While appreciating the inevitable limitations of their action, we welcome the
stand taken by the White Fathers, both as
a contribution to the international effort
to counter Portuguese propaganda concerning the colonies, and as an effective
attack on the Portuguese regime - all the
more effective just because it attacks Portugal on her own ground. Here is a segment of the church (itself one of the
mainstays of the colonial regime up to
the present day) which not only criticises
the regime's physical brutality (as many
have done before) but which dares to
challenge, on the grounds of basic Christian principles, the very foundations of
Portugal's «Estado Novo» and of her colonial empire: the «civilising mission)), the
((multiracial society», and indeed the fact
of «Portugal in African itself.
The full repercussions of the «White
Fathers incident)) are probably yel to be
felt, but it has certainly posed many new
problems for the Portuguese government.
Increased repression to control dissidents
within the Catholic Church based on the
presumed existence of a «red threat))
there might prove to be stretching credibility a little too far. Yet the Pope receives «terrorist» leaders, the World Council of Churches gives them money, and
now the White Fathers also turn traitor.
At home, two of this year's major political trials centred around the stand taken
by priests concerning the colonial wars;
one openly declared the wars to be wrong
and a second was accused of actually
aiding the liberation movements! Small
wonder that there exists growing consternation and even confusion in the
Portuguese camp.
Of course, there have been one or two
moves to placate the restless. The exiled
Bishop of Oporto was allowed to return
and more recently the old hard-line Sala-
zarist, Patriarch of Lisbon and Primate
of Portugal, Cardinal Cerejeira has been
replaced by a younger person reputed to
represent 'a much more liberal faction in
the church hierarchy.' But this is little
more than window-dressing; the powers
that control Portugal cannot permit any
drastic changes that would open the flood
gates of revolt. Moreover, precisely because the church does on balance remain
such an integral part of the present system, we must be wary of overestimating
its own capacity for internal change.
Thus we must not be taken in even when
the window-dressing referred to above is
extended to the colonies as seems likely
to be the case:    already one hears ru
mours that Portugal is willing to consider the appointment of African bishops
to the two vacant sees in Mozambique,
for example. But note that this ((requires guarantees that the men proposed
will have the right attitude toward her
presence in the overseas territories.)) Here
in this latter phrase we return to the real
problem. Welcome as the initiatives of
the White Fatehrs are, tempting as certain
marginal reforms within the Church or
outside it, may appear, one fundamental
fact remains paramount: there can be no
really effective opposition to the Portuguese regime, at home or abroad, which
is not based on a political analysis and
organised political action. In the short
run, the action of the Church may, as
could be the case in Portugal during the
next year or so, reveal cracks in the
edifice and compound the regimes' mounting problems, but it is not such action
which will bring that edifice crashing
down.
It is on such a premise, of course, that
we in FRELIMO continue to intensify
our own revolutionary efforts; and on
such a premise that we also call upon all
individuals and organisations genuinely
concerned to redress the situation in the
Portuguese colonies to provide us with
full and effective support.
The White Fathers
Testimony
1. 27th April, 1971: A mine exploded near river Mukumbura
One car was blown up. In the car were Rhodesian soldiers.
Three were killed and two wounded.
2. Portuguese Reprisals. On 4th May the troops caught 2
African farmers. They were physically tortured until they
confessed about their relations with FRELIMO. They said
that they had sometimes seen FRELIMO guerrillas, and one
confessed that his son had run away to join FRELIMO. The
farmers were kept prisoners and forced to sleep in the bush.
The next day, again under torture, one of them revealed that
another man from the village named Aroni, had a nephew in
FRELIMO. Aroni was arrested and interrogated. He denied
ever having seen or contacted FRELIMO. Even while under
brutal torture he continued to deny this, until he discovered
that the other villagers had betrayed him and then he confessed
that his nephew had in fact joined FRELIMO. He was killed
immediately by three shots in the head. The aim of this murder, the Portuguese explained, was to frighten the other vil-
20
lagers so that no one else would deny having seen FRELIMO
fighters. Aroni's body was buried three days later by the
priests from the mission as all the people from the village
(Changwa) had fled when they heard that the Portuguese
troops were coming to finish them all off.
3. 7th May, 1971: Portuguese troops killed 14 peasants in
the villages of Kapinga and Catacha. The names of those
killed were: Guidilo, Miriano, Grizi, Zeze, Tapureta, Caropora,
Fungurane, Pitroce, Maizi, Matias, Kenete, Diquissoni, Lan-
gisse and Jona. Very few men remained alive in those two
villages. When we arrived there we found the villages completely deserted: everybody had joined the widows and children of the 14 murdered men who had fled into the bush. We
saw a hole near the river Dak where 5 of the murdered men
from Kapinga had been buried - badly buried. Six meters
away from the grave we saw a human head, ribs, fingers and
leg bones. The people from the village of Mahanda told us
that the men had not been shot, but had been tortured and