THE NEW AFRICAN/JULY 1965/105
guerrilla war. It will continue to be a guerrilla war until some other factors make it
possible for us to use other techniques. We
are fighting now all the way from the north
to the middle of the country, and our plan
of course is to fight in every part of Mogambique. The main problem for our not being
. *. not actually shooting in the very south
of the southern part of Mogambique is
logistics. Mogambique is 1,750 miles long
on the coast and 1,500 miles long as the
crow flies from north to south. It is not
very easy to penetrate the deep south of
Mogambique, but even then, just about
three weeks ago the Portuguese government
announced that it had arrested a large
number of our freedom fighters in the
southern part of Mogambique. Fortunately
they only got one part of our forces. We are
continuing to prepare ourselves, the people
of Mogambique, southern Mogambique are
angry. They are themselves going to pick
up arms and join the forces that arc fighting
in the rest of the country. We are sure that
this war will continue.
D: / suppose that the best way to describe
the method of war you are using is to say
that it is about the same kind and type of
war as the war in Algeria. . . . Is that right?
m: It is true. In fact, it was Algerians
who helped us to establish the first basis
of our struggle by training our first few
hundred men who were able to train others
and are continuing to train others within
and outside of Mogambique. It is really
with the aid of Algerians that we were able
to begin anything, so our techniques are
exactly the same as those of Algeria, and
those of Vietnam.
D: The Portuguese attitude in this case
has been to deny that anything at all of importance is going on.
m: That of course is typical of the Portuguese. They just want to hide their heads
in the sand, in Africa denying the existence
of Portuguese colonies, just as they deny
that they are racists and that they oppress
and enslave our people, just as they deny
every misdeed that they are engaged in in
their colonies in Africa. So when the war
began, we were not surprised to hear them
deny that there was ever any fighting taking
place in any pan of Mocambique. We have
been watching their reaction to the Angolan
war that has been going on since 1961, and
the Guinea war in Portuguese Guinea has
been going on since 1962. So we are not
surprised that they are now denying that
we are fighting in Mogambique. In fact they
contradict themselves quite often, because
weekly they issue dispatches of the casualties of Portuguese soldiers in Mogambique,
while at the same time they try to minimise
the situation saying that there was no war
at all. We are quite accustomed to this. We
continue to fight as we have decided to fight
until the Portuguese actually admit it to
themselves first and then to the rest of the
world that they are not standing on a peaceful situation in Mogambique.
D: The outside world knows considerably less about the situation in Mogambique
than they did about the situation in Algeria
during the liberation war there. It was much
easier for foreign journalists to go into
Algeria. Are you planning to stimulate
foreign press interest in this field?
m: Yes, we are. We feel that it is important for the peoples of the world to know
from, let's say neutral sources, what is
happening in Mogambique, especially in
this struggle. But at this stage we don't
feel that it is very wise for us to invite
foreign journalists to come, because we cannot assure them the minimum amount of
security that is needed for a journalist to
be able to send dispatches home, especially
because we began only in September 1964.
We are continuing, and after three or four
more months (June-July 1965, editors)
we should be in a position to invite foreign
journalists to come. But there is one important thing that differentiates the chances
for security in Mogambique from the
chances of security in Algeria, and that is
the racial problem. The Algerian people
are white Africans. We are black Africans,
so a foreign journalist — if he is European
or American — would have an awful time
to hide in the midst of the struggle that we
are cerrying out. We are part of the natural
milieu of Mogambique, we speak the languages of the area, we pass for locals in
every part where we are, but a foreign
journalist would have an awful time to be
able to camouflage and stay in the bush
with us at this stage. Later, of course, we
are sure we will be able to invite foreign
journalists, as we will be able to control
areas that thus will be safer from Portuguese encroachments and therefore enable
them to survive, at least give them a certain
percentage of chance to survive.
D: May I finally ask a question about
yourself. You were born and brought up in
Mogambique. Why did you leave it?
m: I was born in the southern part of
Mogambique. I was born actually in what
you call bush. My parents were traditional
people, they never knew any European
language or European people in any way.
I grew up there, and then I was taken to
local schools by Swiss missionaries, Cal-
vinist missionaries, and after which I went
to the city of Lourenco Marques, where I
lived from the age of fifteen until I was
over 22. And then I went to South Africa
at the age of 24 to finish my secondary
school, and I went to the University in
Johannesburg where I was expelled by the
Malan government, the present Nationalist
government in its second year of life in
1949. Then I went back to Mogambique
and I got a scholarship from a foreign
humanitarian organisation. I went to Lisbon
University, where I studied a year. Because
of the fascist system of Salazar I could not
stand it, so I asked for a scholarship, and
I went to America. And I was already 31
years of age when I went. I will be 45 this
year. So I studied in the United States, did
my Ph.D., my doctor's degree, and I worked
five years for the United Nations, and I
went home to Mogambique in 1961. I
visited again to get in contact with my
people again. Then after that I was sure
the Portuguese position was unchangeable,
and I talked to many Portuguese officials
and I discovered they were not interested.
The trends of change that were taking
place in Africa, they were against them.
So I felt that my job with the United
Nations was not fruitful insofar as I hoped
to help my people for freedom. So I
resigned. Then I returned to New York,
and I went into teaching for a year to prepare to come to Tanzania after the independence of the country, which I did in 1962.
Since then I have been living here, working
here. #