People in Mozambique
Demography
Mozambique's population is around 22 million. Seventy percent of Mozambicans live in rural areas, while the remaining thirty percent live in the urban centers. The north-central provinces of Zambezia and Nampula are the most populous, comprising about 40 percent of the population.
Mozambique's population is 99 percent of African descent. Within the populace, there are 10 major ethnic groups, which themselves encompass numerous subgroups with diverse languages, cultures, and history. The largest of the 10 major groups are the Makua, the Tsonga, the Lomwe, the Sena, the Makonde and the Ndau. There are also small numbers of Europeans, Asian Indians and Euro-Africans living in Mozambique, primarily in the urban areas. The Makua are the largest ethnic group in the northern part of the country, where the Makonde also live. The Sena and Ndau are prominent in the Zambezi valley, while the Tsonga (also called Ronga) are the dominant ethnic group in southern Mozambique.
One legacy of Mozambique's colonial history is the fact that Portuguese is the official language, and in a recent census 40 percent of adult Mozambicans report being able to speak it. There is a striking difference between the urban areas where 72 percent of adults speak Portuguese and the rural areas, where just 25 percent do. Most Mozambicans speak one or more local languages which are part of the Bantu linguistic family. There are 13 main national languages; Emakhuwa, Xitsonga, Ciyao, Cisena, Cishona, Echuwabo, Cinyanja, Xironga, Shimaconde, Cinyungue, Cicopi, Bitonga, and Kiswahili. Other European and Asian languages are often spoken by members of those communities.
Mozambique is very diverse in terms of religion, owing to both its history and present circumstances. The first explorers who came to Mozambique were Arab who brought Islam with them. Today, 20 percent of the population are Muslims, predominantly in the northern, coastal provinces. Christians make up about 30 percent of the population. Christian missionaries were part of the Portuguese colonial scheme and thus Roman Catholics make up the majority of the Christian population. Several Protestant denominations have been present in Mozambique for the past century, but since the early 1990s there has been a strong growth of independent protestant churches. The remaining 50 percent are made up of people who claim indigenous beliefs or say that they belong to no religion at all. During the socialist period, organized religion was strongly discouraged, which explains the high number of people in this category.
Society and Welfare
Despite the influence of Islamic coastal traders and European colonizers, the people of Mozambique have largely retained an economy based on subsistence agriculture. Four out of five people work in the agricultural sector. The most commonly cultivated crops are corn (maize), other cereals and manioc, and Mozambique today is self-sufficient in its staple crop of maize. The main export crops are cotton, cashews, sugar, prawns, tea, and coconut meat (copra).
Under the colonial regime, educational opportunities for black Mozambicans were limited, and 93 percent of the population was functionally illiterate. After independence, the government placed a high priority on expanding education, and significantly reduced the illiteracy rate, as primary school enrollment increased in the early the 1980s. More recently, the literacy rate dropped to 47.8 percent, owing in large part to the destruction of schools and the deaths of many teachers during the civil war. The education infrastructure has now been rebuilt, and the federal government's current education policy is again focused on increasing enrollment in primary schools. Still, this average literacy rate of 47.8 percent obfuscates the vast gender divide. While among males, literacy is measured at 63.5 percent, among females, it is drastically lower at 32.7 percent.
The health care system was also significantly affected by the war, as many health centers and health care workers were targeted by the combatants. Mozambique suffers from a high infant mortality rate -- 107.84 deaths per 1,000 live births. Malaria and diarrhea are the most common childhood diseases. Adults suffer from both of these, in addition to accidents, HIV/AIDS, and chronic diseases. The average life expectancy at birth is 41 years of age. One of the major reasons accounting for this low life expectancy is the HIV/AIDS pandemic. According to official estimates, around 13 percent of Mozambique's population are HIV-positive, with approximately 1,000 new infections occurring daily.
About 5.7 percent of GDP in this country is spent on health expenditures; about five percent of GDP is spent on educational expenditures.
One notable indicator used to measure a country's quality of life is the Human Development Index (HDI), which is compiled annually since 1990 by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The HDI is a composite of several indicators, which measure a country's achievements in three main areas of human development: longevity, knowledge and education, as well as economic standard of living. In a ranking of 169 countries and territories, the HDI places Mozambique near the very bottom of the ranking in the low human development category, at 165th place. Note: Although the concept of human development is complicated and cannot be properly captured by values and indices, the HDI, which is calculated and updated annually, offers a wide-ranging assessment of human development in certain countries, not based solely upon traditional economic and financial indicators.
Written by Dr. Denise Youngblood Coleman, Editor in Chief at www.countrywatch.com. See Bibliography for list of research sources.