Mueda is the largest town of the Makonde Plateau in northeastern
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 ...
Cabo Delgado Province
Cabo Delgado is the northernmost province of Mozambique. It has an area of and a population of 2,320,261 (2017). As well as bordering Mtwara Region in the neighboring country of Tanzania, it borders the provinces of Nampula and Niassa. The r ...
. It is the center of the culture of the Makondes, and the production of their ebony sculptures.
Geography
Mueda is located on the upland
Mueda Plateau
The Mueda Plateau, also known as the Maconde Plateau, is a plateau in Cabo Delgado Province of northeastern Mozambique.
Geography
The Mueda Plateau lies between the Ruvuma River on the north, which forms the border with Tanzania, and the Messal ...
, which has a more temperate climate than the coast, but where, because of the permeable sandy soil, water infiltrates to a great depth, making it difficult to supply drinking water. In about 1970,
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 ruling authority of Mozambique at the time, built a system to supply drinkable water, under the direction of the engineer Canhoto. In the 1980s, after the independence of Mozambique from Portugal, the system was rebuilt by the Mozambican government, with the assistance of
UNICEF
UNICEF (), originally called the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund in full, now officially United Nations Children's Fund, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing humanitarian and developmental aid to ...
Portuguese
Portuguese may refer to:
* anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal
** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods
** Portuguese language, a Romance language
*** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language
** Portu ...
colonial
army
An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...
On 16 June 1960, Makonde nationalists organized a demonstration in front of the Mueda District headquarters on the Mueda town square in order to demand independence from Portugal. Apparently the district administrator had invited them to present their grievances. The administrator ordered the leaders arrested, and the crowd protested. The Portuguese administrator ordered his pre-assembled troops to fire on the crowd, after which many more were thrown to their death into a
ravine
A ravine is a landform that is narrower than a canyon and is often the product of streambank erosion. The number of dead is in dispute. However, resentment generated by these events ultimately led to the independentist guerrilla organization
FRELIMO
FRELIMO (; from the Portuguese , ) is a democratic socialist political party in Mozambique. It is the dominant party in Mozambique and has won a majority of the seats in the Assembly of the Republic in every election since the country's firs ...
gaining needed momentum at the outset of the
Mozambican War of Independence
The Mozambican War of Independence ( pt, Guerra da Independência de Moçambique, 'War of Independence of Mozambique') was an armed conflict between the guerrilla forces of the Mozambique Liberation Front or FRELIMO () and Portugal. The w ...
(1964–1975). The site of the massacre is marked by a commemorative statue.
War for independence
The Makonde were strong supporters of FRELIMO. In fact, the Makonde African National Union (MANU - later Mozambique African National Union) was one of the three founding organizations of FRELIMO. Mueda was also the site of Portuguese operations against FRELIMO. In 1967, in one of its first major military actions, FRELIMO launched an abortive attack against the airbase there, although the base was seriously damaged. In May 1970, General Arriaga began
Operation Gordian Knot
Operation Gordian Knot (''Operação Nó Górdio'') was the largest and most expensive Portuguese military campaign in the Portuguese overseas province of Mozambique, East Africa. The operation was carried out in 1970, during the Portuguese Colo ...
, headquartered out of Mueda. By the end of the operation, he claimed to have eliminated over seventy FRELIMO bases. However, other than loss of equipment and supplies, the operation did not affect FRELIMO's ability to infiltrate additional arms from
Tanzania
Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands ...
, and did not substantially affect their ability to wage war. In a later attack, in 1972, against the Mueda airbase, all nineteen airplanes were destroyed.
Images from Mueda
Image:MuedaAirport.JPG, Mueda Airport c. 1995
Image:MuedaGas_0126.jpg, Refueling station in Mueda c. 1995