Chibalo was used to build the infrastructure of the African provinces, as only Portuguese settlers and assimilados received an education, making them exempt from this forced labour.
Under the Estado Novo regime of António de Oliveira Salazar, chibalo was used in Mozambique to grow cotton for Portugal, build roads, and serve Portuguese settlers.
Foreign investment in the Portuguese overseas provinces was outlawed so that Portugal would benefit directly.
Entire families had to work in the cotton fields, replacing food production, leading to hunger and malnourishment.
Indigenous peoples in Mozambique, however, resisted chibalo throughout the period of Portuguese domination into the independence struggle.