History of Mozambique free of land mines in 2015, following a 22-year effort to remove explosive devices planted during the War of Independence and Civil War. History of Mozambique Mozambique was a Portuguese colony, overseas province and later a member state of Portugal. It gained independence from Portugal in 1975. In 2007 Julio Mercader, of the University of Calgary, recovered dozens of 100,000-year-old stone tools from a deep limestone cave near Lake Niassa in Mozambique showing that wild sorghum, the ancestor of the chief cereal consumed today in sub-Saharan Africa for flours, breads, porridges and alcoholic beverages, was being consumed by "Homo sapiens"
Portuguese Mozambique population's rapid exodus left the Mozambican economy in disarray. In addition, after the independence day on 25 June 1975, the eruption of the Mozambican Civil War (1977–92) destroyed the remaining wealth and left the former Portuguese Overseas Province in a state of absolute disrepair. Herrick, Allison and others (1969). "Area Handbook for Mozambique", US Government Printing Office. Portuguese Mozambique Portuguese Mozambique () or Portuguese East Africa ("África Oriental Portuguesa") are the common terms by which Mozambique is designated when referring to the historic period when it was a Portuguese overseas territory. Portuguese Mozambique constituted a string of Portuguese colonies and