and Guinea-Bissau, both on the West coast of Africa. It took over ten years, but in 1975 Mozambique attained its independence from Portugal. The new nation in turn supported the liberation movements in neighbouring South Africa and Zimbabwe—the existing governments in both countries retaliated by backing a rebel movement in Mozambique that meant there was turmoil in the new nation for its first decade, leading to the death of many in the civil war, the exodus of 1.7 million refugees and the internal displacement of many, many more. The civil war ended in 1992, and by 1995 the refugees had returned to Mozambique. Many of those internally displaced also returned to their own areas within the nation.

Voter-registration and election turn-out has been high in the country, and democratic elections have been held since 1994.

Today’s poem is by the Mozambican poet José Craveiriñha, and comes from The Penguin Book of Modern African Verse.


The Seed is in Me

Dead or living
the seed is in me
in the universal whiteness of my bones

All feel
uneasiness
at the undoubted whiteness of my bones
white as the breasts of Ingrids or Marias
in Scandinavian lands
or in Polana the smart quarter
of my old native town.

All feel
uneasiness
that the mingling in my veins should be
blood from the blood of every blood
and instead of the peace ineffable of pure and simple birth
and a pure and simple death
breed a rash of complexes
from the seed of my bones.

But a night with the massaleiras heavy with green fruit
batuques swirl above the sweating stones
and the tears of rivers

All feel
uneasiness
at the white seed in me
breeding rash inflamed with malediction.

And one day
will come all the Marias of the distant nations
penitent or no
weeping
laughing
or loving to the rhythm of a song

To say to my bones
forgive us, brother.


—José Craveiriñha
from The Penguin Book of Modern African Verse