A Short History of Mozambique Trivia Quiz

Answer: Tools indicating evidence of flour being milled from pre-domesticated cereals

This anthropology research team found tools that were approximately 20000years old that were used to mill flour from grain, probably sorghum. The startling discovery was that cereals such as wheat and barley were first thought to have been domesticated in the Fertile Crescent only 8000 years ago.

This means the ancient people in the Mozambique area were milling wild grain for food long before the history books told us so.

Answer: Bushmen

San is a relatively recent term. An exonym, it was adopted because "Bushman" had some negative connotations. The San were hunter/gatherers and spent much time foraging for food and water. The Bantu-speaking people arrived in the first to the fifth centuries AD. They were hunters and could forge iron.

Answer: Vasco de Gama

Vasco de Gama was trying to reach Calicut in India via the Cape of Good Hope. As he rounded the cape and headed up the unknown east African coast, this was the world's longest voyage to date. He stopped at Mozambique Island in the very north of what is now Mozambique and met with the local sultan who was unimpressed with his paltry gifts and chased him off. Mr De gama noticed there were many Arab trading ports along the African coast, not all of them unfriendly. The name Mozambique actually comes from an Arabic ruler of the the island "Mussa Bin Bique". (The name for the mainland country that became Mozambique came from the name of this island).

While Ge Gama thought his expedition was modest in its success, his king thought the east coast of Africa, the Contra Costa, and especially Mozambique, was an important part of its empire as its ports meant fresh water, provisions, timber, and harbors for repairs, and ships could wait out bad weather. One absolute result was the colonisation of Mozambique in the name of the Portuguese Crown.

Answer: Algeria

The six Portuguese African colonies were Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, São Tomé and Príncipe. Compared with other European powers that tended to cluster their African colonies, Portugal had theirs somewhat dispersed. This was probably due to exploration prior to colonisation.

The Portuguese were keen. in their colony of Mozambique to set up trading ports for other countries' ships trying to reach India or the Spice Islands.

Answer: Portugal wanted to claim all lands in a band from the west coast of Angola to the east coast of Mozambique

The Scramble for Africa by European powers was based on occupation by that power. Portugal had tenuous holdings in Mozambique and Angola because they only occupied a few coastal ports in each colony. They produced the pink map hoping to claim a huge swag of Africa which connected the two colonies in a wide band which included the entire Zambezi river, the main transport medium for the entire area.

This band cut across what is now Zambia and Zimbabwe (controlled by the British), parts of the Congo (controlled by the Belgians), Some of German East Africa and included a few French settlement as the French were trying to also establish a colonial presence in southern Africa.

The British in particular were affronted as they had a grand plan, the Thin Red Line to control all the lands between Egypt in the north and South Africa. If the Berlin Conference of 1885, which ratified the principle of effective occupation being necessary for colonisation, did not support this Portuguese claim. the "British Ultimatum" of 1890 did.

In this letter Great Britain demanded that Portugal remove their presence from areas where British and Portuguese interests overlapped. Portugal had to pull back to somewhere near where the present interior borders of Angola and Mozambique were defined.

Answer: Large private companies granted concessions by the Portuguese government

Portugal lost much of its interest in southern Africa by the turn of the 20th century and allowed large private companies, like the Mozambique Company, the Zambezia Company and the Niassa Company to form. These large companies given a royal charter by the Portuguese government, were financially backed by other countries like Britain and Germany and were given concessions in vast tracts of the country including the ability to tax residents in return for a share of profits and shares in the company returned to the Portuguese government.

These corporations then built infrastructure to meet their needs rather than the colony's, with no coordination between the three companies resulting in poor overall infrastructure outcomes. As a result, Mozambique was poorly developed compared with some of its neighbours.

Answer: 1975

Communist and anti-colonial ideologies spread though Africa in the 50s and 60s, due mainly to indigenous peoples believing their colonial masters favoured their ex-pats over overall support for the country. The Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (FRELIMO) started a guerrilla campaign n September 1964. Simultaneous events occurred in the other Portuguese colonies of Angola and Portuguese Guinea. These three countries struggles became part part of the so-called Portuguese Colonial War (1961-1974). The Portuguese regular army kept control of the main urban centres while the guerrillas undermined government control in rural areas in the north and west.

After a change in government in Lisbon due to the Carnation Revolution of April 1974. Mozambique attained independence on June 25 1975. Almost immediately 250 000 Portuguese ex-pats returned to Portugal under threat by FRELIMO to leave within 24 hours (with only 20kg of belongings).

Answer: Civil War

After independence FRELIMO became a Marxist-Leninist political party became known as the Frelimo Party (Partido Frelimo) and ruled Mozambique after independence as a one party state. However a civil war erupted when an anti-Communist faction known as Mozambican National Resistance or RENAMO opposed the new government. RENAMO received support from the governments of Rhodesia and South Africa (Notably, these were white minority governments).

After 15 years of bloody civil war, Frelimo Party approved a new constitution in 1990, which established a multi-party system of government. Democratic elections were held in 1994 where the Frelimo party was elected as the majority party. Mozambique finally achieved democracy in the late 20th century.

Answer: Maputo

Lourenço Marques was named after the Portuguese explorer who explored the six rivers that converge into the estuary that the city now sits on. The capital was transferred from the Island of Mozambique in 1898 when the Portuguese government realised that this city attracted many European artisans and merchants compared with the rural outlook of the Island of Mozambique in the far north Additionally, being an island, it lacked transport infrastructure to mainland Mozambique. The new capital, in a long north-south orientated country was in the far south.

When the country attained independence in 1975, it was renamed Maputo after the Maputo River. However, despite being on the confluence of six rivers, Maputo is named after the river that forms the border between it and South Africa 120km to the south.

The capital suffered badly when a quarter of a million Portuguese left the country immediately after independence as they were the principals in providing the government agencies and functions.

The fifteen year civil war wrecked what was left of a functioning city. However since the return to democracy in 1992, the city has clawed its way back to be a modern African metropolis.

Answer: Firearm

The Guatemala flag has a rifle within its coat of arms. The Haiti flag has a central coats of arms containing a cannon. The Mozambique flag as an AK47 rifle (and Angola's flag has a machete - What is about it with these former Portuguese colonies?) . With the Mozambique flag, green stands for the riches of the land, the white finer bands signify peace, black is the African continent, yellow symbolises the country's minerals, and red represents the struggle for independence. Within the red triangle there is a yellow star overlaid with a book, a hoe and the aforementioned rifle which stands for "defence and vigilance".

The open book symbolises the importance of education, the hoe represents agriculture, and the star symbolises Marxism and internationalism.