-6 -
to the people of the Manjacaze region for two years. While I was taking agricultural
training I learned some English privately.  In 1944, I received a scholarship to study
in a high school in northern Transvaal, where in 1947 I obtained the Matriculation
Certificate of the South African Joint Matriculation hoard,  This enabled me to enter
Jan H. Hofmeyr School of Social Studies at Johannesburg in 1943. however, soon
after entering Hofmeyr School I .was offered a private scholarship to enter the
Mitwatersrand University at Milner Park, Johannesburg to continue -jt/  studies in the
social sciences.
In 1949 the Nationalist govenment, under Dr. Daniel F Malan, refused to
renew my permit as a foreign student, obviously because I was a black student in a
white university.  On returning to Mozambique in October, 1949, the Portuguese
government had me arrested for investigation.  At that time I had organised an African
students association which drew its membership from the few African secondary,
commercial and technical school students of Mozambique.  The government thought the
organisation was really a political group, camouflaging as a socaial and academic
group.  They arrested as many of the meters■of that organisation as they culd and
investigated them to determine whet relationship there.was between my expulsion from
South Africa and the activities of the organisation.  After three days and nights of
constant questioning, in which the police covered every phase of my student life in
South Africa, they drew up a report to the attorney general of the Portuguese Republic
in Lisbon.  A few months later the attorney general issued an analysis of the report
with his office's conclusion which ran generally this way:  (a) that I was politically
a threat to the colony, but that since there was nothing definite about xay  past history
they Could not prefer charges against me; (b) that I had been infected with a Conmiunist
virus, which might affect others, especially the young people who were members of my
association; (c) that I had an embryonic spirit of black nationalism which should
be uprooted as soon as possible, in order to prevent it from affecting others amongst
the African people.  The attorney general prescribed two major courses of action:
(l) that I be put under strict surveyance by the police .and (2) that if possible
I should be given a scholarship to study at a Portuguese university, in order, to
keep me away from the African population, and to see if I can be cured of my
intellectual and political proclivities.
Meanwhile arrangements wore being made hy  my friends in So-nth Africa and
elsewhere to get me an independent scholarship so  that I may go overseas  to continue
my. studies. By the time the Portuguese government came through with a scholarship
offer I had already obtained one from the Phelps Stokes Fund of New York.  I was then
able to sail for Lisbon, in mid 1950, where I registered at the faculty of letters in
the autumn of that same year. As far as I know I was the first black Mozambican to
ever enter Lisbon University.
It was here where for the first'time I met African intellectuals from
Portuguese colonies. .They were'mostly from Cape Verde Islands, u-uinca (called
Portuguese), Angola and St. Tome, in that order.  Amongst these were the now well-
knoxm leaders of the political movements of these same colonies, such as Dr. A
Agostinho Neto, the physian, poet, president of the MPLA (Mcvimento Popular para a
Libertacao de Angola): Mario Pinto de Andrade, the MPLA1 s.secretary for external   j 0
relations; Amilcar Cabral, the Guinean agronomist, general secretary of .the Partido , .
AfriQ^no da Independcia de Guine e Cabo Verde; and Marcelino dos Santos, our FRELIMO^
secretary for external relations and general secretary of the CONCP (Conference of
the Nationalist Organizations of the Portuguese Colonies). -Mr Marcelino dos S-ntos wa s
at the school of commerce in Lisbon, and Dr. Liahuca, a hysician now working with the
Angolan refugees in Leopoldville, under the auspices of UPA (Union of the People of
Angola).
Although the encern of the majority of the students in Lisbon at that time was
about the ordinary civil rights of Portuguese citizens, our political interests were
clearly nationalistic, tie  wanted Portugal to at least kcknowledge the right of self-
determination for the people of all her colonies.  We expressed our feelings in every
means available;~tocus .  For "example, Dr'. Agostinho Neto, who was already a recognised
poet, wrote plaintive sonnets clamouring forire :,dom for the black man; Mario de Andrade
had-facilities of expression in cultural and sociological essays relating to the African
past, labile I concentrated on theuse of the spoken word in closed meetings of mostly
students, faculty members, and some of the more liberal Portuguese, describing the
contradiction of the Portuguese' colonial policies as I knew them in my own Mozambique.
Consequently, we were constantly harrassed by the PIDE (Policia Internacional para a
Defesa do Estade), Practically every uonth ray room was ransacked by the Police looking
for documents, letters, pictures of I do notknow what, trying to find evidence.of what
they were suspecting about my political views.  The same applied to Neto, Andrade, ;
Santos, Cabral, and meet of the African students at Lisbon.