mozambique is 99.66% african (from the makhuwa, tsonga, lomwe, sena, tribes primarily), 0.06% european (mostly of portuguese descent), 0.2% mestistos (mixed euro and african parentage), and 0.08% indians.  

 

now, you may ask, indian?  what the heck are indians doing here in mozambique?  well, until about the time that india got its independence (1947), indians used to migrate here.  now i realize that if i was on the brink of starvation in india and looking to emigrate to somewhere to find a better life, mozambique would not be in my top 10 choices, but apparently the indians went for the easy commute as there are significant indian populations all across eastern africa.  apparently many were also trying to get to south africa and “missed” somehow and ended up in mozambique,  and then the way the indian world goes, once one indian is here, he calls his brother, cousin, mother, niece, etc. etc. and next thing you know there are a lot of indians here.  

 

the mozambiquans don’t really like the indians.  the indians from india don’t really like the mozambiquan indians either. they call them “meyuzas”  which roughly translates into “bad indian.”  for not being very popular, they are quite good at business.  i have been taking estimates and the general consensus is 35% of the general economy (GDP of $5.72B) and 70-85% of the retail economy is controlled by meyuzas.  i can’t verify this number as reputable sources don’t quite catalogue the percentage of the mozambiquan economy controlled by bad indians, but that is the general consensus.

 

not a very popular group, eh?  but who needs friends when you control a disproportionately large percentage of the economy?