Mozambique

Pupils in front of their school in Mozambique. *Photo from Wikipedia June 25 is Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Mozambique from Portugal in 1975. Between the 1st and 5th centuries AD, Bantu-speaking peoples migrated from farther north and west. Swahili (and later Arab) commercial ports existed along the coasts until the arrival of Europeans. The area was explored by Vasco da Gama in 1498 and colonised by Portugal from 1505. The country was an important place where Somali merchants enslaved the local population, starting what is now known as the Somali slave trade. After over four centuries of Portuguese