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"
Ethnic Chinese in Mozambique colony had to pay a disembarkation fee of 3,000 "reals" at their port of arrival. Nevertheless, Chinese population continued to grow, to 287 by 1903. By 1928, there were 314 Chinese in Lourenço Marques alone, rising to 483 by 1935 and 570 by 1940. The vast majority started out in the carpentry trade, but soon moved into shopkeeping. They established five different community associations and a Chinese-language elementary school for their children. By the early 1970s, the eve of independence, there were 5,000 Chinese in Mozambique, with 2,000 in Lourenço Marques and another 3,000 in Beira. After Mozambique achieved independence