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education for our young people. Some efforts in this direction were underway even before the founding conference of frelimo in June 1962. My wife Janet and I had noticed that there were many refugee students in Dar es Salaam who wanted to go abroad to take up higher education, but that no machinery existed through which they could be introduced to colleges and to governments or organizations that might give them scholarships. We knew that it would be very difficult to get private humanitarian organizations, especially in Western countries, to give direct support to a political organization and therefore we decided that it would be wiser to establish an independent, or somewhat independent, educational center for Mozambique students. My wife developed an outline of a program which she presented to various organizations in the United States and Western Europe, and in 1963 she got her first grant of almost $100,000 from an American humanitarian organization. Starting with that, she built the present center in Dar es Salaam. The party, of course, is directly interested in this program because it is part of the general educational program for Mozambique. The department of education of frelimo cooperates closely with the Mozambique Institute. The Institute has three functions: (1) It tries to fill the gap between the low level primary school training program that the mission schools give Mozambican Africans and the mucn more advanced primary program that prevails in English-speaking Africa. In Mozambique, Angola, and Guinea, primary schools end at standard four, while primary school ends at standard eight in East Africa. If a student from Mozambique is granted a scholarship for secondary education in East Africa, he can't take it unless he has the equivalent of standard eight. (2) It prepares students with the equivalent, or near equivalent, of secondary education to accept scholarships abroad, in any part of the world where scholarships are offered. When the Institute was conceived in 1962, we had barely 15 students in any institution higher than secondary school anywhere in the world. Now we have rr >re than 150 students in universities and technical schools in Europe, America, Asia, and Africa. (3) It also provides as much technical training as possible to Mozambicans who are going back into the areas of Mozambique we control to do specific work that is much needed. There is a nurses' training program and a new program of teacher training, and we have plans for a general technical training program. There are, of course, never enough funds. As I said before, an American foundation gave the Institute its first grant, but political pressures on that foundation made it impossible for us to get further help from this source. Most of the funds now come from Europe, especially Scandinavia. Eastern European and Asian countries have also been helping, notably in giving educational equipment. Usually we have about 15 teachers —three from the United States at present, one from Scandinavia, one from Eastern Europe, one from India, four Portuguese Mozambicans, and the rest Africans. Kitchen: You referred to concp and frelimo's relations with liberation movements in other Portuguese territories. Can you elaborate? Mondlane: The activities of most, though not all, of the national liberation movements in the Portuguese colonies are coordinated by the Conference of Organizations Against Portuguese Colonialism. frelimo, mpla of Angola, paigc of Guinea, and clstp of Sao Tome and Principe established concp in 1962, and we had our second congress in 1965 just before the oau conference held that year in Accra. The purpose of these meetings is to exchange ideas, strategies, and opinions. We are fighting against the same enemy in all four of these countries and it is only natural that we should have a coordinating body. The concp has a directorate composed of the top leaders of the member movements. We are supposed to meet once every six months, but it is not always possible to do this because of the difficulties in communication. There is a secretariat in Rabat composed of officers representing each member movement, who exchange information on various problems relating to our common struggle —defense, foreign policy, political techniques, cultural affairs, education. But we are not one party or front. Each movement is independent of the others, has its own policy, and follows the needs and requirements of its own people. It may even be that we have different ideological lines. We don't know. We have never discussed ideology in these conferences. We are like a small oau. Kitchen: What is your policy toward the grae-mpla split in Angola? Mondlane: frelimo has never really taken a stand concerning the internal affairs of any country, including Angola. We work with mpla rather than grae because we believe in the coordinating function of concp. grae has issued statements from Kinshasa against us, accusing us of being communists and various other things. We do not respond. We have never made a statement against Holden Roberto or the movement. We believe in unity, in common action. We are not cooperating with grae because its leadership doesn't wish to cooperate with us. We work with mpla because the mpla people are very much interested in cooperation. Kitchen: You said that Tanzania's achievement of independence gave frelimo a base from which to operate, that your military was initially trained by Algeria. To what extent have other African countries aided frelimo? Mondlane: Support for our program of liberation—and by this I mean the whole range of political, military, and educational programs—now comes from every corner of the world. I can divide these sources of aid into three broad categories: First, Africa. Most help for the political and military program comes from independent African states, either in the form of money or equipment obtained for us by the oau's African Liberation Committee, or as individual offers of material and financial aid. The Liberation Committee designated frelimo as the only channel for oau aid to Mozambique nationalism in 1963. African aid composes more than two-thirds of our total resources. Second, we receive aid from Asian and socialist states, including India, the People's Republic of China, Indonesia, Japan, and the USSR. This aid includes both funds and equipment useful in the struggle. Third, we also get aid from Western countries. This is mostly from churches and humanitarian pro-African committees, and is designated for our educational, refugee, and other humanitarian programs. The Mozambique Institute has received a great deal of financial support from Western countries and school equipment from Eastern Europe. Kitchen: What do you most need in external aid that you are not getting? Mondlane: Before I answer that question, I think it is necessary to make it clear that the main source of support for our struggle is our own people. It is important to say this because there are many people in America and elsewhere who think our success will depend primarily on the kind of support we get from outside. We believe very strongly that it is the political determination of the people and the clarity with which they see the necessity for their line of action that will make possible the liberation of our people, of our country. Everything else is supportive. Without the political determination of the Mozambicans and without an organization such as frelimo to structure the action, outside help would be of no use at all. Having said that, I can answer the question in its proper context. There are several kinds of support that we very much need that we aren't getting. Above all, perhaps, we wish we had the outright political and diplomatic support of 50 ..,,,, nSatfttiTr AFRICA REPORT, NOVEMBER 1967
Object Description
Description
Title | CENPA-178~04 |
Filename | CENPA-178~04.tiff |
Full text | education for our young people. Some efforts in this direction were underway even before the founding conference of frelimo in June 1962. My wife Janet and I had noticed that there were many refugee students in Dar es Salaam who wanted to go abroad to take up higher education, but that no machinery existed through which they could be introduced to colleges and to governments or organizations that might give them scholarships. We knew that it would be very difficult to get private humanitarian organizations, especially in Western countries, to give direct support to a political organization and therefore we decided that it would be wiser to establish an independent, or somewhat independent, educational center for Mozambique students. My wife developed an outline of a program which she presented to various organizations in the United States and Western Europe, and in 1963 she got her first grant of almost $100,000 from an American humanitarian organization. Starting with that, she built the present center in Dar es Salaam. The party, of course, is directly interested in this program because it is part of the general educational program for Mozambique. The department of education of frelimo cooperates closely with the Mozambique Institute. The Institute has three functions: (1) It tries to fill the gap between the low level primary school training program that the mission schools give Mozambican Africans and the mucn more advanced primary program that prevails in English-speaking Africa. In Mozambique, Angola, and Guinea, primary schools end at standard four, while primary school ends at standard eight in East Africa. If a student from Mozambique is granted a scholarship for secondary education in East Africa, he can't take it unless he has the equivalent of standard eight. (2) It prepares students with the equivalent, or near equivalent, of secondary education to accept scholarships abroad, in any part of the world where scholarships are offered. When the Institute was conceived in 1962, we had barely 15 students in any institution higher than secondary school anywhere in the world. Now we have rr >re than 150 students in universities and technical schools in Europe, America, Asia, and Africa. (3) It also provides as much technical training as possible to Mozambicans who are going back into the areas of Mozambique we control to do specific work that is much needed. There is a nurses' training program and a new program of teacher training, and we have plans for a general technical training program. There are, of course, never enough funds. As I said before, an American foundation gave the Institute its first grant, but political pressures on that foundation made it impossible for us to get further help from this source. Most of the funds now come from Europe, especially Scandinavia. Eastern European and Asian countries have also been helping, notably in giving educational equipment. Usually we have about 15 teachers —three from the United States at present, one from Scandinavia, one from Eastern Europe, one from India, four Portuguese Mozambicans, and the rest Africans. Kitchen: You referred to concp and frelimo's relations with liberation movements in other Portuguese territories. Can you elaborate? Mondlane: The activities of most, though not all, of the national liberation movements in the Portuguese colonies are coordinated by the Conference of Organizations Against Portuguese Colonialism. frelimo, mpla of Angola, paigc of Guinea, and clstp of Sao Tome and Principe established concp in 1962, and we had our second congress in 1965 just before the oau conference held that year in Accra. The purpose of these meetings is to exchange ideas, strategies, and opinions. We are fighting against the same enemy in all four of these countries and it is only natural that we should have a coordinating body. The concp has a directorate composed of the top leaders of the member movements. We are supposed to meet once every six months, but it is not always possible to do this because of the difficulties in communication. There is a secretariat in Rabat composed of officers representing each member movement, who exchange information on various problems relating to our common struggle —defense, foreign policy, political techniques, cultural affairs, education. But we are not one party or front. Each movement is independent of the others, has its own policy, and follows the needs and requirements of its own people. It may even be that we have different ideological lines. We don't know. We have never discussed ideology in these conferences. We are like a small oau. Kitchen: What is your policy toward the grae-mpla split in Angola? Mondlane: frelimo has never really taken a stand concerning the internal affairs of any country, including Angola. We work with mpla rather than grae because we believe in the coordinating function of concp. grae has issued statements from Kinshasa against us, accusing us of being communists and various other things. We do not respond. We have never made a statement against Holden Roberto or the movement. We believe in unity, in common action. We are not cooperating with grae because its leadership doesn't wish to cooperate with us. We work with mpla because the mpla people are very much interested in cooperation. Kitchen: You said that Tanzania's achievement of independence gave frelimo a base from which to operate, that your military was initially trained by Algeria. To what extent have other African countries aided frelimo? Mondlane: Support for our program of liberation—and by this I mean the whole range of political, military, and educational programs—now comes from every corner of the world. I can divide these sources of aid into three broad categories: First, Africa. Most help for the political and military program comes from independent African states, either in the form of money or equipment obtained for us by the oau's African Liberation Committee, or as individual offers of material and financial aid. The Liberation Committee designated frelimo as the only channel for oau aid to Mozambique nationalism in 1963. African aid composes more than two-thirds of our total resources. Second, we receive aid from Asian and socialist states, including India, the People's Republic of China, Indonesia, Japan, and the USSR. This aid includes both funds and equipment useful in the struggle. Third, we also get aid from Western countries. This is mostly from churches and humanitarian pro-African committees, and is designated for our educational, refugee, and other humanitarian programs. The Mozambique Institute has received a great deal of financial support from Western countries and school equipment from Eastern Europe. Kitchen: What do you most need in external aid that you are not getting? Mondlane: Before I answer that question, I think it is necessary to make it clear that the main source of support for our struggle is our own people. It is important to say this because there are many people in America and elsewhere who think our success will depend primarily on the kind of support we get from outside. We believe very strongly that it is the political determination of the people and the clarity with which they see the necessity for their line of action that will make possible the liberation of our people, of our country. Everything else is supportive. Without the political determination of the Mozambicans and without an organization such as frelimo to structure the action, outside help would be of no use at all. Having said that, I can answer the question in its proper context. There are several kinds of support that we very much need that we aren't getting. Above all, perhaps, we wish we had the outright political and diplomatic support of 50 ..,,,, nSatfttiTr AFRICA REPORT, NOVEMBER 1967 |
Archival file | Volume12/CENPA-178~04.tiff |