Mbase1970
JF-Expert Member
- Jun 11, 2015
- 6,054
- 4,601
Let us remind ourselves what a Great Statesman we had in our country.......One of the Africa's Great.......One of the Africanisation Philosophers
June 25 1975 was a great day for Mozambique; it was so also a great day for Tanzania and for the whole of Africa! That day saw your triumph over centuries of colonialism. It saw the victory for which thousands upon thousands of Mozambique had given their lives or their health. It was the day of which the people of this country joined the ranks of free men in Africa.
I want to offer all of you my heartfelt congratulations to this victory. It was achieved against tremendous Odds, and after herculean struggles. The roots of the fight for Mozambique freedom are long and deep; fro, the people of this country did not passively accept alien domination. That fought against the invaders; they rose up in revolt against their oppressors many times throughout the 500 years of colonial rule.
But, a nation divided is a nation defeated. It was only FRELIMO which enabled the people to defeat colonialism. For, FRELIMO meant unity, under the brilliant and far-sighted leadership of Eduardo Mondlane, FRELIMO united all those who genuinely wanted the freedom of Mozambique. I do not have to remind you that the road was long and hard. You made that journey. Membership of FRELIMO required a willingness to self-sacrifice to the cause of freedom. It demanded 100 percent commitment to that goal. It demanded great courage from everyone in the face of extreme hardship and suffering!
Soldiers if Mozambique freedom were simply the people of Mozambique. Some were full time cadres of FRELIMO; some were villagers in the liberated areas; some were sympathizers of supporters in occupied lands; some were even people who had no direct contact with FRELIMO, but who resisted the indignities and oppressions of colonial rule!
Neither age nor sex or color determined who were the soldiers of Mozambique. Children, youths, and old people, all worked for freedom; men and women carried arms, transported supplies, cultivated the land, and did all the other jobs involved in a true freedom struggle. Blacks, whites, and people of mixed ancestry, all risked their lives as thy worked for freedom, in whatever way they could.
We, in Tanzania, we salute you. We, who achieve freedom peacefully, pay tribute to the sacrifices of our brothers and sisters in in this country; and, we congratulate you all. You accepted extreme hardships and dangers; you suffered setbacks as well as making advances; and, you never gave up. Even in the face of treachery and betrayals you, the people of Mozambique, persisted in the struggle. Your efforts were an example and an inspiration to the freedom loving people of Africa. They ate still an example of what Africa people can do when they have developed good leadership!
We congratulate you; and, we thank you. We thank you for what you have done for Africa, and fro what you have done for Tanzania. When Ghana became independent 1957, Kwame Nkrumah made a great statement. He said “Our country’s independence is meaningless, unless it is linked up with the total liberation of the African continent.” Those words have been quoted many times, they have become a commonplace I’m Africa. But, for us in Tanzania, they are a statement of fact. They are not just a slogan. The freedom of Tanzania had truly been extended by the freedom of Mozambique.
This is true for our people, and for our nation. The Makonde, who lives north of the Ruvuma, is not different from The Makonde who lives south of the river: a denial of freedom to one, is a denial of freedom to one is a denial of freedom to both. And, the Makonde born north of the river Ruvuma is a Tanzanian; a denial of his freedom is, therefore, a denial of freedom for all Tanzanians. No Tanzania is free when other Tanzanians have their right to freedom denied. No African is when other Africans are dominated by colonialism. You, the people of Mozambique, have, therefore, overcome a challenge to Tanzanian freedom; you have done this by freeing your own nation. We thank you. Your success is our gain as well as yours.
And you have given us another freedom. You have delivered for the Tanzanian people who live along the border with Mozambique from one danger of sudden death. No longer do they have to move carefully lest their paths have been mined by Portuguese colonial forces. Our women collecting water, and our children playing along the river side, will not, in future, be risking shots from Portuguese soldiers. Our villages will no longer have to spend time and effort on defending Tanzania against Portuguese incursions. These things were necessary when we had a border with the colonial oppressor. We have nothing to fear from a free Mozambique. We thank you.
I do not want to make any mistake about this. I mean what I say. A great deal has been said about the help which Tanzania gave to FRELIMO. I believe we were able to give some help: I hope so. For, in helping FRELIMO we were helping the people of Mozambique to fight our battles for us. The freedom of Africa is a concern for all Africans, wherever they may live.
Tanzania provided the places for FRELIMO’s rear base, for its hospital, its schools, and one or two training camps. We facilitated the transit of arms to the fighters of Mozambique. Our people contributed what money they could; they made blood donations. These things were a contribution to the struggle for freedom in Mozambique and, therefore, the struggle to secure the freedom of Tanzania. And you received a great deal of moral and material help form the rest of Africa and from the anti-imperialist forces of the world.
But the people of Mozambique gave their lives in this cause; the people of Mozambique owe no debt to Tanzania, neither in money nor in gratitude. We, in Tanzania, rejoiced with you on June 25 this year because; that day marked your freedom. But on that date, we also felt freer, and, we truly became freer! On that day, we relieved of the burden of a hostile neighbour; on that day it became possible for our two people to begin to cooperate for the mutual benefit. Economic, political, and social development became easier for both peoples.
To talk of debts in this matter is to talk nonsense. We have been brothers involved in a common struggle; we are still a brothers united in a common struggle. Africa is not yet free; the struggle for Mozambique freedom was made possible by the earlier success of the much easier Tanzanian independence campaign. But, Tanzania’s freedom’s was insecure, and incomplete, until you had triumphed. We helped each other.
Now we can go forward together in the even bigger struggle ahead. For we have yet to make freedom into a reality in the everyday lives of our people. National independence is only the first stage; it has to be used as a stepping stone in order to demolish the walls of poverty which imprison our people. In this, too, we need each other. I’m this, also, Tanzania gains enormously by the independence of Mozambique.
Tanzania achieved its independence peacefully more than 13 years ago; we succeeded after only seven years of unity in shouting “Uhuru”. We did not have to face bullets, nor fire bullets; that was our good fortune, which no one can regret. I do not have to tell you that war is terrible; you know it. I do not believe there is one person among you who would not rather have eon the freedom of Mozambique without the need to fight and suffer for ten years.
But there are dangers in having the reins of government pass peacefully, from a colonial government to nationalist leaders. First, there is the danger that leaders will assume that the struggle is over, and the objective achieved. After independence, the leaders can get drunk with unaccustomed power; they can forget the people’s purpose in demanding that power.
As that inherit privileged positions from the colonialists they can easily believe that leadership gives the right to privileges; they can fall into the temptations of individual wealth. They have no experience of their dependence upon the people, so they can lose touch with the people. All these things we have seen in Africa.
The second danger is almost as great. Sometimes the nationalist leaders, to whom power is transferred, really want to serve the people. They are not corrupted by their new status; but they have no experience of government. They do not know its problems, not its temptations: even the things the new government should be doing are not clear. The purpose of independence has not been hammered out and articulated by the people.
In a peaceful transfer of power, the colonial instruments of government exist; they are passed to the nationalist leaders. No other instruments of government have been created during the independence struggle; colonial development objectives are also taken over, and no alternative objectives have been thought out.
These things are true even when the nationalist party is well organized, with branches in every village. The new nationalist government leaders are as innocent as babies; they have as little experience about how to lead the people’s development, while being part of the people. The only knowledge they have is how the country was governed before, so they aim at bringing more of the good things to the people.
They try to expand education, and build hospitals, and so on; but, their ideas of education, and of health services, are derived from their colonial experience and, thus, from Europe. They do not question whether the education they knew was the right education, or whether the health service was appropriate for Africa; it was the only education and health system they knew. They really thought their task was to let people with black faces do the work previously done by people with white faces. The independence struggle has not demanded a fundamental change in thinking; it had not been a revolutionary experience.
The nationalist leaders of Africa have usually had to learn about government by the people, and for the people, after independence; they had to find the right direction, to gain experience, and to commit their mistakes, amidst all the temptations of government power and international status
This can be done. It is as possible to bring revolution to Africa by peaceful means, as it is to use violence in the cause of tyranny. But it takes time and commitment to the people. It took TANU, and Tanzania, nearly six years to discover the proper direction for its people’s government. We are still learning the steps necessary to make progress along the road in freedom.
The FRELIMO government of Mozambique knew its objectives and is direction before it came into power. It had learnt, before independence, the think which some of us have to learn afterwards. The struggle of Mozambican freedom did not tempt those who wanted comfort and luxury for themselves; or, if such people did join FRELIMO, they soon had to learn different ideas! Your struggle had to be a people’s struggle; if it was not a struggle by people, it led only to death and defeat.
An area had to be liberated by arms. The presence of FRELIMO soldiers could be betrayed by the Portuguese, if people were afraid of them. When an area has been liberated it was not secure until all people living there had become part of the fight for freedom; FRELIMO could not become a tyrannical government of those areas. The liberated areas had to be governed by their own people. FRELIMO and the people had to become one body, one united force for freedom
FRELIMO leaders, and its members could have no illusions about having a right to privilege; they were at the mercy of the people. As Chairman Mao had said, they had to be like fish in water, and the people were their water. The very lives of the FRELIMO soldiers and cadres depended upon the people among whom they moved and lived; the only privileged they could claim and uphold was the privilege of making greater efforts and greater sacrifices for the common cause of freedom.
FRELIMO, therefore, clarified the purpose of independence, while fighting for independence. It was forced to do so. Serious progress depended upon the peoples understanding of the purpose of the struggle; and that purpose had to be worked out by FRELIMO during the struggle.
That is the first advantage possesses by the people of Mozambique at independence, you know what to do. Second, you know what direction to move in order to reach your objective. The FRELIMO government has some experience of revolutionary government.
Frelimo took over no institution of government in the liberated areas; they did not exist. The colonial governors had either fled or become ineffective. The old system had been thoroughly discredited. The people had rejected it, and all its works. They wanted tyranny to be replaced by freedom. It was not black leaders the people demanded; it was good leaders. It was not Portuguese degrees the people demanded; it was education relevant to the struggle. It was not elaborate hospitals they hoped for; it was some means of improving their health.
So, FRELIMO learnt that its work must lead to the freedom of all people, and the development of all people; it had to work out in practice how this purpose could become a reality. So FRELIMO created the institutions of government by the people, at the same time fought against the colonialists! It learnt that education was appropriate to the development of the people; by using that education in the struggle. These things could not wait until after independence. From the beginning, FRELIMO’S institutions had to be the people’s institutions, and had to serve the cause of freedom. The penalty for failure was disaster. FRELIMO learnt about the government by governing; it learnt about the development by developing. Its teachers were its own experience; its judges were the people. It was ready to apply the lessons it learnt to the independent republic of Mozambique.
The past ten years have forged Frelimo into a real instrument of the people. No one in FRELIMO walked into leadership because he was only a powerful orator, or the son of his father, no leader could long believe that he had rights over others, or that he should enjoy privilege denied to others. FRELIMO members depended on each other, even for life; and they all depended upon the people. FRELIMO has thus taken power in independent Mozambique, because its peoples tried and proven instrument.
Over the past ten years, and for the future, Frelimo had one outside aid, and only one. It could learn from the experience of other parts of Africa, and particularly of Tanzania. Frelimo leaders have seen the mistake we made; they did not have to repeat our errors. The FRELIMO government will not copy Tanzania; it will not copy either our successes our failures. But, FRELIMO is able to learn from what we did, and have tried to do; it can adapt what is good in our experience. When it approves our objectives, it still can reject methods which proved to be wrong.
Nor is this a one sided advantage. We, in Tanzania, need to learn from the FRELIMO also. We can learn from the FRELIMO’s integration with the people, and from the discipline with which FRELIMO does the work of the people. We can learn from your soldiers and from your politics. We can learn from experience what self-reliance really means in the villages and the rural areas; for the liberated areas developed only with their own resources: either they used or they did not develop at all. The new villages of Tanzania need to learn from you.
Your experience makes us richer; from our experience you can also learn: we can help each other in the future as in the past. Both Mozambique and Tanzania have a long way to go before our peoples can live in human dignity and in freedom from poverty and ignorance. We have to do in pursuit of African development and African unity. We have to act in support of the principles for which we stand, in our countries, in Africa, and elsewhere.
Both of our nations are now politically independent; but neo-colonialism is not defeated. It stalks the independent nations of Africa like a lioness stalking her prey. The independence of Mozambique means an extra member to the defense of against this new form of African domination. You are stronger for our freedom; our freedom is strengthened by your independence: the liberated zone is a little wider.
The wazanaki have a saying: courage is among men’. In isolation all of us feel afraid of our enemies. Our knees knock even when we stand and face them and they smell our fear. In company we gain courage from each other. The independent nations of Africa welcome you to the ranks of fighters for economic freedom; Africa needs your strength as you need Africa’s strength
The tasks facing the people of independent Mozambique are new tasks. They are, in many ways different than from that of the revolutionary movement; they will it necessarily be easier. The dangers of temptation of individualism are few during the armed struggle. Your fighting was conducted in rural areas; in the towns and Industrial areas; the temptations are much greater. The chances of hiding from the people’s wrath also loom to be greater.
The soldiers of the Mozambican revolution will need all the self-discipline, and all the commitment they have developed during the liberation struggle. For it is not bullets they have to fear; their risk does not now come from helicopters and bombs. The new danger is the false friendship of those who will seek to attain privileges by sharing them with a few. It is the false words of those who will tell the revolutionary leaders what they want to hear, regardless of the truth. And danger comes from the whispered lies of those who seek to curry favor, by accusing others of the sins they themselves are committing.
Soldiers of FRELIMO: be on your guard. Learn from rhea rest of Africa; learn from the failures of other revolutionary movements. Remain. With the people; remember that Caesar fell from power because he listened to the traitor who could say “but when I tell him he hates flatterers, he says he does, being then most flattered.”
FRELIMO can triumph over the new dangers, as it triumphed over the old ones. It has already shown that it can discover those who tempt the forces of the people. FRELIMO has shown that it can strike out those who fall under the spell of the Corruptor’s. Do not relax your guard. Corruption is an insidious enemy. It takes many forms and many disguises; and, once it gets a foothold in society, if is very difficult to eradicate. This we know. You know what we know. Learn from us! But there is another danger for the Mozambique; that is the danger if impatience. For ten years, the people of that country have worked, fought and waited. Now national freedom has been achieved; the country is being led by a revolutionary parry and a revolutionary government. The correct politics are being adopted, for the service of the people. It would be surprising, I deed, if the people did not desire to relax and enjoy the fruits of their efforts.
Let me tell you a story. There was once a group of political prisoners held in an island jail. They were half-starves and beaten. They were physically weak; but they were angry at the brutality and humiliation to which they were subjected. So they plotted together. At night they dug tunnels under the walls of their prison. For month after month they continued their secret work, despite their hunger and weakness. One night they escaped through the tunnel. That made their way through the swamps and forests between the person and the sea. They overcame natural obstacles and defeated the human enemies ego tried to capture them. And thy found a small boat. In this, they negotiated the reefs which shielded the Island from the open sea. And thy sat jail from their homeland, their goal. Then, tired and exhausted, they relaxed.
They ignored the possibility of police boats searching to recapture them; thy paid no attention to the currents if the sea; they took no notice of the directions of the waves or strength of the wind. So, their boat was swamped. Most of them drowned. One or two were picked up from the sea by their jailors, and thrown back into prison. Their valiant efforts were wasted because they relaxed too soon: they never reached the destination they had been fighting for.
Mozambique has bow reaches the open sea: it is free and independent; but, it has not reached the goal for which its people were fighting. Do not be impatient; do not relax now. However revolutionary a party may be, however revolutionary its government and people, the achievement of its objective is still a process. The poverty of Mozambique, or Tanzania, cannot be wiped out over night; it will not be overcome in a year or a decade. The rough sea has still to be crossed. Economic progress will be made only step by step, as each step is taken. There will be setbacks from the floods and droughts; there will be problems arising from actions by those who do not want Africa to develop in freedom. All these things can be overcome; but they will overcome only as you struggle with them. There will be no new miracles.
A revolutionary government, and its people, can immediately begin to follow the current policies. They will not reap the fruits of those policies immediately. If you plant a tree today, you do not eat Madafu tomorrow; you will not eat Madafu at all, unless you water the plant, and keep it from weeds, and protect it from the wild pigs while it is growing. Work is nesses to grow a tree as well as a good seed. Time is needed as well as prepared soil. The same is true for a revolution. The good seed for the revolution is the policies of the FRELIMO government. The good soil is the people of this country, fertilized by the blood of your fallen comrades. But the seeds will still germinate in darkness, it will grow quietly; from moment to moment its growth will be imperceptible. Its full fruiting will come only when it is mature.
There is no way you can make a tree grow faster; but you can destroy it if you lose patience. If you do not feed the plant with water, it will due before you eat a single fruit. If you dig it up, to see if its roots are growing, you will kill it. If you abandon it to the chance of weeds and wild animals it may grow at all!
Understanding, disciplined work, and patience, are all required to get the fruit from a. Tree you have planted. They are also required if you are to eat the fruits of revolution. The people of this country are hungry, but food will not grow just because the land is no longer claimed by the Portuguese colonialists. The children of Mozambique need schools. It takes time to educate and train teachers. The people of this young republic need medical services; but health workers have to be trained and provided with equipment and drugs. None of these things did you inherit from your colonial masters; you have to create them all.
Some of you will know the story of goose which gave golden eggs. Everyday on which it was fed, it laid one egg. But the farmer was impatient. So he killed the goose and cut it open to get all the eggs at once. There were no eggs inside!
The soldiers of this country, who were fighting for liberation, learned the discipline and the patience of warriors. Discipline and patience are needed in the new war; the war against poverty, ignorance, disease and exploitation!
The people of Mozambique have forced the door open for the prison: you are a free nation. Now you are able to join your brothers elsewhere in Africa in the struggle for economic freedom; now you are free to build your own country for your own benefit. Now you are able to join in building a free continent.
Let us go forward together. Aluta continua.
June 25 1975 was a great day for Mozambique; it was so also a great day for Tanzania and for the whole of Africa! That day saw your triumph over centuries of colonialism. It saw the victory for which thousands upon thousands of Mozambique had given their lives or their health. It was the day of which the people of this country joined the ranks of free men in Africa.
I want to offer all of you my heartfelt congratulations to this victory. It was achieved against tremendous Odds, and after herculean struggles. The roots of the fight for Mozambique freedom are long and deep; fro, the people of this country did not passively accept alien domination. That fought against the invaders; they rose up in revolt against their oppressors many times throughout the 500 years of colonial rule.
But, a nation divided is a nation defeated. It was only FRELIMO which enabled the people to defeat colonialism. For, FRELIMO meant unity, under the brilliant and far-sighted leadership of Eduardo Mondlane, FRELIMO united all those who genuinely wanted the freedom of Mozambique. I do not have to remind you that the road was long and hard. You made that journey. Membership of FRELIMO required a willingness to self-sacrifice to the cause of freedom. It demanded 100 percent commitment to that goal. It demanded great courage from everyone in the face of extreme hardship and suffering!
Soldiers if Mozambique freedom were simply the people of Mozambique. Some were full time cadres of FRELIMO; some were villagers in the liberated areas; some were sympathizers of supporters in occupied lands; some were even people who had no direct contact with FRELIMO, but who resisted the indignities and oppressions of colonial rule!
Neither age nor sex or color determined who were the soldiers of Mozambique. Children, youths, and old people, all worked for freedom; men and women carried arms, transported supplies, cultivated the land, and did all the other jobs involved in a true freedom struggle. Blacks, whites, and people of mixed ancestry, all risked their lives as thy worked for freedom, in whatever way they could.
We, in Tanzania, we salute you. We, who achieve freedom peacefully, pay tribute to the sacrifices of our brothers and sisters in in this country; and, we congratulate you all. You accepted extreme hardships and dangers; you suffered setbacks as well as making advances; and, you never gave up. Even in the face of treachery and betrayals you, the people of Mozambique, persisted in the struggle. Your efforts were an example and an inspiration to the freedom loving people of Africa. They ate still an example of what Africa people can do when they have developed good leadership!
We congratulate you; and, we thank you. We thank you for what you have done for Africa, and fro what you have done for Tanzania. When Ghana became independent 1957, Kwame Nkrumah made a great statement. He said “Our country’s independence is meaningless, unless it is linked up with the total liberation of the African continent.” Those words have been quoted many times, they have become a commonplace I’m Africa. But, for us in Tanzania, they are a statement of fact. They are not just a slogan. The freedom of Tanzania had truly been extended by the freedom of Mozambique.
This is true for our people, and for our nation. The Makonde, who lives north of the Ruvuma, is not different from The Makonde who lives south of the river: a denial of freedom to one, is a denial of freedom to one is a denial of freedom to both. And, the Makonde born north of the river Ruvuma is a Tanzanian; a denial of his freedom is, therefore, a denial of freedom for all Tanzanians. No Tanzania is free when other Tanzanians have their right to freedom denied. No African is when other Africans are dominated by colonialism. You, the people of Mozambique, have, therefore, overcome a challenge to Tanzanian freedom; you have done this by freeing your own nation. We thank you. Your success is our gain as well as yours.
And you have given us another freedom. You have delivered for the Tanzanian people who live along the border with Mozambique from one danger of sudden death. No longer do they have to move carefully lest their paths have been mined by Portuguese colonial forces. Our women collecting water, and our children playing along the river side, will not, in future, be risking shots from Portuguese soldiers. Our villages will no longer have to spend time and effort on defending Tanzania against Portuguese incursions. These things were necessary when we had a border with the colonial oppressor. We have nothing to fear from a free Mozambique. We thank you.
I do not want to make any mistake about this. I mean what I say. A great deal has been said about the help which Tanzania gave to FRELIMO. I believe we were able to give some help: I hope so. For, in helping FRELIMO we were helping the people of Mozambique to fight our battles for us. The freedom of Africa is a concern for all Africans, wherever they may live.
Tanzania provided the places for FRELIMO’s rear base, for its hospital, its schools, and one or two training camps. We facilitated the transit of arms to the fighters of Mozambique. Our people contributed what money they could; they made blood donations. These things were a contribution to the struggle for freedom in Mozambique and, therefore, the struggle to secure the freedom of Tanzania. And you received a great deal of moral and material help form the rest of Africa and from the anti-imperialist forces of the world.
But the people of Mozambique gave their lives in this cause; the people of Mozambique owe no debt to Tanzania, neither in money nor in gratitude. We, in Tanzania, rejoiced with you on June 25 this year because; that day marked your freedom. But on that date, we also felt freer, and, we truly became freer! On that day, we relieved of the burden of a hostile neighbour; on that day it became possible for our two people to begin to cooperate for the mutual benefit. Economic, political, and social development became easier for both peoples.
To talk of debts in this matter is to talk nonsense. We have been brothers involved in a common struggle; we are still a brothers united in a common struggle. Africa is not yet free; the struggle for Mozambique freedom was made possible by the earlier success of the much easier Tanzanian independence campaign. But, Tanzania’s freedom’s was insecure, and incomplete, until you had triumphed. We helped each other.
Now we can go forward together in the even bigger struggle ahead. For we have yet to make freedom into a reality in the everyday lives of our people. National independence is only the first stage; it has to be used as a stepping stone in order to demolish the walls of poverty which imprison our people. In this, too, we need each other. I’m this, also, Tanzania gains enormously by the independence of Mozambique.
Tanzania achieved its independence peacefully more than 13 years ago; we succeeded after only seven years of unity in shouting “Uhuru”. We did not have to face bullets, nor fire bullets; that was our good fortune, which no one can regret. I do not have to tell you that war is terrible; you know it. I do not believe there is one person among you who would not rather have eon the freedom of Mozambique without the need to fight and suffer for ten years.
But there are dangers in having the reins of government pass peacefully, from a colonial government to nationalist leaders. First, there is the danger that leaders will assume that the struggle is over, and the objective achieved. After independence, the leaders can get drunk with unaccustomed power; they can forget the people’s purpose in demanding that power.
As that inherit privileged positions from the colonialists they can easily believe that leadership gives the right to privileges; they can fall into the temptations of individual wealth. They have no experience of their dependence upon the people, so they can lose touch with the people. All these things we have seen in Africa.
The second danger is almost as great. Sometimes the nationalist leaders, to whom power is transferred, really want to serve the people. They are not corrupted by their new status; but they have no experience of government. They do not know its problems, not its temptations: even the things the new government should be doing are not clear. The purpose of independence has not been hammered out and articulated by the people.
In a peaceful transfer of power, the colonial instruments of government exist; they are passed to the nationalist leaders. No other instruments of government have been created during the independence struggle; colonial development objectives are also taken over, and no alternative objectives have been thought out.
These things are true even when the nationalist party is well organized, with branches in every village. The new nationalist government leaders are as innocent as babies; they have as little experience about how to lead the people’s development, while being part of the people. The only knowledge they have is how the country was governed before, so they aim at bringing more of the good things to the people.
They try to expand education, and build hospitals, and so on; but, their ideas of education, and of health services, are derived from their colonial experience and, thus, from Europe. They do not question whether the education they knew was the right education, or whether the health service was appropriate for Africa; it was the only education and health system they knew. They really thought their task was to let people with black faces do the work previously done by people with white faces. The independence struggle has not demanded a fundamental change in thinking; it had not been a revolutionary experience.
The nationalist leaders of Africa have usually had to learn about government by the people, and for the people, after independence; they had to find the right direction, to gain experience, and to commit their mistakes, amidst all the temptations of government power and international status
This can be done. It is as possible to bring revolution to Africa by peaceful means, as it is to use violence in the cause of tyranny. But it takes time and commitment to the people. It took TANU, and Tanzania, nearly six years to discover the proper direction for its people’s government. We are still learning the steps necessary to make progress along the road in freedom.
The FRELIMO government of Mozambique knew its objectives and is direction before it came into power. It had learnt, before independence, the think which some of us have to learn afterwards. The struggle of Mozambican freedom did not tempt those who wanted comfort and luxury for themselves; or, if such people did join FRELIMO, they soon had to learn different ideas! Your struggle had to be a people’s struggle; if it was not a struggle by people, it led only to death and defeat.
An area had to be liberated by arms. The presence of FRELIMO soldiers could be betrayed by the Portuguese, if people were afraid of them. When an area has been liberated it was not secure until all people living there had become part of the fight for freedom; FRELIMO could not become a tyrannical government of those areas. The liberated areas had to be governed by their own people. FRELIMO and the people had to become one body, one united force for freedom
FRELIMO leaders, and its members could have no illusions about having a right to privilege; they were at the mercy of the people. As Chairman Mao had said, they had to be like fish in water, and the people were their water. The very lives of the FRELIMO soldiers and cadres depended upon the people among whom they moved and lived; the only privileged they could claim and uphold was the privilege of making greater efforts and greater sacrifices for the common cause of freedom.
FRELIMO, therefore, clarified the purpose of independence, while fighting for independence. It was forced to do so. Serious progress depended upon the peoples understanding of the purpose of the struggle; and that purpose had to be worked out by FRELIMO during the struggle.
That is the first advantage possesses by the people of Mozambique at independence, you know what to do. Second, you know what direction to move in order to reach your objective. The FRELIMO government has some experience of revolutionary government.
Frelimo took over no institution of government in the liberated areas; they did not exist. The colonial governors had either fled or become ineffective. The old system had been thoroughly discredited. The people had rejected it, and all its works. They wanted tyranny to be replaced by freedom. It was not black leaders the people demanded; it was good leaders. It was not Portuguese degrees the people demanded; it was education relevant to the struggle. It was not elaborate hospitals they hoped for; it was some means of improving their health.
So, FRELIMO learnt that its work must lead to the freedom of all people, and the development of all people; it had to work out in practice how this purpose could become a reality. So FRELIMO created the institutions of government by the people, at the same time fought against the colonialists! It learnt that education was appropriate to the development of the people; by using that education in the struggle. These things could not wait until after independence. From the beginning, FRELIMO’S institutions had to be the people’s institutions, and had to serve the cause of freedom. The penalty for failure was disaster. FRELIMO learnt about the government by governing; it learnt about the development by developing. Its teachers were its own experience; its judges were the people. It was ready to apply the lessons it learnt to the independent republic of Mozambique.
The past ten years have forged Frelimo into a real instrument of the people. No one in FRELIMO walked into leadership because he was only a powerful orator, or the son of his father, no leader could long believe that he had rights over others, or that he should enjoy privilege denied to others. FRELIMO members depended on each other, even for life; and they all depended upon the people. FRELIMO has thus taken power in independent Mozambique, because its peoples tried and proven instrument.
Over the past ten years, and for the future, Frelimo had one outside aid, and only one. It could learn from the experience of other parts of Africa, and particularly of Tanzania. Frelimo leaders have seen the mistake we made; they did not have to repeat our errors. The FRELIMO government will not copy Tanzania; it will not copy either our successes our failures. But, FRELIMO is able to learn from what we did, and have tried to do; it can adapt what is good in our experience. When it approves our objectives, it still can reject methods which proved to be wrong.
Nor is this a one sided advantage. We, in Tanzania, need to learn from the FRELIMO also. We can learn from the FRELIMO’s integration with the people, and from the discipline with which FRELIMO does the work of the people. We can learn from your soldiers and from your politics. We can learn from experience what self-reliance really means in the villages and the rural areas; for the liberated areas developed only with their own resources: either they used or they did not develop at all. The new villages of Tanzania need to learn from you.
Your experience makes us richer; from our experience you can also learn: we can help each other in the future as in the past. Both Mozambique and Tanzania have a long way to go before our peoples can live in human dignity and in freedom from poverty and ignorance. We have to do in pursuit of African development and African unity. We have to act in support of the principles for which we stand, in our countries, in Africa, and elsewhere.
Both of our nations are now politically independent; but neo-colonialism is not defeated. It stalks the independent nations of Africa like a lioness stalking her prey. The independence of Mozambique means an extra member to the defense of against this new form of African domination. You are stronger for our freedom; our freedom is strengthened by your independence: the liberated zone is a little wider.
The wazanaki have a saying: courage is among men’. In isolation all of us feel afraid of our enemies. Our knees knock even when we stand and face them and they smell our fear. In company we gain courage from each other. The independent nations of Africa welcome you to the ranks of fighters for economic freedom; Africa needs your strength as you need Africa’s strength
The tasks facing the people of independent Mozambique are new tasks. They are, in many ways different than from that of the revolutionary movement; they will it necessarily be easier. The dangers of temptation of individualism are few during the armed struggle. Your fighting was conducted in rural areas; in the towns and Industrial areas; the temptations are much greater. The chances of hiding from the people’s wrath also loom to be greater.
The soldiers of the Mozambican revolution will need all the self-discipline, and all the commitment they have developed during the liberation struggle. For it is not bullets they have to fear; their risk does not now come from helicopters and bombs. The new danger is the false friendship of those who will seek to attain privileges by sharing them with a few. It is the false words of those who will tell the revolutionary leaders what they want to hear, regardless of the truth. And danger comes from the whispered lies of those who seek to curry favor, by accusing others of the sins they themselves are committing.
Soldiers of FRELIMO: be on your guard. Learn from rhea rest of Africa; learn from the failures of other revolutionary movements. Remain. With the people; remember that Caesar fell from power because he listened to the traitor who could say “but when I tell him he hates flatterers, he says he does, being then most flattered.”
FRELIMO can triumph over the new dangers, as it triumphed over the old ones. It has already shown that it can discover those who tempt the forces of the people. FRELIMO has shown that it can strike out those who fall under the spell of the Corruptor’s. Do not relax your guard. Corruption is an insidious enemy. It takes many forms and many disguises; and, once it gets a foothold in society, if is very difficult to eradicate. This we know. You know what we know. Learn from us! But there is another danger for the Mozambique; that is the danger if impatience. For ten years, the people of that country have worked, fought and waited. Now national freedom has been achieved; the country is being led by a revolutionary parry and a revolutionary government. The correct politics are being adopted, for the service of the people. It would be surprising, I deed, if the people did not desire to relax and enjoy the fruits of their efforts.
Let me tell you a story. There was once a group of political prisoners held in an island jail. They were half-starves and beaten. They were physically weak; but they were angry at the brutality and humiliation to which they were subjected. So they plotted together. At night they dug tunnels under the walls of their prison. For month after month they continued their secret work, despite their hunger and weakness. One night they escaped through the tunnel. That made their way through the swamps and forests between the person and the sea. They overcame natural obstacles and defeated the human enemies ego tried to capture them. And thy found a small boat. In this, they negotiated the reefs which shielded the Island from the open sea. And thy sat jail from their homeland, their goal. Then, tired and exhausted, they relaxed.
They ignored the possibility of police boats searching to recapture them; thy paid no attention to the currents if the sea; they took no notice of the directions of the waves or strength of the wind. So, their boat was swamped. Most of them drowned. One or two were picked up from the sea by their jailors, and thrown back into prison. Their valiant efforts were wasted because they relaxed too soon: they never reached the destination they had been fighting for.
Mozambique has bow reaches the open sea: it is free and independent; but, it has not reached the goal for which its people were fighting. Do not be impatient; do not relax now. However revolutionary a party may be, however revolutionary its government and people, the achievement of its objective is still a process. The poverty of Mozambique, or Tanzania, cannot be wiped out over night; it will not be overcome in a year or a decade. The rough sea has still to be crossed. Economic progress will be made only step by step, as each step is taken. There will be setbacks from the floods and droughts; there will be problems arising from actions by those who do not want Africa to develop in freedom. All these things can be overcome; but they will overcome only as you struggle with them. There will be no new miracles.
A revolutionary government, and its people, can immediately begin to follow the current policies. They will not reap the fruits of those policies immediately. If you plant a tree today, you do not eat Madafu tomorrow; you will not eat Madafu at all, unless you water the plant, and keep it from weeds, and protect it from the wild pigs while it is growing. Work is nesses to grow a tree as well as a good seed. Time is needed as well as prepared soil. The same is true for a revolution. The good seed for the revolution is the policies of the FRELIMO government. The good soil is the people of this country, fertilized by the blood of your fallen comrades. But the seeds will still germinate in darkness, it will grow quietly; from moment to moment its growth will be imperceptible. Its full fruiting will come only when it is mature.
There is no way you can make a tree grow faster; but you can destroy it if you lose patience. If you do not feed the plant with water, it will due before you eat a single fruit. If you dig it up, to see if its roots are growing, you will kill it. If you abandon it to the chance of weeds and wild animals it may grow at all!
Understanding, disciplined work, and patience, are all required to get the fruit from a. Tree you have planted. They are also required if you are to eat the fruits of revolution. The people of this country are hungry, but food will not grow just because the land is no longer claimed by the Portuguese colonialists. The children of Mozambique need schools. It takes time to educate and train teachers. The people of this young republic need medical services; but health workers have to be trained and provided with equipment and drugs. None of these things did you inherit from your colonial masters; you have to create them all.
Some of you will know the story of goose which gave golden eggs. Everyday on which it was fed, it laid one egg. But the farmer was impatient. So he killed the goose and cut it open to get all the eggs at once. There were no eggs inside!
The soldiers of this country, who were fighting for liberation, learned the discipline and the patience of warriors. Discipline and patience are needed in the new war; the war against poverty, ignorance, disease and exploitation!
The people of Mozambique have forced the door open for the prison: you are a free nation. Now you are able to join your brothers elsewhere in Africa in the struggle for economic freedom; now you are free to build your own country for your own benefit. Now you are able to join in building a free continent.
Let us go forward together. Aluta continua.
