Mozambique

Mozambique: capital Maputo, population 35.6M, area 801,590 km². The 46th most populous country, in Africa. Facts, map, neighbours and more.

Mozambique runs for some 2,500 kilometres down the Indian Ocean coast from Tanzania to South Africa, with Maputo in the far south as its capital. Swahili port towns grew here between the seventh and eleventh centuries, Sofala traded gold from the interior, and Vasco da Gama's voyage of 1498 brought the Portuguese, who settled from 1505. The Island of Mozambique was the colonial capital until 1898 and gave the country its name; independence came on 25 June 1975, and Portuguese remains the one official language among some 46 spoken here.

• A string of Swahili port towns grew along this coast between the seventh and eleventh centuries, and by the late medieval period traders from Somalia, Arabia, Persia and India were calling at them.
• Sofala on the Sofala Bank was a Swahili city-state whose first recorded use was by merchants from Mogadishu; one reading of its name is go and dig, marking it as a hub for gold.
• The Island of Mozambique served as the capital of Portuguese East Africa until 1898, and the country took its name from the island rather than the other way round.
• Mozambique became independent on 25 June 1975 after more than four centuries of Portuguese rule, and Portuguese is still the only official language among some 46 spoken in the country.

• Maria Mutola is the only athlete ever to have won Olympic, World, World indoor, Commonwealth, Continental Games and Continental Championship titles in one event, the 800 metres.
• Mia Couto won the Camões Prize in 2013, the biggest award in Portuguese-language literature, and took the Neustadt International Prize for Literature the following year.
• Paulina Chiziane, born at Manjacaze in 1955, writes novels and short stories in Portuguese and was awarded the Camões Prize in 2021.
• José Craveirinha, widely held to be Mozambique's greatest poet, wrote in Portuguese, was one of Africa's pioneers of Négritude and published six books of poetry between 1964 and 1997.

• Gorongosa covers more than 4,000 square kilometres of valley floor and plateau and once held some of Africa's densest wildlife; large mammal numbers fell by as much as 95 per cent and are being rebuilt.
• Lake Niassa, the Mozambican part of Lake Malawi, belongs to the lake with more fish species than any other in the world, including at least 700 kinds of cichlid.
• The Bazaruto Archipelago off Vilankulo is a group of six islands, among them Bazaruto, Benguerra, Magaruque, Santa Carolina and Bangué.
• Cahora Bassa is Africa's fourth-largest artificial lake, and its name comes from the Nyungwe Kahoura-Bassa, meaning finish the job.

• A capulana is a length of cloth about two metres by one, worn as a skirt or dress or tied into a baby carrier; the earliest came to Mozambique from Indian traders in red, white and black.
• Marrabenta was put together in Maputo during the 1930s and 1940s by setting Mozambican dance rhythms against Portuguese folk music.
• Mozambique's flag, adopted on 1 May 1983, shows an AK-47 crossed by a hoe over an open book, on a gold star inside a red triangle at the hoist.
• Portuguese is the only official language of Mozambique, spoken by most city dwellers, while Tsonga, Makhuwa, Sena, Chichewa and Swahili are among the most important local languages.

What is the capital of Mozambique?

The capital of Mozambique is Maputo.

What is the population of Mozambique?

Mozambique has about 35.6M people — the 46th most populous country in the world.

How big is Mozambique?

Mozambique covers 801,590 km², making it the 35th largest country by area.

Which region is Mozambique in?

Mozambique is in Eastern Africa, Africa.