BEIRA

port city, central Mozambique. Beira is situated on the Mozambique Channel (Indian Ocean) at the mouths of the Pngo and Bzi rivers. It was founded in 1891 as the headquarters of the Companhia de Moambique ("Mozambique Company") on the site of an old Muslim settlement. The city's administration passed from the trading company to the Portuguese government in 1942 and then to independent Mozambique in 1975. The port developed as a trade and transportation outlet for the products of Central Africa and as a transshipment point for coastal cargo. The city is the busy ocean terminus of railways from South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Congo (Kinshasa), and Malawi, and it serves as the main port for Zimbabwe and Malawi. Principal exports passing through Beira are ores, tobacco, food products, cotton, and hides and skins. The main imports are liquid fuels, fertilizers, wheat, heavy equipment, textiles, and beverages. A fishing harbour, which includes canneries, processing plants, and refrigerated stores, was constructed at Beira in the early 1980s. Repeated bombings of the Umtali-to-Beira railway line, first by Rhodesian guerrillas prior to Zimbabwe's independence in 1980 and then later in the early 1980s by the Mozambique National Resistance Movement (MNRM), resulted in frequent interruptions of rail service. Pop. (1991 est.) 298,847. former principality and historical province, north-central Portugal, extending from the banks of the Douro River in the north to the upper course of the Tagus in the southeast and from the Spanish frontier in the east to the Atlantic Ocean in the west. The region was reconquered from the Moors in the 8th century, but Moorish attacks continued until the 15th. It was also contested during the Portuguese-Castilian wars. In 1835 Beira was divided into the districts of Aveiro, Coimbra, Viseu, Guarda, and Castelo Branco. In 1936 three new provinces were created from its area of 9,233 square miles (23,913 square km); and in 1959 the provinces were replaced with new distritos (districts), eight of which compose at least parts of Beira. Aquilino Ribeiro, a regional writer, depicted rustic life in Beira.