FRELIMO (Frente de libertacao de mocambique) [Front for the Liberation of Mozambique]

Scope and Content

Speeches, letters, press releases etc relating to FRELIMO and Mozambique.

Administrative / Biographical History

"After World War II, while many European nations were granting independence to their colonies, Portugal's Estado Novo regime headed by António de Oliveira Salazar issued a decree officially renaming Mozambique and other Portuguese possessions as overseas provinces of the mother country, and emigration to the colonies soared (Mozambique's ethnic Portuguese resident population was about 300,000 in 1973, which excludes the Portuguese military sent from the mainland and mulatto population). The drive for Mozambican independence developed apace, and in 1962 several anti-colonial political groups formed the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (FRELIMO), which initiated an armed campaign against Portuguese colonial rule in September 1964. This conflict, along with the two others already initiated in the other Portuguese colonies of Angola and Portuguese Guinea, became part of the so-called Portuguese Colonial War.

Mozambique became independent after ten years of sporadic warfare in Mozambique and Portugal's return to democracy through a leftist military coup in Lisbon on 25 April 1974 (partially as a result of the expenses from the wars in the overseas territories in Africa). FRELIMO took complete control of the territory after a transition period, as agreed in the Lusaka Accord which recognized Mozambique's right to independence and the terms of the transfer of power. Within a year of the Portuguese coup, almost all Portuguese population had left the African territory – some expelled by the new government of independent Mozambique, some fleeing in fear. Mozambique became independent from Portugal on June 25, 1975". [Source: Wikipedia, 14 Nov 2013]

Access Information

Open

Acquisition Information

Part of the Southern African Materials Project 1973-76 organised by the Centre for International and Area Studies (see comp. Brian Willan, ed. Patricia M. Larby The Southern African Materials Project (1980) [Ref WHO16 437019]

Geographical Names