Mueda

Province

Mueda is a village in the district Mueda of Cabo Delgado Province in northern Mozambique with about 2000 inhabitants ( 2005 estimate ). In 1960, the massacre of Mueda took place here.

History

In June 1960 a delegation from the local inhabitants colonial administrators demanded independence from Portugal because of the economic situation. The colonial administrators urged the delegation to come back later and informed the Governor about the situation.

Governor Pedro Correia de Barros (1958-1961) offered improvements, such as price reductions, if it were to dispense with the demands for independence. Since this was not a success, the negotiators of the residents were arrested on June 16. There were protests of the population and the governor was shoot by the military on the peaceful demonstrators. 500 of them were killed.

The massacre of Mueda accelerated the emergence of a national independence movement, the Frente da Libertação de Moçambique ( FRELIMO ), which started the armed struggle from 1962.