learn for the first time how to grow cassava with a comrade from the north, I am
becoming more united with those comrades, tangibly living the unity of our
country, the unity of our working class.
With him I am destroying tribal, religious and linguistic prejudices, all that is
secondary and divides us. Unity grows
with the growing plant, with the sweat
and intelligence we both mingle with the
soil.
In FRELIMO we always emphasise the
importance of production. To our army
we give the tasks of fighting, producing
and mobilising the masses. To our youth
we give the tasks of studying, producing
and fighting. In our discussions, in our
documents, we constantly stress the importance of production, pointing out that
this is an important front in our fight
and a school for us. We can see that
production is satisfying our everyday
needs at the same time as liberating and
uniting us. But we do not as yet see that
production is a school, that we learn
through production. Some people might
be surprised that in our schools there are
those who devote long hours to production, and that our army also has this
task. These people might feel that this is
absurd, that it would be more worthwhile
for the pupils to spend this time reading
books, attending classes, that the army's
job is to fight and not to produce. But
we also learn through production. Our
ideas do not fall from the skies like rain.
Our knowledge and experience do not
come from dreaming in our sleep. Without ever having been to school, our illiterate peasants know more about cassava,
cotton, groundnuts and many other things
that the honourable capitalist gentleman
who has never touched a hoe. Without
knowing how to read, ft is clear that our
mechanics know more about car engines,
how to assemble and repair them and how
to mend broken parts, than the honourable capitalist gentleman who has never
wished to soil his hands with motor oil.
We see our «ignorant)) masons, our «stu-
pid)> carpenters and labourers, so despised by the capitalist gentlemen, making
beautiful houses, beautiful furniture which
the honourable capitalist gentleman appreciates immensely and which he has no
idea how to make. This clearly shows
that we learn through production.
What we learn we do, and when we do,
we see what is wrong. So we learn also
from our mistakes and achievements.
The mistakes show where there are shortcomings in our knowledge, weak points
which have to be eliminated. This means
that it is in the process of producing that
we correct our mistakes. Production
shows us that if good tomatoes are going
to grow in it, this soil needs more manure
and this kind of manure, that there more
water is needed. It was by making experiments which failed that our pupils
learned how to make soap. It was by
making soap that they improved the
quality of the soap.
Production is a school because it is one
of the sources of our knowledge, and it
is through production that we correct our
mistakes. It is by going to the people,
that we both learn and teach the people.
If our army did not produce, how would
we have grown cassava in Tete when the
people had no  knowledge of cassava? If
learn to produce better. We can study a
lot, but what use is tons of knowledge if
not taken to the masses, if we do not produce? If someone keeps maize seeds in a
drawer,  will he harvest ears of maize?
If someone learns a lot and never goes to
the masses, is never involved in practice,
he will remain a dead compendium, a
mere recorder who is able to quote by
heart many passages from scientific works,
from revolutionary works, but who will
live his whole life without writing a single
new page, a single new line. His intelligence will remain sterile, like those seeds
locked in the drawer. We need constant
practice, we need to be immersed in the
revolution and in production, to increase
our knowledge and, in this way, to ad-
A gift for passing guerrillas from a free peasant
we had contented ourselves with making
speeches about cassava, would the cassava
have grown? What better way of defending our production in Tete against
bombing raids, chemical weapons and
enemy incursions than diversification of
production, introduction of new crops
and crops which are resistant to enemy
action?
How can the people improve their production methods, how can they know
what is wrong and what is right, unless
they produce. We are in the habit of
saying that it is in the war that we learn
war, which means in fact, that it is by
carrying out a revolution that one learns
how to carry out a revolution better, that
it is by fighting that we learn to fight better and that it is by producing that we
vance our revolutionary work, our productive work.
The seed of knowledge only grows when
it is buried in the soil of production of
struggle. If we have already so greatly
transformed our country, if we have won
so many successes in production, education, health and combat, it is because
we are always with the masses. We learn
from them and pass on what we learn to
them. We consistently apply what we
know to production, correct our mistakes
and enrich our knowledge. But we should
not be satisfied.
Practice is not enough. One must also
know, study. Without practice, without
being combined with force, intelligence
remains sterile. Without intelligence, with-
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