Three Decades Later, Bridge Unites Mozambique

Mozambique Prime Minister Luisa Dias Diogo. The southern African nation will open a bridge that has been in the works for the last three decades.
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos

MAPUTO August 1 Sapa-AFP

THREE DECADES LATER, BRIDGE UNITES MOZAMBIQUE

Three decades after work began, Mozambique on Saturday
inaugurated an 80-million-euro (113-million-dollar) bridge over the
Zambezi River, a major link for a country long divided between
north and south.

President Armando Guebuza, for whom the bridge has been named,
said at the ceremony it was a symbol of national unity and the
realisation of a long-delayed national project.

"The history of this bridge is almost as old as our national
independence, and you could say it has suffered the same
vicissitudes," Guebuza said.

European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso sent a
message, hailing the 2.5-kilometre (1.6-mile) bridge - one of
Africa's longeset - as a boost to the country's development.

"The completion of the Zambezi bridge allows a more efficient
contribution to the development of commerce, and national and
regional integration," Barroso said in a statement read at the
ceremony.

The idea of building the bridge dates back to the 1950s when
Mozambique was under Portuguese colonial rule.

But the country's 10-year war for independence followed by 16
years of civil war derailed the project for decades.

The Mozambican government began work on the bridge in 1977, two
years after independence, but soon had to abandon construction as
civil war enveloped the country.

The war between ruling party Frelimo and rebel movement Renamo
split Mozambique largely along north-south lines, a divide that
still troubles the country.

Until Saturday, traversing Mozambique from north to south meant
taking a ferry across the gap where National Highway 1 meets the
Zambezi River.

The line for the ferry sometimes stretched a kilometre in each
direction. Travelers could lose two or three days waiting for their
turn to cross.

The bottleneck reinforced Mozambique's north-south divide, and
the improvised cities that sprouted at the river as truckers lined
up to cross became a focal point in the country's raging HIV/AIDS
epidemic.

Officials hope the new bridge built at the center, between the
provinces of Sofala (south) and Zambezia (north), will help
Mozambique, one of the world's poorest countries, overcome the
difficult geography that has at times hindered its development.