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<ksheldon@ucla.edu> Iain Walker and Chrisanthi Giotis raise so many questions about Mozambique's history that it is hard to know where to begin. First perhaps I should clarify an error in Walker's query: The Rovuma river does not divide Mozambique into north and south, and never has, so there have never been "Portuguese possessions north of the Ruvuma." It marks the boundary between Mozambique and Tanzania. People commonly refer to Sul do Save - South of the Save (or sometimes Sabi) river, as a marker of southern Mozambique, though the Zambezi much further north is also sometimes a marker for northern Mozambique - it depends on the context and what kind of argument one is making. Certainly there are many differences between northern and southern Mozambique, but there are also many potential dividing lines. Malyn Newitt, in _A History of Mozambique_, argues that the tug between efforts of centralization and what he calls "dis-integration" is the central theme of Mozambique's history, so the continued struggle between various regions should not be a surprise. The Portuguese presence wavered wildly between their small and generally ineffectual settlements along the coast, and their dreams of controlling a swath of southern Africa including Mozambique and Angola and all the territory in between. This dream never approached reality and was decisively squashed at Berlin when all the many borders were set. The basic shape of present day Mozambique appears on earlier maps, but was finally established at Berlin, though there were some subsequent minor border disputes with Germany and Britain. Portugal's poverty was an important factor in their rule, causing them to turn to large charter companies, especially in central and northern Mozambique. These companies were largely funded by non-Portuguese investors, especially British money. They were supposed to administer in their areas, but for the most part did little, and their contracts were all ended by the end of the 1940s. Portugal itself remained as the government in southern Mozambique. I don't know of any attempts to make two colonies, as with the Rhodesias, though someone else may have more information on this. I think the Portuguese would have feared losing control over part of the territory, and as they found a lot of their identity as Portuguese through their position as owners of a vast overseas empire, they would not risk losing their grip. The charter companies were risky enough as it was. Lourenzo Marques was named as capital in 1902, and this was linked to the growing economic connections between South Africa and Mozambique; migrant laborers had already been going to work in So. Africa for some decades (see Patrick Harries, _Work, Culture, and Identity: Migrant Laborers in Mozambique and South Africa, c. 1860-1910_, Heinemann, 1994). Mozambique Island, the previous capital in the north, had lost economic importance and no longer had a role as the seat of government. This shift of the capital also followed colonial wars in the 1890s which in the south resulted in the defeat and deportation of Gungunhana and the subjugation of the Gaza Empire to colonial rule, making southern Mozambique a site of Portuguese colonial power. For part of your question, "at what point did Mozambique come to have any real identity as an entity," the answer depends on who you are asking. For the Portuguese colonizers I believe that was decades earlier than for most people living in the area considered to be Mozambique. Some people had connections with the colonial government early on, going to school, dealing with migrant labor boards, etc., that gave them a sense of Mozambique as different from South Africa, or Rhodesia or Malawi -many people knew that working conditions were better in neighboring areas, and understood that it was because those were British and not Portuguese, for instance. But I don't believe there was a concerted effort to develop a more local sense of being Mozambican until the 1950s - though again, if there is earlier evidence I'd love to know about it. Certainly one of the emphases of the nationalist struggle was to help people from different regions understand that they were all from the same colony and had a common enemy in the Portuguese. I believe there are still many rural people who see their primary identity as a local one rather than a national one, though this is obviously not only an issue in Mozambique. If I may take a bit more space to move to the present time and the impact of the floods: I believe the impact will be economic more than political. Mozambique held elections in December, which President Joaquim Chissano and Frelimo won. Afonso Dhlakama (head of Renamo) has responded by claiming at different times that the elections were fraudulent (there were some problems, mainly technical, but international observers filed positive reports regarding the way the elections were conducted). He has also claimed that he is the real president, or that alternatively, he is the president of those provinces in the north where he had a majority. Renamo reportedly moved their national headquarters from Maputo to Beira (central port and historically more reactionary politically), although I have seen a report that their office in Beira is not functioning. Dhlakama was recently on international news talking about "government" and "non-government" areas, which Chissano refuted, saying there were no non-government areas. Many many rumors are making the rounds, including that Renamo may try to overthrow the Frelimo gov't during this time, when they are distracted and the military is busy with relief efforts. I hesitate to try and foretell future events, but I do remember when we first arrived in Maputo in 1982, the first day we were there we were told that the bandits (as they were then called) were right outside the city and would invade within the week. It never happened. Rumors will always circulate. I think there are two things mitigating against a renewal of warfare in Mozambique. One is that the people themselves do not want any more war, as they have made clear over the last decade of peace and rebuilding. The other is the change in the global world order - Renamo will not find any outside supporters, now that apartheid is ended in South Africa, and they are no longer a player in a world divided along Cold War lines. I do think that the costs of caring for hundreds of thousands of homeless people who have lost all of their belongings and the crops they had planted will be far more than Mozambique can support. In addition the damage to infrastructure throughout the center and south of the country is vast - roads, bridges, and government buildings of all kinds have sustained extensive damage. That is a rebuilding effort that can only happen with support from the rest of the world. Mozambique had been improving - the cover of the news weekly Tempo for January 9, 2000 stated "Year 2000 - Hope Renewed." But it was still among the poorest five nations in the world, and they simply cannot afford to rebuild on this scale without major assistance. Sorry for the length of this response, but I wanted to deal with most, if not all, of the issues raised in the original posting at one time.
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