Question

c) When did Mozambiquajoin the Commonwealth?​

Answer 1

It was out of recognition that Mozambique was one of the frontline states in the fight against apartheid in South Africa, and before that, white minority rule in Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, and had the .

However, English is not an official language, and there is no requirement that member states must have a common official language, in contrast to the CPLP, the Portuguese-speaking world’s equivalent of the Commonwealth.

Unlike the CPLP, the Commonwealth does not offer ‘associate’ or ‘observer’ status to non-members, so the only option to Mozambique was to join as a full member of the association, which it did in 1995 .

Another former Portuguese colony, Guinea-Bissau, joined La Francophonie for similar geopolitical reasons, despite never having been a former French or Belgian colony, and also uses the CFA franc as its currency.