Topic: Eliminating Racism
Country: Mozambique
Delegate Name: Ian Savas
School: Roeper School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Mozambique position papers GLIMUN 2009 committees
Mozambique has suffered from racism for much of its recent history. Prior to the arrival of the Portuguese, racism was little known, primarily only in Mozambique’s most northern port of Pemba, as the Swahili Indian Ocean slave traders enslaved peoples from Mozambique’s interior. Yet this trade was small compared to that which Portugal brought. From the fifteen hundreds to the eighteen hundreds Mozambique was afflicted by slave exploitation, as Portuguese slavers imprisoned and carried away almost a million of Mozambique’s people to the Americas, primarily to Brazil. Men, women, and children were taken from their native homes and forced to be shipped from the Indian Ocean across the Atlantic Ocean to work as slaves. These people were taken because they were of African descent and for no other reasons. This type of exploitation affects all of Africa, as well as impacts the entire world. These acts of racism from centuries past still have lasting affects today.
Immediately following Mozambique’s 1975 independence, mass amounts of European and mixed ethnic people left the country in fear that they might be treated as Europeans had treated the people of Mozambique for almost five centuries. On the eve of the civil war in Mozambique, there once again was a mass movement of s and mixed ethnic people leaving the country. The causes for these movements are unknown, but it can be deducted that many of these people left in fear of persecution due to their ethnic backgrounds. After the almost two decade civil war, a constitution was written for the country and people of Mozambique. This constitution was agreed upon by both rival factions during the civil war. This constitution contains specific clauses outlawing any and all persecution based on religion, ethnic background, gender, or social status. This clause also states that if there is any violation of these laws then there will be punishment in a criminal court.
Mozambique today has friendly relations with all nations of the world. We are particularly close to the former colonial power of Portugal, to the European Community, to the US, but also to our African neighbors, from South Africa to African nations to the north, and to the Peoples Republic of China, which is today one of our leading donors. Mozambique makes no distinction between any persons: black, brown, yellow, white, or of any difference based on religion or national origin, and wishes that all nations of the world would act in unity to do likewise. Mozambique strongly condemns racism wherever it may exist, and calls on the nations of the UN to act as one to end the global scourge of racism.
