volut
by Josina Machel, a political comissar
in tho Women's Dotaehmen!
It was in October, 1966, in a meeting of the Central Committee, that
FRELIMO decided that the Mozambican woman should take a more active part
in the struggle for national liberation, at all levelse  It was decided
that she should receive political and military training in order to make
her more capable of fulfilling whatever tasks the revolution might demand of her*  Thus, a few months later, in the beginning of 1967? the
first group of women from Cabo Delgado and Niassa began their training•
At first this was merely an experiement to discover just what contribution women could make to the revolution - how they would use their
initiative, whether they were in fact capable of fulfilling certain tasks.
The "experiment" proved highly successful and this first group of women
became the founder-members of the women's detachment, and were scattered
throughout the interior each with her specific assignment»  It was soon
discovered thfct they could play a very important role both in the military and political fields, but especially in the latter.
One of the prime functions of a women's army is,  quite naturally, just
like the men's army, participation in combat.  In Mozambique the women's
military activities are usually concentrated in the defence of the liberated areas, thus freeing the men for the offensive actions in the zones of
advance.  However, many of the women prefer the more active combats in
the advance zones and choose to fight alongside the men in ambushes, and
mining operations, where they have proved themselves as capable and
courageous as any of their male comrades.  As another aspect of this
function, we have also women working in the Department of Security
constantly on the look-out for enemy infiltration*
Although highly effective in the field of combat, their contribution has
been less noticeable, (just because of their relatively small numbers
compared with the men) than their activities in the political field,
where their impact has been far out of proportion to their numbers.
Since 1967 the women have demonstrated that they have a key role in the
mobilisation and political education of both the people and the soldiers
themselves.  In this work we explain to the people the need to fight,
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