Mueda
| Mueda | |||
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| Coordinates | 11 ° 40 ′ S , 39 ° 33 ′ E | ||
| Basic data | |||
| Country | Mozambique | ||
| Cabo Delgado | |||
| District | Mueda | ||
| ISO 3166-2 | MZ-P | ||
| Residents | 2000 (2005) | ||
 Gas station in Mueda around 1995
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Mueda is a town in the Mueda district of Cabo Delgado province in northern Mozambique with around 2000 inhabitants (2005 estimate). The city is known throughout Mozambique for the Mueda massacre on June 16, 1960, in which Portuguese soldiers shot numerous residents.
history
In June 1960 representatives of the MANU demanded independence from Portugal from the local colonial administrator due to the economic situation . The colonial administrator asked the delegation to return later and informed the provincial governor of the situation. Provincial Governor Teixeira da Silva offered improvements such as price cuts on the condition that the independence demands would be waived. When this was unsuccessful, the two MANU representatives present were arrested on June 16. Popular protests broke out, and the governor had the Mozambican auxiliaries present open fire on the crowd. Between 16 and 500 people are said to have died, the latter number being the number of victims propagated by the later FRELIMO.
The Mueda massacre accelerated the emergence of a national independence movement, the Frente da Libertação de Moçambique (FRELIMO), which took up armed struggle from 1964.
The Mueda massacre is one of the key moments in the Mozambican resistance struggle and is therefore part of Mozambican historiography - primarily driven by the independence movement and FRELIMO, which is still in power today. The massacre is celebrated to this day as an inherently important event in the collective memory of Mozambican society. Every year Mozambican politicians - usually the incumbent president - lay wreaths at a memorial in the city of Mueda. The local population reenacts ( reenactment ) the events of 1960 to mark the anniversary.
