VISITORS   IN    FREE   MOZAMBIQUE
Having grown up a few miles from the
Pentagon at the heart of western bourgeois materialist culture, there are several
immediate observations which stand out
as a result of my trip to Free Mozambique. Someone from another part of the
world travelling with us might have singled out other aspects of what we experienced to emphasise.
One observation was the relative unimportance of material things in the personal lives of those directly involved in
the struggle for independence. Personal
possessions are kept at a minimum: no
more than can be packed and carried
away in a few minutes; the single most
important possession being the one on
which everything else depends, your gun.
The important things are friendships,
children, actions and particularly those
actions directed towards the realisation
of the common goal. I sensed a strong
feeling of familiness between everyone
I travelled with and met during my eleven
days in the country.
A second observation follows directly
from the first. This closeness between
people includes both combatants and
and villagers. It is impossible to draw a
line which will leave combatants on one
side and villagers on the other. Many of
the villagers are armed and many of the
combatants come from the areas in which
they live and work. While there is very
definite military organisation and discipline, life in the FRELIMO camps is relaxed and the contact with the surrounding population also relaxed and productive.
While military confrontation with the
Portuguese is a major FRELIMO preoccupation on the southern fronts of Cabo
Delgado and Niassa and in Tete, it is
only a small part of their work in the
liberated areas. It was obvious to me that
political education and organisation is
well developed. Education and medical
treatment, though limited, is more available than it ever was under Portuguese
rule. The elimination of indigenous class
structures and exploitation has progressed
alongside the removal of Portuguese
exploitation. Instrumental in this has
been the establishmentof production and
marketing co-operatives. We passed many
people carrying produce north to the
Tanzania border for export. On their
return they bring back purchased items
and war material.
'FRELIMO
AND THE
PEOPLE
ARE  ONE'
Nash Basom, an American photo
journalist working for the Church
World Service of New York, who
visited Cabo Delgado recently as
a guest of FRELIMO in order to
collect material for a book about
Free Mozambique writes about
his observations of life in the regions he visited.
All of this is evidence that the people are
in full support of the struggle and that
the FRELIMO program is committed to
the establishing of a truly egalitarian^
society in which all have a voice and a
productive role to play. There was additional evidence of the popular support
which FRELIMO has earned. Water and
gifts of food were offered us in many
villages we passed through. The people
bring unsolicited food to the camps for
the combatants, which supplements the
food they grow themselves. In addition
to many villagers having fire arms, there
are numerous small bomb shelters hidden
in the woods close to village houses. The
people have a militia which protects
people working in the fields and carrying
produce to the border.
Withthe-supportof the people, FRELIMO
forces have little difficulty avoiding the
occasional Portuguese raids and ambushes
and in confining the Portuguese troops
to their isolated posts and small enclaves. One quickly becomes used to the
guns everyone carries and to the occasional small Portuguese plane searching
vainly for signs of activity beneath the
dense foliage. The things of primary
interest remain the carrying out of daily
domestic and political responsibilities.
Thus, while the combatants themselves,
and the people, are well prepared to fight
when necessary, their life in the liberated
areas is devoted primarily to normal peace
time activities and the strengthening of
social and political organisation.
During eleven days and 150 miles of
walking in Free Mozambique we visited
eight FRELIMO centres of various types.
These included military camps, a food
production camp for disabled combatants
a local cell headquarters, two district
headquarters which included infantry
training, a school, health unit, militia
division, a chapter of the Organisation of
Mozambican Women, production of various articles, and care of orphans; and a
large «pilot» centre which included a
three-year primary school, a monthly
newspaper for the region, and a medical
post for the local people.
At the pilot centre we met another
temporary visitor to Free Mozambique.
This was a Portuguese prisoner of war
captured about five weeks earlier. He has
been living with FRELIMO combatants
and villagers. His revised opinions of
FRELIMO and the people with whom he
was living were freely shared. On one
thing in particular we both agreed. The
final victory will certainly belong to
FRELIMO and the Mozambican people.
19