Mozambique - Essentials Trivia Quiz

Answer: Southern Africa

It's generally reckoned part of Southern Africa, though for a time in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries it was called Portuguese East Africa - by analogy with German East Africa (roughly modern Tanzania) and British East Africa (Kenya and Uganda).

The Horn of Africa is much further north and consists of the region that juts out to the east near the Arabian Peninsula and consists of Ethiopia, Somalia, Eritrea and Djibouti.

Answer: Maputo

When Mozambique was under Portuguese rule, the city was called Lourenco Marques. The capital is situated in the extreme south of the country, near the borders with South Africa and Swaziland. Mombasa is in Kenya, Dar-es-Salaam in Tanzania and Brazzaville is the capital of the Republic of Congo - the former French colony, which should not be confused with the Democratic Republic of the Congo, formerly called Zaire.

Answer: The Congo

The Congo (or Zaire) River rises well to the west of Mozambique and flows into the Atlantic. The Zambezi rises in Zambia, the Save in Zimbabwe and the Limpopo in Botswana. The Limpopo flows into the Indian Ocean, the other two into the Madagascar Channel.

Answer: The Congo (Democratic Republic of)

Mozambique shares a common border with: South Africa, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi and Tanzania.

Answer: Mozambique Channel

To the north and south of the Mozambique Channel, the coastline lies on the Indian Ocean. The Comoros is a group of islands to the north-west of Madagascar.

Answer: Floods and drought

Much of the most fertile land lies close to the Zambezi, Limpopo and Save rivers, which makes the country vulnerable to drought *and* flooding. In 2000 (and to a lesser extent also 2001) the flooding was severe and hit the international headlines, but in the 1980s, especially 1985, the main problem was drought.

Answer: 309,000 sq. miles

So it's nearly double the area of California or nearly 1.5 times the size of France.

Answer: Natural gas

The discovery and exploitation of natural gas, which came on stream in 2002, offers the prospect of improved national income.

Answer: Portugal

The coast of Mozambique was discovered (for Europeans) by Vasco da Gama in 1498, but systematic colonization didn't get underway till the 17th century. Until about 1875-80 the colony consisted of the coastal strip only, but in the last quarter of nineteenth century the Portuguese extended the colony inland. Until the early 1860s the most northerly part of the coastal strip was part of the Omani Empire. Portugal was the last of the European powers to grant independence to its African colonies.

In the 1960s Frelimo (= Frente de Liberatacao de Mocambique), a Marxist group started a the struggle for independence.

After the Portuguese left in 1975 fighting continued against anti-Marxist guerrillas, trained and financed by South Africa, and the country suffered a prolonged civil war, which only came to an end in 1992. Frelimo, which shed much of it Marxism c. 1990, is still the most powerful political force in the country.

Answer: False

Despite all the economic difficulties, the trend has been upward. Mozambique has benefited considerably from provision for foreign debt cancellation. (Source: CIA, 'World Factbook' 2004 ed.).