BEIRA MOZAMBIQUE INDIAN OCEAN

Beira is the second largest city in Mozambique. It lies in the central region of the country in Sofala Province, where the Pungue River meets the Indian Ocean. It had a population of 412,588 in 1997 and an estimated 546,000 in 2006. It holds the regionally-significant Port of Beira which acts as a gateway for both the central interior portion of the country as well as the land-locked nations of Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi. Beira was originally developed by the Portuguese Mozambique Company in the 19th century, and directly developed by the Portuguese colonial government from 1947 to 1975, when Mozambique become independent from Portugal.

GRAN HOTEL BEIRA BEFORE / NOW

The city was established in 1890 by the Portuguese and soon supplanted Sofala as the main port in the Portuguese-administered region. Before Mozambique's independence from Portugal, as a city of the Portuguese overseas province of Mozambique, Beira was noted for its tourism. A large English-speaking population was the result of being a favourite holiday destination for white Rhodesians. One reminder of this is the Grande Hotel, built by the Portuguese, near the shore of the Indian Ocean, which now lies in near-ruins, but is still occupied by around 1,000 poor Beirans.
In the year 2000, Beira, along with Maputo and most of Southern Mozambique was covered by flooding. Millions were left homeless and hundreds died. The 2000 Mozambique flood had a negative impact on the local economy.
Attractions in the city include its cathedral, lighthouse and Macuti Beach. It is also home to an airport and lies at the end of a railway line to Harare. There are a few restaurants of note in the area that are up to par for tourists. Bique's (threatened by the sea waters) is a restaurant located on an attractive stretch of beach along the southeastern edge of the city some kilometers from the city center and serves several traditional African dishes as well as some South African cuisine. Another restaurant located within the heart of downtown is called Kanimambo and is owned by a native Macanese couple that serves authentic (and very good, even by Western standards) Chinese food. Both restaurants are easily located by asking directions.
The only notable hotel for tourists is called the Tivoli and is located downtown, near Kanimambo. The rooms are small but clean, and unless you know someone with a nice place in town you'll be hard pressed to find anything better. There are some good alternatives in the form of Macuti housing complex, another nice lodge by the Macuti Lighthouse, and a good simple pension on Eduardo Mondlane Avenue.
In the city itself there is very little to see in the way of tourist attractions. Beira does not cater for the mass-tourist, but can be very interesting to the photographer with many places of great human, architectural and nature value. If you are interested in a bit of history you might want to swing by the Grande Hotel Beira, which was built by the Portuguese to be an exquisite hotel but was abandoned before opening when Mozambique gained its independence of the colonial rulers and is now occupied by several hundred squatters.

ARRIVAL FIRST TRAIN TO BEIRA

If you make your way towards the east, away from the city, on the opposite side of the peninsula (bordered on the west by the a large ocean inlet/river and on the east by the Indian Ocean) on which the city is located you will find some very beautiful, pristine white-sand beaches and no one else in sight for miles. Here and there as you head north you will encounter small villages and if you time your visit right you will find fishermen coming home with their catches. Pay particular attention to their prawns (camarāo), which are delicious and which they will sell to you at a very low price if you know how to negotiate and if you're willing to prepare (de-shell) and cook them yourself. Prawns can also be obtained right southwest of the downtown area, on the beach, usually early in the mornings. There is a large market in the area and it is hard to miss.
Two tourists were recently murdered at Macuti beach at night, so extra precaution should be taken in that area. Security is a serious issue in Beria, and if you walk around with money, cellphone or camera and look like a tourist, be it in city center or on isolated stretches of beach, you can get into trouble. General rule is to not take anything except for some hand money when going around. Carrying a handgun or knife for personal protection is recommended.
Heading north along the only highway that leaves the city you will soon come across the entrance to the old Gorongosa national park. Absolutely worth seeing if you have the time and willingness to rough it through the overgrown roads and paths and a relative lack of infrastructure. The government still stations a few rangers in the park and there is rapid work being done to restore the park to its former glory, but there is much left undone. Do not expect a comfy, hand-holding safari, but many will find the potential rewards of a trek through a virtually untouched game reserve worth the hassle and risks.
ESTE VIDEO ES EN PORTUGUES 
.http://videos.sapo.pt/lWb71QzEUreqYq6zVZGR



These days, nice places to visit include the Nautico's for food and sea, Biques and Pappas (best food but also expensive), eat some "pasteís" in the city center or visit the local markets.

Another highlight is Savane, which is a small camp with restaurant and beach outside Beira. The water is a bit more transparent, the food ok and the boat trip over the river a nice bit of fun. You will need a 4x4 to traverse the dirt road to Savane from Beira. It takes approximately 1 hour to drive 30 km on this road when it is in (relatively) good condition.
Rio Maria is also worth visiting, and is an estuary. There are no facilities. Main attractions are the natural beauty and people.

FOTOS EN http://cidadedabeira.tripod.com/

MOZAMBIQUE HISTORY PORTUGUESE COLONIAL POLITHICS

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Mozambique's first inhabitants were San hunter and gatherers, ancestors of the Khoisani peoples. Between the first and fourth centuries AD, waves of Bantu-speaking peoples migrated from the north through the Zambezi River valley and then gradually into the plateau and coastal areas. The Bantu were farmers and ironworkers.
When Portuguese explorers reached Mozambique in 1498, Arab-trading settlements had existed along the coast and outlying islands for several centuries. From about 1500, Portuguese trading posts and forts became regular ports of call on the new route to the east. Later, traders and prospectors penetrated the interior regions seeking gold and slaves. Although Portuguese influence gradually expanded, its power was limited and exercised through individual settlers who were granted extensive autonomy. As a result, investment lagged while Lisbon devoted itself to the more lucrative trade with India and the Far East and to the colonization of Brazil.

By the early 20th century the Portuguese had shifted the administration of much of the country to large private companies, controlled and financed mostly by the British, which established railroad lines to neighboring countries and supplied cheap--often forced--African labor to the mines and plantations of the nearby British colonies and South Africa. Because policies were designed to benefit white settlers and the Portuguese homeland, little attention was paid to Mozambique's national integration, its economic infrastructure, or the skills of its population.

After World War II, while many European nations were granting independence to their colonies, Portugal clung to the concept that Mozambique and other Portuguese possessions were overseas provinces of the mother country, and emigration to the colonies soared. Mozambique's Portuguese population at the time of independence was about 250,000. 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. After 10 years of sporadic warfare and major political changes in Portugal, Mozambique became independent on June 25, 1975.

The last 30 years of Mozambique's history have reflected political developments elsewhere in the 20th century. Following the April 1974 coup in Lisbon, Portuguese colonialism collapsed. In Mozambique, the military decision to withdraw occurred within the context of a decade of armed anti-colonial struggle, initially led by American-educated Eduardo Mondlane, who was assassinated in 1969. When independence was achieved in 1975, the leaders of FRELIMO's military campaign rapidly established a one-party state allied to the Soviet bloc and outlawed rival political activity. FRELIMO eliminated political pluralism, religious educational institutions, and the role of traditional authorities.

The new government gave shelter and support to South African (ANC) and Zimbabwean (ZANU) liberation movements while the governments of first Rhodesia and later apartheid South Africa fostered and financed an armed rebel movement in central Mozambique called the Mozambican National Resistance (RENAMO). Civil war, sabotage from neighboring states, and economic collapse characterized the first decade of Mozambican independence. Also marking this period were the mass exodus of Portuguese nationals, weak infrastructure, nationalization, and economic mismanagement. During most of the civil war, the government was unable to exercise effective control outside of urban areas, many of which were cut off from the capital. An estimated 1 million Mozambicans perished during the civil war, 1.7 million took refuge in neighboring states, and several million more were internally displaced. In the third FRELIMO party congress in 1983, President Samora Machel conceded the failure of socialism and the need for major political and economic reforms. He died, along with several advisers, in a suspicious 1986 plane crash.

His successor, Joaquim Chissano, continued the reforms and began peace talks with RENAMO. The new constitution enacted in 1990 provided for a multi-party political system, market-based economy, and free elections. The civil war ended in October 1992 with the Rome General Peace Accords. Under supervision of the ONUMOZ peacekeeping force of the United Nations, peace returned to Mozambique.

By mid-1995 the more than 1.7 million Mozambican refugees who had sought asylum in neighboring Malawi, Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Zambia, Tanzania, and South Africa as a result of war and drought had returned, as part of the largest repatriation witnessed in Sub-Saharan Africa. Additionally, a further estimated 4 million internally displaced returned to their areas of origin.
Portugal’s Colonial Policy

- Portugal’s explorers had rounded the Cape of Good Hope late in the 15th C and had given Portugal a big lead over other European rivals for trade and other involvements. Although their monopoly was broken and the Portuguese shouldered aside later by the Dutch and English, the Portuguese had clung to a number of enclaves on both the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. In most of these enclaves, Portuguese control was tenuous and did not extend very deeply into the interior. For example, during the Mfecane, a band of warriors driven out of Zululand had attacked and burned Lourenço Marques; the Portuguese had had to watch from ships where they had taken refuge.

- Portugal was a small country and its resources were limited; it had managed to keep the areas it did either because nobody else wanted them or in other cases, the British found it convenient to support Portuguese control. Portugal was not very industrialised, and often they used British goods for trade.

- during the scramble, imperialists like Cecil Rhodes hoped to supplant the Portuguese; especially, Rhodes wanted to build a railway from the Indian Ocean through Mozambique to the new territories acquired by his BSA Co. and named Rhodesia in his honour (in fact a railroad was built, but Mozambique remained Portuguese).
- the Germans also had designs on Portugal’s territorial claims (claims because Portugal always claimed much more than it actually controlled) in Africa (this was part of the aspiration to join up its main African colonies to create a giant MittelAfrika). In the event, the British and the Germans cancelled each other out. Each preferred that the disputed areas remain in Portuguese hands rather than be lost to the other.

FRELIMO AND RENAMO

- the Portuguese did try to extend more effective control in the colonies they retained, but control over remote areas was never complete (in the 1960s and 70s, insurgency movements were able to establish bases in these areas).
- in development, the Portuguese tended to rely on concession companies and/or plantations.
- the Portuguese had less colour prejudice than some other European peoples and a higher tendency to intermarry (young adventurers going out to the colonies in hopes of making their fortunes often did not have wives); thus, over long periods of time in their colonies, the Portuguese created and merged with a mulatto population.

- after WW2 especially, the Portuguese government adopted a version of the metropolitan approach (like France); i.e., the colonies became a part of greater Portugal and those individuals who could meet the assimilation criteria could become Portuguese citizens.
- also, in the post-1945 period and especially in the 1950s and 60s in a effort to develop the colonies and ease population and unemployment pressures at home, the Portuguese government encouraged emigration to Angola and Mozambique.

- the Portuguese claimed that their colonialism was free of racism, but this was at best only partly true. The practice of granting citizenship to anyone who could meet the education and assimilation criteria in fact benefited the mulatto population primarily, not the general African population. Also, the white settlers from Portugal in the post 1945 period became more race conscious and there were strains on the policy of non-racialism.

POLANA HOTEL

- however, as independence movements and guerrilla activities started, it was apparent that whites were dependent on the Portuguese army; the government tried to undercut support for the independence movements by expanding the non-racialism policies. Thus, there were contradictory pressures.
Why did Portugal hang on so long?
- many, especially marxists, argued flatly that it was because the colonies were so profitable and pointed primarily to the coffee and oil exports from Angola to justify this assessment. However, prices for these commodities were mostly very low during the 1950s and 60s.
- I think that it is doubtful that the colonies paid; especially with the emergence of insurgency movements in several Portuguese colonies, it is certain that the wars were a large drain on Portugal and its economy. I doubt if they were very profitable even before that. It is one of the reasons for such low standards of living in Portugal.
- one of the main reasons for hanging on was prestige. For 1 century (the 16th), Portugal had been the second greatest colonial power in Europe. Portugal continued to cling to its empire ever after; it was perhaps the main source of pride for the Portuguese.
- the Portuguese empire ended when the military leaders who overthrew the dictatorship decided that the empire was not worth it; the army did not have the resources to win, although they could probably continue the stalemate for a long time. As well as being costly (and seemingly endless), the stalemate was also grossly demoralising. The decision to allow the colonies to become independent was also very popular among the majority of the public in Portugal. The Portuguese settlers, of course, and some of their supporters in Portugal denounced the abandonment and ‘betrayal’. Many of the settlers went to South Africa instead of returning to Portugal.
- 3 main factors underlay the decision to end the empire:
a. the liberation movements had increased the costs (both in wealth and in lives) very substantially;
b. Portugal had missed out on the tremendous European expansion of the 1950s and 60s; by the early 1970s, Portugal was even further behind with lower levels of economic output and lower standards of living.
c. also, it had become clear to the military that the wars against the liberation movements were not winable (even the Americans were having to withdraw from Vietnam). Thus, both the military and much of the public in Portugal were fed up and demoralised.
- while it is complex and one should avoid being simplistic, it is true that European countries have done much better economically and in standards of living after eliminating their colonial empires than when they had them.
- alternately, since independence, most African countries have been doing worse than they were doing in the pre-independence colonial period. Again, we should not be simplistic in interpreting this, but it does show the need to look at the more simplistic economic interpretations much more critically.

ZIMBABWE LAND ISSUE

Before the Settlers

When the first whites arrived in 1890, the land between the Limpopo and Zambezi rivers was populated by the Shona and the Ndebele people, who claimed sovereignty.

It is thought the Shona had been there for about 1,000 years. The Ndebele arrived in the 1830s, having migrated north from Natal after falling out with the Zulu King.

In 1889, the imperialist Cecil Rhodes, who had made a fortune in diamond mining in the Cape, set up the British South Africa Company to explore north of the Limpopo.

He had already obtained exclusive mining rights from the Ndebele king, Lobengula, in return for £100 a month, 1,000 rifles, 10,000 rounds of ammunition, and a riverboat. As far as Lobengula was concerned he had not conferred land rights.

The first 200 settlers were each promised a 3,000-acre farm and gold claims in return for carving a path through Mashonaland.

The Shona were too fragmented to resist and the British flag was raised at Fort Salisbury on 13 September 1890. The name Rhodesia was adopted in 1895. It became the British colony of Southern Rhodesia in 1923.

Colonisation

Three years after the pioneers arrived in Mashonaland, they conquered King Lobengula and his people in neighbouring Matabeleland.

Each volunteer in the war was granted 6,000 acres of captured land. Within a year 10,000 square miles around Lobengula’s capital Bulawayo had been marked out.

Ndebele villagers who returned were treated as tenants. Most of their cattle were seized and they were forced to work on the white farms.

In Mashonaland, the settlers imposed a ‘hut tax’ of 10 shillings (50p). Those who could not pay were told to work to earn the money. When the Ndebele and Shona rebelled in 1896, they were put down and their leaders hanged.

As the settlers developed commercial farming, some lands were reserved for African occupation amid fears total dispossession could lead to uprisings.

But the Land Apportionment Act of 1930 barred African land ownership outside the reserves, except in a special freehold purchase area. Africans not needed for labour on white farms were removed to the reserves, which became increasingly congested.

Bush War

In 1965, the far-right prime minister Ian Smith unilaterally declared independence after Britain refused to let Rhodesia decolonise as a white supremacist state.

Two major liberation organisations emerged. Zanu, under Robert Mugabe, and Zapu, under Joshua Nkomo. Black nationalist opposition began its armed resistance in 1966.

When international economic sanctions were imposed against Smith’s regime, white commercial agriculture was heavily subsidised, making it even harder for African peasants to compete.

The "land question" was a major cause of the guerrilla war, which was fought with increasing ferocity during the 1970s with both sides intimidating and torturing recruits in rural areas.

In 1979, renewed negotiations in London led to the Lancaster House Agreement which paved the way for independence in April 1980. Mugabe, who won a landslide victory in the first free election, promised to resettle blacks on white land.

Independence

Independence saw the transfer of power from whites to blacks, but not land. Thousands of settlers opted for Zimbabwean nationality after independence.

Britain gave the new government £44m for resettlement projects. But the UK says much of the land ended up in the hands of Mr Mugabe’s associates rather than the poor. Other international donors have stopped funding government land reform for similar reasons.

Under the Lancaster House constitution the Zimbabwe Government could only buy white land from “willing sellers”. When this expired after 10 years the government passed a law empowering it to make compulsory purchases.

But there have been few transfers in the last decade, with the government failing to budget for serious reform.

In 1997 Mugabe announced a hit list of 1,500 farms set for compulsory acquisition. He said Britain should foot the bill for compensating the white farmers because Rhodesian colonists had stolen the land from blacks in the first place.

The Situation Today

Since March 2000, groups of government supporters led by war veterans have occupied many white-owned farms. In the ensuing violence, several white farmers and their black workers have been killed.

Agricultural production has plummeted. Donors say this is one reason why up to six million people could face starvation unless food aid arrives quickly.

Almost all of Zimbabwe’s 4,000 white farmers have had their farms listed for acquisition. Under a new law, they must leave their land and homes before receiving compensation. Courts have ruled several times that the bureaucratic process of acquiring land has been breached but the government is determined to press ahead.

About 500 white farmers have decided not to lodge legal appeals and some of these have been paid by the state – albeit in devalued Zimbabwe dollars. Lists of those who will be allocated land have been widely publicised in the state media – but many have not taken up the offer.

Many rural Zimbabweans desperately want more land but they also need aid to buy seeds and fertiliser, which the state does not have the money to provide. Some farms have been allocated to ministers and senior officials in the ruling Zanu-PF party and the army. In urban areas, most people want jobs, rather than land.

ETHNIC CLEANSING VIDEOS
1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hq8bTloELCo

2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBD3tdQXYn4&feature=related

3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61tjRD1jvYw&feature=related

 4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sbfhrr2NyH4&feature=related

5 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_fl5zRV8go&feature=related

THE LAST RESORT http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sycA4JvQg4Y
NIGERIA WANTS WHITE FARMERS http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Umj8-U2sg4E&feature=related
JAMBANJA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sHg2iZWeVQ

WHITE POORS IN SOUTH AFRICA OTHER VICTIMS OF APARTHEID

THE CARNEGIE REPORT OF 1932 AFTER THE ANGLO BOER WAR
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnegie_Commission_of_Investigation_on_the_Poor_White_Question_in_South_Africa#The_report  
 http://www.afrika.no/Detailed/5731.html
http://www.thedailymaverick.co.za/article/2010-06-28-the-problem-with-photographing-poor-whites

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2006/jan/22/southafrica.features

VIDEO  BLANCOS POBRES EN SUDAFRICA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFj0HdW2iDs