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From Mozambique,  Paulo humane
Writes  ™
on
SALAZARS' MISCONCEPTION
'IpHE motive power of progress is
the truth and nothing but the
truth— truth   which   is   sometimes
bitter. Matters related to the liberation of those dominated by foreign
:ers, the oppressed, the enslaved, the
" exploited, require men, women and
.children alike: those who have the
courage of their convictions: UDENAMO will fail in its duty if it
fails or hesitates to contribute fully
to any-question affecting   the Mozambican people.
We, the Mozambique National
Democratic Union (UDENAMO).
speak as men and also as Africans.
As men we freely and fearlessly
speak for our people. We speak for
the silent, the dead, the living and
even the unborn. Above all, we have
moral courage; and when moral
courage knows it is right, it dares
anything.
We therefore make no apology
if the bitter truth we expose offends
anybody. Men of goodwill and conscience throughout the ages have
condemned the brutalities inflicted
on the people-they have condemned
class distinction and political injustice inflicted on people who, through
no fault of their own, live under the
iniquitous and evil system of colonialism.
We call upon mea of goodwill, not
only to condemn colonialism, but
to help in eliminating it totally from
the face of the earth.
The colonial mystique, so misplaced and meaningless today, not
only hurts the people in. the colonies,
but vitiates the life of the people in
the metropolis itself.
The problem of the Portuguese
colonies in Africa has become not
only difficult but tragic, because of
the arrogant frame of mind of the
ruling stratum of Portugal. We in.
Mozambique have full perception
of Portuguese colonialism as distinct
from that of the British and the
French, of which too, we have some
perception; and have learnt of the
peculiar flavour or texture, as it
were, of the Portuguese variety. It
is tenacious, purblind, pathetic,
autointoxicated. It seeks and releases its raison d'etre in tilting at the
windmills of history.
The Portuguese are proud of their
history, and they deem their country
among the most gallant in the world.
But instead of building an expanding future on their past, they have
sought to convert the past into a
prison. Those who pride themselves
as being the greatest discoverers in
the world strangely remain anchored
in the stagnant pool of the unchanging, ossifield past. They once made
a mighty effort, and now they seem
determined to petrify that effort.
The heroic element of Portugal's
past continues to haunt and distort
their destiny. This reminds us of
another, more famous historical
trial of ghosts: the holy Roman
Empire, "a sharing of spiritual values": but the "sharing", no longer
exist.
The Portuguese spokesman in
their lucid moments are not unaware
of the distortion and debasement of
their dream—that of building a
Portuguese empire out of varied
and different ethnic, geographical
and cultural groups of people—and
beyond and beneath everything, this
is economic imperialism.
One of them candidly stated, "It
is often said that we Portuguese
have the vice of history. Some even
say we take refuge in the past to
compensate for the smallness of the
present—thus obeying the tragic law
of empire, corroded by stagnation
and decadence". It is this insistance
on clinging to the tattered toga of
yesterday that prevents modern Portugal from revealing the intellectual
fecundity and the spiritual dynamism of her people. "Africa" says
another of its colonial spokesman,
"is for us moral justification and
our raison d'etre as a power. Without it we could be a small nation:
with it we are a great country".
Here is the nation; authentic idiom ,
in the past, the self-mummification
as it were, that makes the problem
of the Portuguese colonies one of
unabating tension.
We have no doubt that when the
people of Portugal discover their
authentic idiom, they will speak
from thc depth of their understanding the wise words we wish them
to speak now; for in seeking the
liquidation of the Portuguese empire, we seek the realisation of a
freer and fuller expression of the
Portuguese people themselves.
The Portuguese colonialists proclaim their non-racial record. But
they fail to understand that any
claim- to racial equality is reduced
to mockery when it is overlaid by
cultural inequality—nay, cultural
genocide. The Portuguese empire is
not geographical, not even purely
political, but fundamentally a cultural one..   -
With strange obtuseness Adriano
Morreira, ex-minister for the so-
called overseas provinces of Portugal, observes in his book, "Portugal's Stand in Africa", on page 111:
"Now, we Portuguese have always
repudiated the philosophy of aggression and reprisal between cultures
which inspired Nehru, Nkrumah,
Nasser; and, likewise, we repudiate
conflict between classes and races."
The distinguished leaders of Afro-
Asia need no defence against this
blind and venomous attack, ,but
one wonders at the intellectual temerity of a person denouncing cultural aggression while holding fast
to* the philosophy of total aversion
to cultural confluence of any kind.
Do the Portuguese not release the
consequences, scalding and explosive, of the systematic debasement,
and eventual denial, nay obliteration, of the individuality of the
Africans as a subject people ?
It is this willful blindness of the
Portuguese rulers, the topay-turvy
logic of their Orwellian insouciance,
their propensity to ignore the terrible beam in their own eye, while
furiously focussing on the non-existent mote in their brother's, that
constitutes a fearful threat to world
peace and the world sanity.
What has been the record of the
process of selective assimilation ?
After 465 years of Portuguese colonial rule over Mozambique only a
Continued on page 28
"77 MAY/JUNE,  1964       23
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