The Movement for Freedom in Mozambique - Page 10.
governments.  When these missionaries are Protestant, the
situation becomes v/orse;  fears and resentments are multiplied.
Consequently, for many years the Protestant missions in Mozambique
have been hampered and quite often thwarted by a powerful combination of Catholic clergy and officials of the colonial government.  From time to time public statements are made by high
officials of the colonial government attacking Protestant missions,
accusing them of fomenting anti-Portuguese sentiments amongst the
African population.  Lately accusations have been levelled against
Protestant missionaries, alleging that they v/ere responsible for
the rise of nationalism in both Angola and Mozambique.  This inspite of the fact that the leadership of the nationalist movements
of the two countries is mixed religiously speaking.  In our own
Mozambique Liberation Front, the majority of the members cf the
Central Committee, which directs the whole programme of the struggle,
are either Roman Catholics or come from Catholic families.  The
man in charge of our military action programme is a practicing
Reman Catholic.  The largest number of our students abroad, v/ho
have run away from Portuguese schools either in Mozambique or
Portugal, are Roman Catholic.  In the summer of 1961, when more
! than/100 university students from Portuguese colonies in Africa
ran away from Portuguese universities to France, Switzerland and
West Germany, over 80 of them declared themselves to be either
Roman Catholic or to come from Catholic families.  There is,
therefore, no evidence to support the Portuguese position on
this matter.
The African child in Portuguese colonies has the least
opportunity of going to school in all of Africa.  There are many
reasons for this, but the most obvious ones have a great deal to
do with a combined effect of the position of European economic
interests, the state of literacy in Portugal itself and the lack
of a clear, legal position on  the part of the Portuguese government as to the exact responsibility of the State vis-a-vis the
Catholic Church in the education of the African childo
While the African population v/as classified neatly into two
social groupings, the assimilated and the traditional, indigenous
peoples, one could more or less tell v/ho v/as to be responsible
for the education of which group.  At that time the Missionary
Agreement cited above had specified that the Roman Catholic
Church would be responsible for the education of all the children
of the native peoples, while the State would take care of the
education of all the children of"assimilados", together with that