Cuamba is a city and district of

Niassa Province Niassa is a province of Mozambique. It has an area of 129,056 km2 and a population of 1,810,794 (2017). It is the most sparsely populated province in the country. Lichinga is the capital of the province. There are a minimum estimated 450,000 Ya ...

Mozambique Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi ...

, lying north west of

Mount Namuli Mount Namuli is the second highest mountain in Mozambique and the highest in the Province of Zambezia. It is high and was measured, surveyed and described in 1886 by Henry Edward O'Neill, the British consul in Mozambique. The Namuli massif con ...

. Before independence the town was known as ''Nova Freixo'' (New Ash). It lies on the EN8 road, which connects it to the city of

Nampula Nampula is the capital city of Nampula Province in Northern Mozambique. With a population of 743,125 (2017 census), it is the third-largest city in Mozambique after Maputo and Matola. The city is located in the interior of Nampula Province, approxi ...

in the east and to the Malawian border in the west.

History

Cuamba was created by the

Niassa Company The Niassa Company or Nyassa Chartered Company () was a royal company in the Portuguese colony of Mozambique, then known as Portuguese East Africa, that had the concession of the lands that include the present provinces of Cabo Delgado and Niassa ...

, a royal

charter company The Charter Company of Jacksonville, Florida was a conglomerate with more than 180 subsidiaries that was in the ''Fortune'' 500 for 11 years beginning in 1974 and ranked 61st in 1984. The company filed for bankruptcy protection in late 1984, e ...

in what was then known as

Portuguese East Africa Portuguese Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique) or Portuguese East Africa (''África Oriental Portuguesa'') were the common terms by which Mozambique was designated during the period in which it was a Portuguese colony. Portuguese Mozambique originally ...

. The land concession of the Niassa Company extended from 1891 and 1929, and it established a military outpost initially called Kuamba in this period. The name referred to a small kingdom in the area, and Cuamba became the official name of the settlement in 1937. Its name was changed to Nova Freixo in 1952, a reference to the city of

Freixo de Espada à Cinta Freixo de Espada à Cinta (), sometimes erroneously called Freixo de Espada Cinta (an archaism), is a municipality in the northeastern region of Portugal, near the border with Spain, along the Douro River Valley. The population in 2011 was 3,780, ...

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

, the birthplace of

Sarmento Rodrigues Manuel Maria Sarmento Rodrigues (15 June 1899 – 1 August 1979) was a naval officer, colonist and professor. He was born in 1899 in Freixo de Espada à Cinta, Portugal. He attended a secondary school in Bragança, Portugal, Bragança and attende ...

(1899-1979), the colonial governor-general of Mozambique. The town reverted to its original name of Cuamba in 1976, and was elevated to city status in 1971.

Transport

It lies on the junction of the

Nacala railway Nacala railway, also known as Northern Corridor railway and Nacala Corridor railway, is a railway line that operates in northern Mozambique on a lineGarcia, Ana.; Kato, Karina.Politicas Públicas e Interesses Privadas: uma análise a partir do Cor ...

line, connecting

Malawi Malawi (; or aláwi Tumbuka: ''Malaŵi''), officially the Republic of Malawi, is a landlocked country in Southeastern Africa that was formerly known as Nyasaland. It is bordered by Zambia to the west, Tanzania to the north and northeast ...

to the seaport of

Nacala Nacala, also known as Cidade de Nacala or Nacala-Porto is a city on the northern coast of Mozambique. Located in the southwestern indentation of inner Fernao Veloso Bay, it is the deepest natural port on the east coast of Africa. Nacala serves as ...

, and the branch line to

Lichinga Lichinga is the capital city of Niassa Province of Mozambique. It lies on the Lichinga Plateau at an altitude of , east of Lake Niassa (Lake Malawi). The town was founded as Vila Cabral as a farming and military settlement. It is served by Lich ...

. There is an airport in the city called

Cuamba Airport Cuamba Airport is an airport serving Cuamba, a city in the Niassa Province in Mozambique. The airport is in the southern part of the city and is a major airport in the province of Niassa in central Mozambique. There are no scheduled flights in ...

Education

The town is home to the School of Agriculture of the

Catholic University of Mozambique The Catholic University of Mozambique ( pt, Universidade Católica de Moçambique, UCM) is a university in Mozambique. The university was founded on 10 August 1996 by the Mozambican conference of Bishops. At the time, higher education in Mozam ...

Demographics

References

{{coord, 14, 49, 00, S, 36, 33, 00, E, type:city, display=title Populated places in Niassa Province

History

Transport

Education

Demographics

See also

References