The Movement for Freedom in Mozambique - Page 2.
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to their areas of origin several years later, but many of them
died there and quite a few of those v/ho survived never returned.
Part of the programme of "pacification" involved the encouragement of Christian missionary organizations to establish
mission stations , especially in those areas where there had
been the most resistance against Portuguese domination.  Where
Christian churches had already been doing work amongst the African
peoples, the Portuguese government offered to cooperate and even
subsidize the teaching of the Christian religion to the African
people, in order that the Africans may stop opposing Portuguese
imperialism.  Therefore, it can be said, without fear of contrary idiction, that right at the beginning of Portuguese colonialism
the Christian Church allowed itself to be identified with
colonialism and imperialism.  We are well av/are that the power
structure of the time was more favourable to this connivance
which the Christian Church allowed itself tc engage in with the
Portuguese government.  We point out this fact especially because
so many liberal Christians today are blind to the fact that their
own institutions were at least in part responsible for the ease
with which colonialism and economic imperialism were established
in Africa.  Later on in this paper, we will discuss other more
direct involvements of the Church with the Portuguese government
in cooperating to make the control of the Mozambican people more
feasible.
After completing the conquest and "pacification" of the
Mozambican people, the Portuguese government proceeded to
establish a well-knit hierarchical structure of administrative
units all over the country.  At the top of the pyramidal system
v/as the governor general, wielding his power from the capital
city of Mozambique, first in the north and later from Lourenpo
Marques in the south.  Under the governor general v/ere the
various district governors, below these were the district
"intendentes" who supervised the work of administrators of
circuits, who in turn had the duty of overseeing the work of
"chefes de posto", each of whom directly controlled the daily
lives of thousands of Africans in the country.  To facilitate
the work of the administrators and the 'bhefes de posto", the
Portuguese government reestablished a small part of the traditional authority of a number of African chieftains.  But in order
to make certain that no one African ruler acquired sufficient
power to ever challenge the white man, the Portuguese government
split the various chiefdoms into small territories, each v/ith only
a few thousand people.  All African chiefs were to be responsible