The Slave Trade In Mozambique

It’s coastline reaching 2,470 km, Mozambique is the perfect location for trade ports. Prior to the Portuguese arrival, Swahili traders flourished with business. Swahili is a culture comprised of Muslims and Mozambican dating back to the 12th century. During colonial times, the slave trade, carried out by the Prazos, the Yao and the Tsonga, grew to new heights in 1752 due to Portuguese control. Later on in history, the Portuguese began forcing Mozambicans into contracted labor, which is one step away from slavery. The Portuguese also levied a tax so Africans would be forced to work for wages on plantations or in mines (Kyle). Mozambique changed from a vibrant trade city to a place where poor families depended on the contracted labor in which

the Portuguese forced them. Before the Portuguese came, Mozambique was a country with flourishing Swahili trade cities that traded slaves, which Mozambicans continued to do when the Portuguese took control, however, Mozambique changed when the Portuguese started “Chibalo”(forced labor) to build the country’s infrastructure.

Slaves had been a large part of pre-colonial Mozambique trade, as well as during colonial rule.

Swahili trade ports all along the coast of Mozambique thrived with the trade of slaves for centuries before Vasco da Gama, a Portuguese explorer, discovered it. When the Portuguese began to get involved with the slave trade in the late 18th century, 9,000 slaves were being exported yearly during this time. Written in 1826, the Captain of a British cruiser anchored at Mozambique confirms this, and also writes of his suspicion that “One-fourth or more may be added to that number [9,000 slaves] as being shipped off to the Brazils in these vessels. This additional fourth is smuggled on board to cheat the custom house ”(Alpers). Brazil was the main destination of slaves that were being exported from Mozambique. The prazos (leased land owners), the Yao, the Tsonga, the Arabs and Swahilis had set up trade routes during this time as well. Even though the slave trade had been abolished by the British in 1807, the Royal Navy’s efforts to suppress to remaining slave trade focused on the western half of Africa, allowing the eastern half slave trade, where Mozambique is located, to continue to thrive. A total of 1 million slaves were exported in the 1800s (Mozambique: The Slave Trade and Early Colonialism). After Britain abolished slavery in 1807, the nation decided to use its force to make other countries follow suit. Portugal was one of these nations, and Britain and Portugal signed

a treaty in 1810, agreeing to limit slave trade into its colonies. It took almost 90 years to completely abolish the slave trade in Portugal. (Crawford). The slave trade shows continuity because slaves had always been traded in Mozambique ports, and continued to be when the Portuguese took control.

During Colonial rule, Mozambique went through many grueling changes that affected their day to day lives. Before Portuguese forces came to colonize Mozambique, the ancient population were hunter-gatherer bushmen under the rule of the Mwene Mutapa. However, during a period of colonial rule known as “Chibalo”(forced labor), a cruel system that went on from 1938-1961, Mozambicans were forced to work for the Portuguese in the cotton fields. The system was used in many different African colonizations. First, a tax would be levied to make the oppressed people poor and in need of work. Then the colonists would force men into labor (the cotton fields in Mozambique) and pay them a sliver of earnings to then pay their taxes. The labor increased production of cash crops such as cotton and rice for the Portuguese. At the market where workers sold cotton, dishonest salesman would cheat the workers out of a fair price by lying about the weight of the cotton and trying to intimidate the workers (Coleman). Since the cruelty of chibalo compelled men to find work elsewhere or leave Mozambique altogether, women were often left to carry the burden of mandatory cotton cultivation of their family fields (Twine and Gardener). The only people exempt from the Chibalo system were Portuguese settlers . Plantation workers never revolted physically, though they would do something subtle, such as putting rocks in with the cotton when weighing it at the market to cheat merchants (Coleman). Protest songs were also a large part of defiance. In pre-colonial life Mozambique was dominated by the kingdom of Mwene Mutapa (Fearon and Laitin), however, after the Portuguese came, they induced slavery over Mozambicans, and made their life more difficult and strenuous.

The slave trade was Mozambique’s prime export prior to Portuguese arrival, and Mozambique thrived on its own with many Swahili slave trade cities, which continued to grow after the Portuguese arrived, however Mozambique changed when the colonists imposed chibalo on Mozambicans.

Slave exports grew to new heights during Mozambique's colonial period, with as many as 9,000 slaves traded annually. The slave trade lasted for many centuries in Mozambique, and did not end until the year 1900. Mozambican life was made difficult when the Portuguese imposed Chilabo, a form of forced labor, to mass produce cash crops such as cotton and rice. This type of labor was only a step away from slavery, as the wages given to workers were extremely low and went to pay the tax the Portuguese levied on Mozambicans. Prior to Portuguese arrival, Mozambicans were hunter gatherer bushmen, under the rule of the Mwene Mutapa. Mozambique showed continuity by continuing its slave trade during colonial times, but changed when the Portuguese imposed the Chilabo system to grow cash

crops.