On the way we encountered many other people: families on the move, women wearily limping along behind their men, carrying bundles on their heads and … - Farida Karodia

I just hope that it would not go the way of other independent black nations, which had allowed their resources to plundered by large foreign multinational companies and leaders hungry for wealth and power.

One could only hope that this country, which had always been poor – not through a lack of resources, but because Portugal had decided that this was to be the country’s fate- would finally develop to its full potential.

The deserters and dissenters expelled from the party formed RENAMO, a rebel group committed to snatching power from FRELIMO. Supported by South Africa and Rhodesia, who did not want a socialist government on their doorsteps, RENAMO conducted a campaign of terror, destabalisation and plunder, murdered hundreds of thousands of Mozambicans. It was a tragedy and travesty of the worst kind. It was a conflict that surpassed the brutality of the war in Vietnam: RENAMO, it was said, outdid the Cambodian Khmer Rouge in cruelty, perpetrating some of the most inhumane acts against their own people, with the full knowledge, support and encouragement of Mozambique’s white-ruled neighbours.