Ukrainians in Mozambique: from Lev Kryuger to the present-day community

Ukrainians in the southeastern African country of Mozambique have a long history, dating back to the mid-20th century when immigrants first arrived. 

Today, the community numbers more than  500 people and plays an active role in preserving Ukrainian cultural traditions while strengthening the relationship between the two countries. Dmytro Yatsiuk, a prominent leader of the Ukrainian community in Mozambique, shared a brief overview of their history in this far-off coastal Indian Ocean African nation.

One of the first Ukrainians in Mozambique, or at least someone with Ukrainian roots, was Lev Kryuger. 

Born in 1912 in Khabarovsk, Russia, to a Ukrainian mother and a German father, he was the grandson of Arsenii Shvoryn, a teacher in Kyiv. Due to his political activities in the narodnik movement against the Tsar, Shvoryn was exiled to the Russian Far East with his family. Lev Kryuger led an adventurous life, mainly in the Chinese Far East, before moving to Mozambique in 1954. There, he worked as a professional hunter and later wrote several memoirs. Kryuger passed away in 2004, just two months shy of his 92nd birthday, and was laid to rest in the Greek Orthodox Church in Maputo.

In the 1950s, another notable Ukrainian in Mozambique was Mykhailo Ivanovych Tereshchenko (1886-1956), a Ukrainian entrepreneur, sugar magnate, landowner, and philanthropist. He served as Minister of Finance in the Provisional Government of Russia in March-May 1917, and as Minister of Foreign Affairs from May to October 1917. After the Bolshevik Revolution and his release from prison in 1918, he immigrated to Finland and later to Norway. In Mozambique, he became one of the leaders of the agricultural company “Sociedade Agrícola de MADAL.” Tereshchenko’s time in Mozambique is briefly mentioned in the 2012 biographical book “The First Oligarch,” written by his grandson, Michel Tereshchenko.

The first Mozambican students began coming to Ukraine for education in the 1960s, during a time when Mozambique was still a part of the Portuguese colonial empire, and Ukraine was not yet independent. These students came through the national liberation movement FRELIMO (Front for the Liberation of Mozambique). From 1964 to 1971, António Lourenço Shadé served as FRELIMO’s representative in Ukraine (not the Soviet Union), holding prominent positions in the legal system of Mozambique’s northern Nampula province. Some of these students married Ukrainian women, and while some later moved to Africa, others chose to stay in Ukraine. For instance, António Shadé left his son, Konstiantyn Chade (the Ukrainian misspelling of the surname), in Kyiv, where he lived with his mother while his father returned to Africa.

One of the first Ukrainian women to move to Africa after marriage was Kyiv-based artist Maria Smoliar (pseudonym: Cenzani). She and her husband spent several years living in neighboring African countries, awaiting Mozambique’s independence. When the country officially became independent on June 25, 1975, the couple relocated to Mozambique. In 1989, Maria won an art competition in Japan focused on ecological issues, where she submitted a painting that referenced the Chornobyl disaster, representing Mozambique. Later, Maria and her two daughters emigrated to Canada, where she passed away at the beginning of this century.

Ukrainian community in Mozambique today

Unofficial estimates suggest that around 500 Ukrainians currently live in Mozambique, including children from mixed marriages. Most of these Afro-Ukrainians were born in Ukraine, have one Ukrainian parent (usually the mother), and are eligible for Ukrainian citizenship under current law. While Mozambique does not have any officially registered Ukrainian organizations or churches, the Ukrainian community remains active. The majority of Ukrainians are Orthodox Christians and attend the Greek Orthodox Church of Archangels Michael and Gabriel in Maputo. In the mid-2000s, the parish priest was Ukrainian Father Heorhii (Yurii Zolotenko), who was born in Khmelnytskyi and studied theology in Greece.

Ukrainians in Mozambique actively participate in their community life. Every year, they celebrate Independence Day and other significant dates, such as the anniversary of the Holodomor and the heroic defense of Ukraine against Russia’s armed aggression, which began in 2014 and intensified after Feb. 24, 2022.

Diplomatic presence

The Honorary Consulate of Ukraine was officially opened in Maputo, led by Mozambican businessman and philanthropist Abílio Soeiro, on Oct. 20, 2017. The opening ceremony was attended by the acting chargé d’affaires (later Ambassador) of Ukraine to the Republic of South Africa, Liubov Abravitova, along with representatives from the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of Mozambique and Ukraine, business leaders, and members of the Ukrainian diaspora.

Ukraine’s Embassy in Mozambique officially began its operations in April 2024. The opening event was attended by government officials, business representatives, members of civil society, the Ukrainian diaspora, accredited diplomats in Maputo, and journalists. The head of the diplomatic mission is Ambassador Liubov Abravitova, based in Pretoria.

Rostyslav Tronenko, a career diplomat, was appointed as Ukraine’s Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador to Mozambique, on Jan. 8, 2025. Previously, he served as Ukraine’s Ambassador to Portugal (2005-2010) and Brazil (2012-2021).

Political life in Mozambique

Mozambique has been governed by the dominant left-wing party, FRELIMO (Mozambique Liberation Front), since gaining independence in 1975. The current opposition is made up of dissidents from FRELIMO, including the PODEMOS party (Optimistic Party for the Development of Mozambique), the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM), and the former anti-communist guerrilla group RENAMO (Mozambican National Resistance).

In the most recent parliamentary and presidential elections, held in October 2024, FRELIMO emerged victorious. The opposition challenged the results, accusing FRELIMO of widespread electoral fraud, including 100% voter turnout at some polling stations, assaults on opposition observers, and ballot-box tampering. However, international observers confirmed the overall legitimacy of the elections.

In the presidential race, FRELIMO’s candidate, Daniel Chapo, a former teacher and governor of the Inhambane province, won with 65.17% of the vote. The candidate supported by PODEMOS, Venâncio Mondlane, came in second with 24.19%. Ukrainians in Mozambique generally show little interest in local politics, and even those with Mozambican citizenship usually do not participate in elections.

Ukrainian woman – prosecutor of Mozambique

Liudmyla Makasselle (Slovokhotova), a Ukrainian, graduated from the Faculty of Law at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv in 1985 and moved to Mozambique. She worked as the head of human resources at the state-owned coal company Hidrocarbonetos de Moçambique, taught law at the country’s only state university at the time, Eduardo Mondlane University, and later became a prosecutor in the capital, Maputo. In 2019, she retired as Deputy General Prosecutor of Mozambique. Liudmyla passed away in November 2024 and was buried in Maputo.

Born in the suburbs of St. Petersburg (then Leningrad), Liudmyla was featured in a 25-minute segment on Russia’s Channel One in 2004 as part of the 10-episode series “Successful Russians.” We hope that someday a Ukrainian TV channel will share the story of Liudmyla Makasselle’s remarkable career in Mozambique. Interestingly, through her maternal line, she was a distant relative of the renowned poet Pavlo Tychyna (Pavlo Hryhorovych was her grandmother’s cousin).

Attitude towards the European population in Mozambique

The majority of Mozambique’s population lives in poverty, while most Europeans in the country belong to the middle class. This has led to some tension between the wealthy and the poor. However, since the poor are often less educated, their primary focus tends to be on skin color.

In Mozambique, there is also a noticeable trend where certain ethnic groups prefer to form friendships and marry within their own communities. It is not uncommon for people from the same province to hire domestic workers exclusively from their homeland. Despite the efforts of Mozambique’s revolutionary leader, Marshal Samora Machel, who worked hard to unite the people into one nation, this monumental task cannot be accomplished in just twenty or fifty years.

Interracial marriages

Africans, by nature, tend to practice polygamy, which can hinder the happiness and stability of a marriage. In mixed families, differing views often arise regarding child-rearing, relationships with parents and relatives, sex, marital fidelity, and the role of women in marriage. If a Ukrainian woman is considering marrying an African man, the best advice would be to take the time to get to know him well – ideally in Ukraine, away from Africa – before making any decisions. It’s important to recognize that someone who exhibits rude, unfaithful, or dishonest behavior is unlikely to change simply because they are in their homeland.

First Ukrainian blog in Africa

The Portuguese-language blog “Universo Ucraniano” (Ukrainian Universe) was created in December 2004, during the Orange Revolution, to spread relevant information about Ukraine and from Ukraine in Portuguese. At that time, the blog’s content was also sent to magazines and TV stations, primarily in Mozambique, Portugal, and Brazil, as well as to all political parties with parliamentary factions in Portugal.

More via the link.

The blog’s creation was driven by the idea of delivering truthful information about Ukraine to the residents of Portuguese-speaking countries such as Angola, Brazil, Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde, Mozambique, Portugal, East Timor, and Macau. As of early 2025, the blog has been visited by over 3.1 million people, with Brazil accounting for about half of the visitors.

Another focus of the blog is building cultural bridges between Ukraine and Mozambique, between Ukrainian culture and the cultures of the people of Mozambique. It has helped connect Mozambicans who studied in Ukraine, attended Ukrainian universities, or are friends or children of Ukrainians. Over the years, the blog has successfully helped several mixed Ukrainian-Mozambican families reunite, even in cases where parents and children, separated by history and time, hadn’t seen each other for decades.