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MOZAMBIQUE INSTITUTE
(INSTITUTO MOPAMBICANO)
P. 0. Box 20773
Dar es Salaam, Tanganyika
MOZAMBIQUE
GEOGRAPHY
Mozambique is the most heavily populated and the second largest
in area of Portugal's "overseas provinces", (Angola being the largest).  It lies on the east coast of Africa below the equator,
stretching for 1,250 miles north and south along the Indian Ocean.
It comprises 297,731 square miles, approximately eight times the
size of Portugal.  In the nor^th it is separated from Tanganyika by
the Ruvuma River and also borders Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland.
To the west and south it is bordered by Southern Rhodesia, Swaziland and the Union of South Africa.  On the East the Mozambique
Channel stands between Mozambique and Madagascar.  The inland
border of Mozambique is so irregular that the width of the country
from east to west varies from 50 miles to 718 miles.
The country is divided into three main areas:  a low coastal
plain, a central plateau and a mountainous region to the v/est.  It
is intersected by a number of rivers with their fertile valleys:
principally, the Zambesi, Limpopo, Save and Ruvuma rivers.  Much
of the country consists of sparsely populated bush, v/ith the majority of the population being concentrated around the rivers.
The capital of Mozambique is Lourenco Marques, a modern city,
and perhaps the finest and busiest port in East Africa.  Lourenco
Marques, v/ith the port city of Beira, make together the harbour
vfor the imports and exports of the Transvaal, the Rhodesias, the
Congo (Leopoldville) and Nyasaland.
Mozambique is primarily an agricultural country, growing
tropical and sub-tropical crops for local consumption and export.
Mozambique is also a principal supplier of labour to its neighbor
countries, particularly the mines of South Africa and Northern
Rhodesia and the plantations of Tanganyika.  The province has a
busy tourist trade in its sea coast resorts and up country where
there is a wide variety of wild game.  Mozambique is not rich in
minerals, although there may be uranium in the Tete region, and
there are some minor deposits of gold and silver.
Like the rest of East Africa, Mozambique has a dry season and
a wet season, most of the rainfall being concentrated between November and April.  The average annual rainfall ranges between 30
inches in the south and 56 inches in the north.  In the northern
portion of the territory, even in the dry season, the humidity
averages between 70 and 80 percent.  Subsistence farming is made
difficult by an irregular rainfall accompanied by droughts and
floods in the southern areas.  The temperature is progressively
cooler going from north to south, ranging from 70 degrees F. to
80 degrees F.
POPULATION (
Mozambique had an estimated population of #,738,911 in 1950.
According to that census the population of Mozambique was distributed as follows:
Africans: 5,651,306
Europeans: 48,213
Mulattoes: 25,149
East Indians: 12,630
Chinese: 1,613
The estimated population of Mozambique in 1963 was 6,387,000.