Mozambique History Net

Today introducing a recent and growing resource established by Colin Darch

The Mozambique History Net  website makes available selected newspaper clippings and some other resources dealing with contemporary Mozambican history and presented in a thematically organised form. A high proportion of this material is in Portuguese. Contemporary Mozambican history is arbitrarily defined as the period from the beginning of a Luta de Libertação Nacional [the National Liberation Struggle, as the Mozambicans call it] or a Guerra Colonial [the Colonial War, as the Portuguese prefer] in Mozambique in the early 1960s to the advent of political pluralism in 1994. This obviously includes the conflict between the Mozambican government and Renamo from the late 1970s until October 1992, as well as the entire period of the presidency of the late Samora Machel.


The materials are organised by subject, each with its own page on this website, where each document is briefly referenced, with a link to a viewable or down-loadable PDF or JPEG file. Click on the menu on the left to go to the page that interests you. Topics include Ruth First, re-education centres, Josina Machel, FRELIMO 1962-62, cartoons and crime, amonst many others.

The Ongoing Development of MHN. There are presently about 400 physical dossiers – subject files containing press clippings mainly from Mozambican and southern African sources – which can potentially and eventually be added to the MHN website. These include such broad topics as the economy, divided into sub-categories (agriculture, energy, finance, labour, trade, and so on); education; the environment; governance (the Assembleia Popular, elections, local government); international relations (with South Africa, Portugal, the Soviet Union, the United States); politics (including Frelimo and Renamo); and social studies (including health, housing, migration, gender issues and so on). The MHN is interested in feedback on its development and enables comments from the website.