Maputo

Delagoa Bay drew Portuguese merchants before Mozambique had a name. In 1544, trader Lourenço Marques sailed into what locals called Mfumo—a sheltered natural harbour where the Incomati, Maputo, and Tembe rivers drain into the Indian Ocean. That triple-river convergence created something rare on East Africa's coast: deep water close to fertile land, with inland waterways reaching toward the gold and ivory of the interior. The Portuguese built a fort in 1781, and the settlement that grew around it owes its existence to those founding conditions—a classic case of geography dictating destiny before anyone chose to build here.

By 1898, the colony had moved its capital here from Ilha de Mozambique, a thousand kilometres north. The logic was geographic: Lourenço Marques sat closer to the Transvaal's gold mines than any South African port. When President Kruger's railway connected the city to Pretoria in 1895—deliberately bypassing British-controlled ports—the harbour became southern Africa's back door. Over half of Johannesburg's imports moved through Delagoa Bay. By 1972, annual cargo throughput reached 17 million tons. Portuguese, Indian, Chinese, and Islamic trading communities built an art deco city centre that earned comparisons to Lisbon. The University of Lourenço Marques, founded in 1962, trained the professionals who would later lead an independent nation.

Independence in 1975 broke everything. Renamed Maputo, the city lost its Portuguese merchant class almost overnight—90% of settlers fled, taking capital, expertise, and spare parts. The Mozambican Civil War (1977–1992) triggered a phase transition: port throughput collapsed from 17 million tons to barely 1 million by 1988. South Africa, hostile to the new socialist government, redirected its trade through Durban. A hub built to distribute regional commerce found itself severed from every spoke it served.

Recovery followed the pattern of ecological succession after catastrophic disturbance. The 1992 peace accord reopened borders. The Maputo Development Corridor, launched in 1996, rebuilt the highway and rail links to South Africa. A public-private partnership formed the Maputo Port Development Company in 2003, when cargo had crawled back to 4.5 million tons. By 2024, throughput hit 30.9 million tons—nearly double the colonial peak. South Africa's own port congestion, particularly at Durban, pushed freight back toward Maputo. In May 2025, DP World broke ground on a $165 million expansion to double container terminal capacity to 530,000 TEUs. The city's 1.2 million residents generate a disproportionate share of Mozambique's $23 billion GDP, though the country remains one of Africa's poorest, with over half the population below the poverty line.

But Maputo's succession faces a stress test. The disputed October 2024 election triggered protests that killed an estimated 400 people, shuttered the port, and drove out foreign investors—South32 and Syrah Resources suspended operations. The Cabo Delgado insurgency in the north threatens the LNG projects that were supposed to transform the national economy. Maputo has rebuilt from 1 million tons back to 30 million before. Five centuries of reinvention suggest the port will outlast any government—the question is how many governments it will have to outlast.