ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates Mozambique's contemporary socio-economic situation by evaluating the developmental prospects of what is termed as Mozambique's new market geography. It was only after 1926 that the colonial project in Mozambique attempted seriously to forge a national economy, oriented towards the Portuguese metropole. Forced labour was widespread until 1961, and carried on in covert forms up until independence. After a period of instability, generated by the massive perturbations of a Portuguese exodus, Frelimo established a Marxist-Leninist political system accompanied by state-centred development planning. In the late 1970s, Renamo was created in Rhodesia, initially to attack guerrilla ZANU bases in western Mozambique, but also to undermine Frelimo's presence in the unstable border areas between the two countries. The chapter traces the 'sinews' of Mozambique's new market geography, forged during peacetime and the Programa de Reabilitação Económica (PRE). Mozambique's agricultural recovery is pivotal to the country's sustainable development.
