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?*rirwmi» w (Continued from Page 32) of ambivalence they may have had and want very much to be associated with the movement and live with our guerrillas. Our military actions are also becoming more and more effective in keeping the Portuguese administration completely out of contact with the masses of the African population. We assume that our military control of these areas involves certain administrative responsibilities toward the population and we undertake to ensure the minimal requirements of normal life in the bush. These include drugs and medicines and bush clinics to distribute them. Schools for the children, especially in areas that already had missionaries, are also important in establishing confidence. Even in areas where the people had never had any formal education, schools are wanted; to these people "liberation" means having schools for their children. We also help the people in their agriculture and in marketing their products within the country. Now this. I think, is as much as I should say on this subject. Kitchen: To what extent has frelimo created a "shadow government" for Mozambique? Mondlane: ere J imo"s structure is dictated by the necessities v>t ;he revolution. The main organizational body is the central committee, which has both administrative and legislative responsibilities. It is composed of 22 members, most of them also directors or executive secretaries of operational departments of the organization. The central department is the president's office, which consists of the president and vice-president and a secretary for the presidency as the responsible officers. All actions—political, military, and educational -are coordinated here. In listing the other departments, I do not mean to imply that the order of listing indicates their relative importance. Certainly one of the most important departments is the one responsible for clandestine political work within Mozambique. The executive secretary in charge of this department is assisted by a committee of associate secretaries, one representing each province. They prepare for action everywhere—ahead of the army, with the army, and after the army. They are respoasible for formulating political lines and transmitting them to local leaders. They establish cells everywhere in Mozambique and make sure that each cell knows what it must do and how its function fits into the party's strategy for the liberation of the whole country. A department of organization within Mozambique has the related task of preparing the people psychologically and politically for the long struggle that we face. We do not make facile promises to people, for it is absolutely essential that they share with us the knowledge that liberation from Portuguese rule may take many years and many lives. Every area of Mozambique has a team working clandestinely to train leaders and to provide the kind of civic education that will enable each Mozambican to understand how he personally relates to frelimo's overall strategy. Where the people organize themselves ahead of frelimo's organizational team, the staff seeks to link the existing setup with frelimo, emphasizing orientation on the need for coordinating activities against an enemy as powerful as Portugal. The department of defense, which reports directly to the president on a daily basis, recruits, trains, supplies, and provides political education for the youth who are the guerrillas. It also plans and directs military activities. The department of external affairs, staffed with an executive secretary and an associate and other personnel, is concerned with solidifying ties with all foreign countries and organizations that are friendly to the Mozambique liberation struggle. It formulates requests for help, circulates information, conveys all gifts from outside into the organization, represents frelimo in conferences abroad, and serves as the formal link between frelimo and concp, the organization that coordinates liberation movements in all the Portuguese colonies [see below]. The department of finance, which is also the treasury, collects all funds, prepares budgets, and, in collaboration with the president's office, supervises the disbursement of funds to every department. It is also responsible for planning the economic action programs that must be undertaken to assure the welfare of the people in the liberated areas of Mozambique. The department of education is responsible for frelimo's growing program of academic, political, and technical education. It maintains a number of schools within and outside Mozambique and coordinates all scholarship programs for our students abroad. It contacts foreign governments, friendly educational and philanthropic organizations, and other potential sources of scholarship assistance. It also screens and prepares students, transmits their qualifying documents, and arranges travel documents, clothing, and transportation as necessary. This department is also the liaison between frelimo and the Mozambique Institute in Dar es Salaam, which is the main educational body within the Mozambique liberation struggle. A directorate of health, composed of a number of doctors and nurses, operates frelimo's medical programs. It is responsible, in cooperation with the Mozambique Institute, for training all the nurses who are required to go into Mozambique every year to help man our several clinics; it also supervises these clinics, solicits or buys the drugs and medicines required, and conveys these supplies where they are needed. A department of social welfare is primarily concerned with the feeding and clothing of refugees and displaced persons within Mozambique, and with soliciting help required to deal with these problems. A department of information, located in our Dar es Salaam headquarters, collects and digests information on frelimo activities and issues weekly press statements; it also prepares documents and pamphlets for circulation abroad and publishes a monthly English-language magazine called Mozambique Revolution. Other pamphlets are prepared for use within Mozambique to keep the people informed and to explain the line of action required by the party. Radio news and announcements are beamed to listeners in Mozambique through friendly countries in Africa and elsewhere. Kitchen: You have spoken frequently of frelimo policy decisions. How are these reached? Mondlane: frelimo not only functions as an administrative body, but also as a democratic party. The central committee meets as a legislative body every six months, and these meetings may last from two days to a week to two weeks, depending on the issues involved. Each department reports on the work it has been carrying out, and there is a free discussion during which policy lines are established. It is in the central committee sessions that our problems are aired and the people's views are expressed through their representatives. A very forthright exchange of views takes place before policy decisions are reached by consensus. Kitchen: A good many of our readers may know that the Mozambique Institute was founded by you and your wife Janet in Dar es Sa'aam. Just what does the Institute do, and to what extent is it independent of frelimo? Mondlane: Portugal's education policy in its colonies has favored the education of the Portuguese, with the education of the black man left almost exclusively to the churches, especially the Catholic Church. This government-subsidized missionary education provides a very limited kind of instruction for Africans, and its primary aim is to convert us to Christianity and inculcate us with Portuguese culture. In preparing ourselves to be free, we had little difficulty in reaching agreement that we must give very high priority to the creation of opportunities for higher AFRICA REPORT, NOVEMBER 1967 49 ■I
Object Description
Description
Title | CENPA-178~03 |
Filename | CENPA-178~03.tiff |
Full text | ?*rirwmi» w (Continued from Page 32) of ambivalence they may have had and want very much to be associated with the movement and live with our guerrillas. Our military actions are also becoming more and more effective in keeping the Portuguese administration completely out of contact with the masses of the African population. We assume that our military control of these areas involves certain administrative responsibilities toward the population and we undertake to ensure the minimal requirements of normal life in the bush. These include drugs and medicines and bush clinics to distribute them. Schools for the children, especially in areas that already had missionaries, are also important in establishing confidence. Even in areas where the people had never had any formal education, schools are wanted; to these people "liberation" means having schools for their children. We also help the people in their agriculture and in marketing their products within the country. Now this. I think, is as much as I should say on this subject. Kitchen: To what extent has frelimo created a "shadow government" for Mozambique? Mondlane: ere J imo"s structure is dictated by the necessities v>t ;he revolution. The main organizational body is the central committee, which has both administrative and legislative responsibilities. It is composed of 22 members, most of them also directors or executive secretaries of operational departments of the organization. The central department is the president's office, which consists of the president and vice-president and a secretary for the presidency as the responsible officers. All actions—political, military, and educational -are coordinated here. In listing the other departments, I do not mean to imply that the order of listing indicates their relative importance. Certainly one of the most important departments is the one responsible for clandestine political work within Mozambique. The executive secretary in charge of this department is assisted by a committee of associate secretaries, one representing each province. They prepare for action everywhere—ahead of the army, with the army, and after the army. They are respoasible for formulating political lines and transmitting them to local leaders. They establish cells everywhere in Mozambique and make sure that each cell knows what it must do and how its function fits into the party's strategy for the liberation of the whole country. A department of organization within Mozambique has the related task of preparing the people psychologically and politically for the long struggle that we face. We do not make facile promises to people, for it is absolutely essential that they share with us the knowledge that liberation from Portuguese rule may take many years and many lives. Every area of Mozambique has a team working clandestinely to train leaders and to provide the kind of civic education that will enable each Mozambican to understand how he personally relates to frelimo's overall strategy. Where the people organize themselves ahead of frelimo's organizational team, the staff seeks to link the existing setup with frelimo, emphasizing orientation on the need for coordinating activities against an enemy as powerful as Portugal. The department of defense, which reports directly to the president on a daily basis, recruits, trains, supplies, and provides political education for the youth who are the guerrillas. It also plans and directs military activities. The department of external affairs, staffed with an executive secretary and an associate and other personnel, is concerned with solidifying ties with all foreign countries and organizations that are friendly to the Mozambique liberation struggle. It formulates requests for help, circulates information, conveys all gifts from outside into the organization, represents frelimo in conferences abroad, and serves as the formal link between frelimo and concp, the organization that coordinates liberation movements in all the Portuguese colonies [see below]. The department of finance, which is also the treasury, collects all funds, prepares budgets, and, in collaboration with the president's office, supervises the disbursement of funds to every department. It is also responsible for planning the economic action programs that must be undertaken to assure the welfare of the people in the liberated areas of Mozambique. The department of education is responsible for frelimo's growing program of academic, political, and technical education. It maintains a number of schools within and outside Mozambique and coordinates all scholarship programs for our students abroad. It contacts foreign governments, friendly educational and philanthropic organizations, and other potential sources of scholarship assistance. It also screens and prepares students, transmits their qualifying documents, and arranges travel documents, clothing, and transportation as necessary. This department is also the liaison between frelimo and the Mozambique Institute in Dar es Salaam, which is the main educational body within the Mozambique liberation struggle. A directorate of health, composed of a number of doctors and nurses, operates frelimo's medical programs. It is responsible, in cooperation with the Mozambique Institute, for training all the nurses who are required to go into Mozambique every year to help man our several clinics; it also supervises these clinics, solicits or buys the drugs and medicines required, and conveys these supplies where they are needed. A department of social welfare is primarily concerned with the feeding and clothing of refugees and displaced persons within Mozambique, and with soliciting help required to deal with these problems. A department of information, located in our Dar es Salaam headquarters, collects and digests information on frelimo activities and issues weekly press statements; it also prepares documents and pamphlets for circulation abroad and publishes a monthly English-language magazine called Mozambique Revolution. Other pamphlets are prepared for use within Mozambique to keep the people informed and to explain the line of action required by the party. Radio news and announcements are beamed to listeners in Mozambique through friendly countries in Africa and elsewhere. Kitchen: You have spoken frequently of frelimo policy decisions. How are these reached? Mondlane: frelimo not only functions as an administrative body, but also as a democratic party. The central committee meets as a legislative body every six months, and these meetings may last from two days to a week to two weeks, depending on the issues involved. Each department reports on the work it has been carrying out, and there is a free discussion during which policy lines are established. It is in the central committee sessions that our problems are aired and the people's views are expressed through their representatives. A very forthright exchange of views takes place before policy decisions are reached by consensus. Kitchen: A good many of our readers may know that the Mozambique Institute was founded by you and your wife Janet in Dar es Sa'aam. Just what does the Institute do, and to what extent is it independent of frelimo? Mondlane: Portugal's education policy in its colonies has favored the education of the Portuguese, with the education of the black man left almost exclusively to the churches, especially the Catholic Church. This government-subsidized missionary education provides a very limited kind of instruction for Africans, and its primary aim is to convert us to Christianity and inculcate us with Portuguese culture. In preparing ourselves to be free, we had little difficulty in reaching agreement that we must give very high priority to the creation of opportunities for higher AFRICA REPORT, NOVEMBER 1967 49 ■I |
Archival file | Volume12/CENPA-178~03.tiff |