The People Mobilized: the Mozambican Liberation Movement and American Activism (1960-1975)
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
THE PEOPLE MOBILIZED: THE MOZAMBICAN LIBERATION MOVEMENT AND AMERICAN ACTIVISM (1960-1975) A Dissertation Submitted to The Temple University Graduate Board In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY by Carla R. Stephens August, 2011 Examining Committee Members: Teshale Tibebu, Advisory Chair, History Richard Immerman, History Harvey Neptune, History Lee V. Cassanelli, External Member, History, University of Pennsylvania i © Carla Renée Stephens 2011 All Rights Reserved ii ABSTRACT The anti-colonial struggles in lusophone Africa were the most internationalized wars on the continent. Involved were people from across the globe and across the socioeconomic and political spectrums – Chinese Communists and Portuguese right-wing dictators, American black nationalists in the urban North and South African white supremacists, cold warriors and human rights activists. The Mozambique Liberation Front (FRELIMO), was the only national liberation movement in the 1960s to receive aid from the United States, the Soviet Union, and the People‘s Republic of China. I contend that, because both FRELIMO and Portugal relied on support from the international community to wage war for over a decade (1964-1975), the anti-colonial wars in lusophone Africa were not only armed struggles, but also cultural and rhetorical battles. FRELIMO‘s program of socialist revolution which heralded human rights and social justice through education, non- racialism and gender equality resonated with the international shift to the left of the 1960s. Counterpoised were the Portuguese right-wing corporative dictatorship which espoused a ―Lusotropical‖ civilizing mission for its African overseas provinces, and the white supremacist regimes of Southern Rhodesia and South Africa that militarily and economically dominated Southern Africa. This dissertation focuses particularly on the relationship between FRELIMO and the activists of the black freedom struggle and the New Left in the United States. It will show the significant contributions that American activists made to Mozambican liberation, as well as the impact that this transnational movement had on the entire Southern African region, iii on U.S. foreign policy, and on the United States‘ domestic social and political landscapes. I explore issues of colonialism, nationalism, and modernity within a cold war context using the lenses of race, class, and culture in the United States and southern Africa during the long Sixties. I also examine the significance of religious organizations and the moral imperative that underpinned the global advocacy supporting southern African independence. The development of a transnational network of activists that reached from rural Africa to the White House provided the leverage needed for southern Africans and their international allies to topple the Portuguese dictatorship and, eventually, end South African apartheid. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This manuscript would not have come to fruition without the support and encouragement of the history faculty of Temple University. Sincere thanks to Teshale Tibebu, Richard Immerman, and Harvey Neptune for your questions, comments, critiques, and belief in the value of this research. My appreciation also to Bettye Collier-Thomas and Kenneth Kusmer for your scholarly example; to Beth Bailey for stewardship in both the craft and art of writing; Dieu Nguyen and Peter Gran for expanding my historical perspective; and, to David Farber and Arthur Schmidt for planting the seeds of inspiration from which this manuscript has grown. I appreciate the thoughtful comments regarding nationalism and myth-making of Lee Cassanelli from the University of Pennsylvania. I express my deepest gratitude to Ben Talton. Without your mentorship this study would not have been possible. Thanks for connecting me to the network. Vangeline Campbell, Rosa Grier, and Patricia Williams provided much needed administrative support – you are the gears that make the motor run smoothly. I am also grateful to those archivists whose knowledge, patience, and generosity have enriched my scholarship. Special thanks to Kenneth Grossi at the Oberlin College Archives who assisted me in procuring a Frederick Artz Summer Fellowship and opened the treasure chest of the Herbert Shore Collection. Without you, I could not have rediscovered the greatness of Eduardo Mondlane. Equally significant were the contributions of archivist Stephen Plotkin and Research Grant Coordinator Jane Lindsay v who assisted with the John F. Kennedy Foundation grant and supported my research at the Kennedy Presidential Library. David Easterbook, Kevin Leonard, Patricia Ogedengbe, and Janet Olson navigated for me the vast holdings at the Northwestern University Archives – the Melville Herskovits Program of African Studies (PAS) and Africana Library collections. That the university digitized the PAS lecture series recordings in time for my research visit was exceptional support for me personally and also provides an invaluable resource for all Africanists. I shall return. Thanks to Adelaide Wachman and the Temple University Center for the Study of Force and Diplomacy for granting the Marvin Wachman Endowed Research Fellowship that made possible my research in Chicago/Evanston. Other archivists and librarians that have assisted with this research include: David Murray, Thomas Whitehead, and Aslaku Berhanu at Temple University; Stephen Fullwood and Mary Yearwood at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture; and Jon Roscoe at the Nixon Presidential Library in College Park, MD. I am indebted to those men and women whose oral histories and correspondence provided me with a more intimate sense of time and space, of motivations and tactics, and of the freedom dreams. Earl Brown, Janet Mondlane, Prexy Nesbitt, João Nhambiu, and Robert Van Lierop -- the time and insights that you shared supplemented the documentary evidence, filling in some of the silences of the archives. You brought the history to life. The support and encouragement of friends and family provided the spiritual scaffolding I needed when confidence and inspiration faltered. Jason Bartlett, Ben vi Brandenburg, Susan Brandt, Alex Elkins, Lindsay Helfman, Matt Johnson, Nan Morgan, Steve Nepa, Dolores Pfeuffer-Scherer, and Dan Royles engaged me in invaluable discussions and reflections on this and other scholarly work. Roberta Meek, you are my soul sister. Helen and Alexis Stephens endured my absence with gentle patience. Sharon, yours is the light that guided me throughout the marathon. It is done. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................... iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS …..………………………………………………………….v LIST OF ACRONYMS…………………………………………………………………...x TABLE OF FIGURES ..................................................................................................... xiii INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................... xiv CHAPTER 1. PORTUGUESE COLONIALISM IN MOZAMBIQUE: MYTH AND REALITY....... 1 Imperialism, Luso-tropicalism and the Myth about Portuguese Colonialism ................ 7 African Resistance to Early Portuguese Colonialism ................................................... 17 From Slavery to Indigenato: African Labor and the Portuguese Economy ................. 22 The Web of Oppression: Forced Labor in Portuguese East Africa .............................. 35 2. O BRADO AFRICANO (THE AFRICAN CRY) --MOZAMBICAN NATIONALISM AND PAN-AFRICAN ACTIVISM ............................................................................ 43 W.E.B. DuBois and Early American Advocacy for Colonial Reform in Mozambique 52 Mozambican Nationalism and a New Pan-Africanism ................................................. 67 Education and Afro-Asian Solidarity ............................................................................ 72 3. EDUARDO CHIVAMBO MONDLANE -- THE SOUL OF MOZAMBICAN LIBERATION............................................................................................................. 81 Mondlane in South Africa ............................................................................................. 89 Mondlane in the United States ...................................................................................... 96 North American Assembly on African Affairs ........................................................... 102 Mondlane and Race Relations in the United States .................................................... 114 Mondlane at the United Nations ................................................................................. 122 4. KENNEDY‘S BALANCING ACT – MOZAMBICAN LIBERATION, THE FOURTH DIMENSION OF FOREIGN POLICY, AND THE BLACK FREEDOM STRUGGLE .............................................................................................................. 129 Education: ―The Keystone in the Arch of Freedom and Progress‖ ............................ 137 viii Balancing Africa -- Act I: The 1961 East African Airlift Coalition .......................... 142 Balancing Africa -- Act II: The Southern African Students Program ....................... 151 Balancing Africa -- Act III: Genesis of the Mozambique Institute ........................... 155 Balancing Portugal ...................................................................................................... 164 5. THE AMERICAN COMMITTEE ON AFRICA AND MOZAMBICAN LIBERATION: