Revolution in Portuguese Africa
Rothstein, Raphael
Portugal, the poor cousin of the Western alliance, has over 120,000 troops fighting four wars against nationalist rebels in its African possessions—Angola, Mozambique, Cabinada, and...
...Mondlane pointed out that although the West provides no military aid to FRELIMO, several funds have been raised in the West by voluntary groups for movements like FRELIMO...
...Nearly half the troops are in Mozambique which borders on Tanzania, Malawi, Rhodesia, and South Africa...
...The Portuguese claim that the rebellion is confined to the Makonde tribe, traditional enemies of several other Mozambique tribes...
...A mention of the frequent allegations that FRELIMO is anti-Western because it depends so heavily on Communist help elicits a bitter reply from Mondlane: "What can we do if apart from the Africans, only the Communists will train and arm us...
...The arms used by the rebel movement are supplied by the Organization for African Unity, the Soviet Union, China, and several other Communist countries...
...Mondlane, however, accused the CIA of supplying the Portuguese with aircraft that bomb and strafe villages sympathetic to the rebels...
...In the two northern provinces of Niassa and Cabo Delgado, according to Mondlane, FRELIMO has seriously disrupted the Portuguese administra tion and succeeded in establishing military bases, hospitals, and schools of its own...
...We are concerned with building up a unified political system as well as creating a fighting army...
...It is this continual financial drain, we believe, that will eventually force the Portuguese to negotiate independence with us...
...supported a U.N...
...The FRELIMO leader is sharply critical of the United States which, he said, had "retreated" from its commitment to the principle of self-determination for Portugal's African possessions...
...Our people have strict instructions not to harm people of any race unless they are soldiers or informers...
...Mondlane says — and one suspects that this usually candid man is indulging in a bit of political guile by over-simplifying—that FRELIMO considers discussions of Communism and capitalism irrelevant...
...We don't deceive ourselves, we haven't the power to wipe out the Portuguese but we are inflicting casualties and forcing Lisbon to expend vast amounts of money on this war...
...Mondlane and a few other senior officials of FRELIMO's Central Committee are based in Dar Es Salaam where the Tanzanian government has granted the movement exile status in accordance with President Julius Nyerere's policy of supporting African nationalist struggles...
...FRELIMO's organization operates partly in Mozambique and partly in Tanzania...
...He said an essential by-product of the military struggle is the growing unity of purpose among the Mozambicans them selves: The aim of our movement is not simply to wage a revolutionary struggle, but to convert FRELIMO into an institution which will progressively take over the government of the country as we liberate new parts...
...The guerrillas rely on ambush tactics even though FRELIMO now feels itself strong enough to engage the enemy in company actions—committing between 65 to 100 men to an engagement...
...Eduardo Mondlane, a handsome, 46-year-old former professor of cultural anthropology at Syracuse University...
...Security Council resolution urging independence for areas under colonial rule but, the FRELIMO leader added, since then Washington has offered little encouragement to anti-Portuguese nationalist movements...
...Mondlane recalled that in 1961 the U.S...
...The three-point FRELIMO program —ousting Portuguese power, building a new political order based on equitable land distribution and economic development, and developing cultural resources— is being gradually implemented in areas under FRELIMO control where agricultural cooperatives have been set up and political discussion groups formed...
...We are fighting against a political system, not against the Portuguese," he said...
...We are denied Western aid, can we be expected to do without Communist aid as well...
...FRELIMO began its revolution in September, 1964, with 250 men organized into small guerrilla bands...
...Now the movement claims to have over 7,000 fighting men operating in the northern third of the country against an estimated 60,000 Portuguese troops...
...About 2,500,000 of Mozam bique's estimated 7 million inhabitants —50,000 of them Portuguese—live in Cabo Delgado province...
...Lisbon says that it has about 35,000 military personnel assigned to Mozambique...
...Mondlane, who gave up his academic career in 1963 and returned to Africa where he set up FRELIMO headquarters in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, recently visited the United States to confer with officials of the private American foundations and humanitarian groups that support the Mozambique Institute in Dar Es Salaam, a secondary school for young refugees from the Portuguese territory...
...The major rebel organization is FRELIMO—the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique—which is led by Dr...
...The army, larger than that of most African states, is mostly inside Mozambique where 80 per cent of the training takes place...
...In an interview granted during a brief stay in New York City, where he was making arrangements for the opening this spring of a FRELIMO office to represent the movement in North America, Mondlane explained that FRELIMO was at war only because attempts to have the future of Mozambique settled by discussions through the United Nations were rejected by the Portuguese...
...We are realistic enough to know that it may take a very long time before the Portuguese can be driven from Mozambique...
...Most reports of this "forgotten" war appearing in the American press originate in Lisbon and reflect the official Portuguese line...
...FRELIMO's forces have been educated in the art of guerrilla warfare by cadres trained in Algeria, Egypt, North Vietnam, and China...
...Mondlane says: We generally avoid large-scale combat, because we don't have the arms to match the Portuguese...
...Our movement is not based on ideology but rather on a struggle for freedom against colonialism...
...The paucity of information concerning the struggle is the direct result of Portugal's policy of allowing few foreign journalists into the colony...
...Ironically, one of these groups, the African-American Institute, was recently named as a recipient of CIA funds and strongly attacked in the Portuguese press...
...Characteristically, his claims regarding the rebel operations inside Mozambique are modest...
...Mondlane seeks to refute what he called this "divide and rule" policy by pointing out that within the northern third of the country the majority of the population supports FRELIMO and that the fighting units are totally integrated, representing a tribal cross-section...
...A nurses corps studied in Israel...
...Among journalists Mondlane enjoys the reputation as one of Africa's most truthful, realistic leaders...
...Portugal, the poor cousin of the Western alliance, has over 120,000 troops fighting four wars against nationalist rebels in its African possessions—Angola, Mozambique, Cabinada, and Guinea—at an annual cost of over $132 million...
Vol. 14 • July 1967 • No. 4
