It’s cold and snowy here in Ottawa, so I’m glad my random country generator popped up another warm place (to be fair, most countries are warmer than Canada in winter). This month’s country I’m going to be learning about is Mozambique!

So what do I know about Mozambique off the bat? Very, very little, unfortunately. It’s flag has always stuck out to me for having an AK-47 on it, and when crossed with a hoe, seems to imply a revolutionary history, but apart from that, my knowledge is really lacking.

Well, to start my education on Mozambique, I looked up a little background on its flag – it’s origins are from the flag of the Mozambique Liberation Front (FRELIMO), the Marxist nationalist movement that overthrew the Portuguese colonial government in the 70s. FRELIMO was then the ruling party, and remains the dominant political party in Mozambique.

However, it seems that there was a lot of debate back in 2005 around changing the flag, especially with pushback to the AK-47, and that while motions were made to pick a new flag, nothing has come from it.