Frelimo women envoys
THE  ALL-AFRICAN
WOMEN'S CONFERENCE
On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the All African Women's
Conference, a Seminar was held in
Dar es Salaam from 24 to 31 July.
FRELIMO was represented by a
delegation composed of comrades
Deolinda Raul Guesimane - member of the Central Committee and
Head of the delegation, Marcelina
Chissano and Rosaria Tembe. We
quote from our speech:
\^   F'Rl.LIMO women at thc AAWC Seminar: Comrade Deolinda is on the left
OUR ROLE IN THE STRUGGLE
For us the All African Women's Conference represents a platform of struggle
from where women of our continent can
coordinate their efforts in the hard struggle they are undertaking against the many
forces which oppress them. To define
clearly these forces must be our first
task. Then it is necessary to decide on
the methods of struggle. Finally, we
must study and develop ways in which
we can best coordinate our efforts so that
they can be made more effective. It is
with this perspective that we came to this
meeting at which we commemorate the
10th Anniversary of the AAWC.
We are supposed to talk about the role of
the women in our struggle. We find this
somehow difficult, since in our organisation women and men fight and work
together, side by side, in every kind of
activity: we women participate in the
actual fighting, integrated in military
units; we work as political commissars,
mobilising the people, enlightening them
on all aspects of our struggle; we transport war materials to the front lines; we
defend the people against enemy incursions; we participate in production; we
are active in the schools and in the hospitals. So, if it is true that some tasks, by
their nature, fall more under our responsibility — like taking care of children (we
have several nurseries and creches which
are run by women) - in general wc can
say that we do the same work as men.
And this we consider as one of the greatest achievements of our revolution. Specially if we consider against which background this situation arises. Traditional
society, which kept women absolutely
dependent on men, deprived women of
any initiative, left them with no voice in
the affairs of the community - their only
task being the bearing of children and the
undertaking of domestic work. And then
came colonial society in which women
became instruments of labour, even more
exploited than men.
All this is being changed now in our country. And we wish to draw your attention
to this special point, which tells of our
experience: these changes have been accomplished through our political engagement. It has been our militant role in a
political organisation having a correct
political line that has given us the proper
orientation necessary to make our efforts
more effective. It is political awareness
that has enabled us to find the most
correct path to our emancipation. At the
same time, we feel that it is within this
political perspective that we, the Mozambican women can formulate thc best
forms of coordinating our efforts with
other African women. Our experience -
we repeat - taught us that wc must organise ourselves and struggle within a movement, that is, our women's organisation
must be an arm, an instrument of a political movement.
We wish now to make an appeal to all
African women and to the women of the
world to help us surmount the difficulties
that we face in order to accomplish our
task in a more effective way.
Our appeal is not only for material support. It is primarily a call to the African
women and all women, to take an active
part in our struggle: to mobilise their
people, by organising meetings of solidarity, distributing information about the
successes and difficulties of our struggle,
using every possible means, such as radio,
press, cultural manifestations, exhibitions,
etc., to develop at all levels - students,
workers, etc. - the solidarity movement
with our cause. Thc effort of political
mobilisation represents without doubt,
the most important contribution, it creates the material solidarity indispensable
for the pursuit of our struggle.
We propose also that thc women's organisations in Africa, at national and pan-
African level, organise collection of funds
and  materials  useful   for  our  activities.