Reflections on the Life and Legacy of Eduardo Mondlane Author(S): Herbert Shore Source: Africa Today, Vol
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Remembering Eduardo: Reflections on the Life and Legacy of Eduardo Mondlane Author(s): Herbert Shore Source: Africa Today, Vol. 39, No. 1/2, Angola and Mozambique 1992 (1st Qtr. - 2nd Qtr., 1992), pp. 35-52 Published by: Indiana University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4186802 Accessed: 23/09/2010 04:08 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=iupress. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Indiana University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Africa Today. http://www.jstor.org Remembering Eduardo: Reflections on the Life and Legacy of Eduardo Mondlane Herbert Shore On a sunlitDar-es-Salaam moming in February1969, in a smallcottage facingthe IndianOcean, EduardoChivambo Mondlane was murdered,his lifetom awayby the explosionof a plasticbomb planted in a book that he opened with the moming mail. On that fatefulday, the Front for the Liberationof Mozambique,Frelimo,1 lost its leader,Africa lost a great statesmanand revolutionary, and I losta friendand brother, a mancloser to me thanany other I hadknown in mylifetime. Poet and guerrilheiro, Jorge Rebelo,wrote Sorrowand confusionfell over the combatantsand the people.... For weeks the militaryoffensive came to a halt. Each of us questionedthe futureof the organisationand the fate of our struggle. And many felt as if, with comradeMondlane, a whole heritageof achievementshad been lost.2 EduardoMondlane was gone, buthe hadtransformed despair into hope, fearinto understanding and courage for the peopleof Mozambique.Today, throughoutthe countryyou can hearthe echo of his voice. Into the seven years from his election in 1962 as first Presidentof Frelimoto his assassinationin 1969, EduardoMondlane crowded major achievementsusualy associated only with a long and activelifetime. He foundedFrelimo from three diverseexile organizationsand forged theminto a unifiedmovement with space for differencesof opinion,views and approach,but focusedand concentratedon clearcommon goals-the liberationof Mozambiquefrom Portuguese colonialism and the creationof a new non-exploitativesociety. Underhis leadership,Frelimo developed into one of the most successful liberationmovements in Africa,unchallenged by any otherpopularly based organizationand ultimately recognized by the Organizationof AfricanUnity and the United Nations as "the sole legitimaterepresentative of the Mozambicanpeople." He laidthe philosophicbasis for Frelimo'sapproach to the liberationstruggle and for socialtransformnation after independence and left a livinglegacy that continuesto providevitality for independent Mozambiquetoday. Hisaccomplishments as the leaderof the liberationmovement were more 1. TheacronwM is derivedfromn the movement'sPortuguese name, Frente de Libertagaode MoCambique. 2. Editorial,"Mozambique Revolution, No. 42 (January-March1972), p. 2. 1st & 2nd Quarters 1992 35 than considerable,but his reputationand impactwent even further,taking on, afterhis death, almostlegendary qualities. He becamethe subjectof song and storycirculated among the people. Inthe criticalperiod following Mondlane's assassination, Samora Machel, his successorto the presidencyof Frelimo,said, "Still it is Mondlaneleading us, his visionof free Mozambique...his ideasof revolution."3 The killingof EduardoMondlane had been a desperateattempt to destroy a nationcoming to birth,to shatterthe spiritof its people. In this it failed. The war of liberationwas intensifiedin his name. Into his place as President,Frelimo called a brotherin warand the causeof freedom,one for whom he had had the greatest admiration,that quiet soldier, whom Mondlaneliked to call"the Giap of Africa,"Samora Moises Machel.4 Todaythe resurgenceof interestin Mondlaneamong Mozambicans is like an undergroundriver rising to the surface. On a visitto Mozambiquein 1986, I heardArmando Guebuza say, "inthe midstof oursuffering and our struggle,we shall begin truly to rebuildthe Mozambiqueof Eduardo Mondlane."s Mondlanehad been a remarkableman, capable of unitingdisparate forces and divergent(sometimes even conflicting)views into a single vision of freedomand independence for Mozambique. That same challenge today, in the country'smost serioustime of crisis,faces the leadershipof President JoaquimChissano, a close associateof Eduardo'sthroughout the liberation struggle. Mondlanewas a worldstatesman and a diplomat,a teacher,and at times,like so manyothers in the leadershipof Frelimo,a poet anda short 6 story writer. He was indefatigable,leaving his markon everyonewith whom he came into contact. He seemed equallyat home on the fieldof guerrillabattle, in circlesof militaryplanning, in the centersof politicaland economicleadership, in revolutionarycouncils, in the UnitedNations, and in the atmosphereof the great universities.It is entirelyappropriate that Mozambique'sfirst university should bear his name. In the firstEduardo Mondlane Memorial Lecture at SyracuseUniversity in February1970, AmilcarCabral said that Mondlane's principalmerit lay in being able to merge himselfwith the realityof his country,to identifywith his people and to acculturatehimself through the strugglewhich he directedwith courage, determination and wisdom. The life 3. Interviewwith the authorin 1969, quotedin MozambiqueRevolution, No. 50 (January-March1970), p. 3. 4. Ed. note:Giap was the chiefmiltary officer for Ho Chi Minhand the VietCong in the waragainst France in Indo-China. 5. Discussionwith the author,August, 1986. Guebuzais Mozambique'sMinister of Transportationand Communicationand the leaderof the govemmentdelegation to the negotiationswith Renamo in Rome. 6. Ed.note: In the sumrnmerof 1956 in a conversationat whichI was present,Alan Paton, author of Cry the Beloved County, urgedMondlane to do morecreative writing, telling him that he capturedthe Africanidiom in Englishbetter than anyone he had everread. 36 AFRICA TODAY Herbert Shore of EduardoMondlane is indeed singularlyrich in experience.... His life cycle includes all the categories of colonial society, from the peasantry to the assimilatedpetite bourgeoisie and on the cultural plane, from the village universe to a universal culture open to the world-its problems, its contradictionsand prospects for evolution. The importantthing, is that after this long joumey, EduardoMondlane was able to returnto the village,as a freedom fighter,and to stimulatethe progress of his people, enriched by experiences (and how profound they were) in the world today. Thus he gave a potent example: facing all the difficulties,fleeing the temptations, freeing himself from compromises of action or compromises of consciernce,from cultural(hence political)alienation, he was able to confront his own roots, to identify with his people and and to devote himself to the cause of their national and social liberation. That is why the colonialist-imperialistsdid not forgive him.7 When the body of Mondlanewas laid to rest, first in Tanzaniansoil, all of Africa, it seemed, paid tribute to his greatness. He received a state funeral. The Presidentof Tanzania,Julius Nyerere, both VicePresidents, AbeidKarume and RashidiKawawa, and all the high-rankingofficials of govemment walked in the cortege, followingthe coffin to its grave. Representativescame fromall of the independentnations of Africa,from most of the nationsof the world,capitalist and socialist,from the United Nationsand the Organizationof AfricanUnity, from church organizations of manydenominations worldwide, from the otherliberation movements of Africa-SouthAfrica, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Angola, Guinea-Bissau and Sa6 Tome and Principe-and from those of Viet Nam, Palestineand Latin America.They came to pay homageto this man who had walkedamong themas the verysynmbol of freedom. Thousandslined the route of the funeraland crushedtheir way into Kinondonicemetery-working people, people of the soil, motherswith children,students from Mozambique and Tanzania, and refugees from other regionswho hadwalked many miles to be there,as the wordof Mondlane's deathhad spread. Fingersof a thousandhands and more reachedout to touchJanet Mondlaneand her threechildren- EduardoJr., Chudanand Nyeleti- as they passed,gently, tenderly, with the quietnessof tears. They wepttheir sorrow and theiranger as the coffinwas loweredand the funeral earth covered it, shovel by shovel. Mondlanewas laid to rest for a while in 7. SyracuseUniversity, Program of EasternAfrican Studies, MaxelU School of Citizenshipand PublicAffairs, Occasional Paper No. 57, 1970. Alsoquoted in HerbertShore, "Resisance and Revlutionin