VISITORS   IN
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From there many will go on to the central pilot school, in another district. For
the second, third and fourth class. There
is a shortage of teachers, but a basic
training course for teachers is under way
at the pilot school. A course of adult
literacy is about to be introduced. The
children are learning about their own
country and their own people. It will be
they who will continue the long struggle
which lies ahead.
At the hospital we saw children with
burns and snake bites, victims of the war,
patients with various other illnesses. The
medical staff from the hospital travel
around the district to a number of first
aid posts. If the case is too serious for
them to handle, transport is arranged to
the large provincial hospital. Again, these
are facilities which did not exist under the
Portuguese. Again, there is a great need
of trained personnel and equipment, but
a basic first aid training programme is in
operation.
Everywhere we were reminded of the
fundamental task of cultivation and production. The soldiers must cultivate, to
reduce as far as possible their need to seek
food from the people. The school children cultivate, and at the hospital a
small vegetable garden had just been
started. In the villages, production is
increasingly carried on on a collective
basis. Tete is rich in cattle, which are
raised for the benefit of the village. Artisans basket-makers and iron-workers, who
before had worked for individual gain,
were now integrated in the collective
production of the village, their products
being sold abroad to buy salt and soap
and other necessities. The secretary of
the village records each individual's contribution, and ensures that the proceeds
are fairly distributed.
At every level the people take part in the
decisions which affect their lives. Local
questions are resolved at meetings of the
village or circle. The circles send representatives to the committee of the locality, and the localities to the district
committee. At the top is the council of
the Province, which met last December to
review the whole development of the
struggle in Tete. On each body will be
found the people and the cadres responsible for the various sectors of activity: part of the constant two-way process of communication between the people and the leadership.
It is not only physical conditions which
are changing. Attitudes of mind, instilled
by centuries of colonial rule, are changing
Polly Gaster and Lord Gifford in Fingoe District
also. We examined closely the role and
status of the women who we met. We
saw, for instance, that women spoke
equally with men at village meetings;
that the militants of the women's detachment took part equally with men in the
mobilisation of the people. There are
still more male cadres in FRELIMO than
female; but it was evident that traditional notions of male superiority were
rapidly being destroyed. The thinking
of men and women alike was being emancipated.
The people in Tete who are building this
new life are not going to give it up. They
understand clearly why they are at war;
their determination to advance the struggle is clear and firm. They see as an
essential part of their work the need to
help transport materials to other regions.
Their militias are organised for self-defence and to give information about the
enemy to the soldiers.
Our information about the situation in
Tete did not come only from FRELIMO
comrades; it was confirmed during a
long interview which we had with three
recent deserters from the Portuguese
army. A month after completing training
as part of a special anti-guerrilla force,
they had deserted to join FRELIMO in
the area south of the Zambezi. They
told us in particular of the brutal strate
gic hamlets policy, the enemy's desperate
method of trying to get the people on his
side - by herding them behind barbed
wire.
The deserters also confirmed that large
scale military aid and support is being
given to the Portuguese by Rhodesia.
One, a sergeant, had been trained in anti-
guerrilla warfare by a Rhodesian instructor. He told us that in the area south of
the Zambezi, Rhodesian ground and air
forces make regular incursions, killing,
looting and burning wherever they can.
It is not surprising, as the struggle in Tete
advances to the south and west, as the
communication lines to Cahora Bassa become increasingly strangled, so it is to be
expected that all the racist regimes of
Southern Africa will unite more closely
together.
The development of the struggle in Tete
is only in its early years. Much more
remains to be done, and much help is
needed. But we have returned from our
visit astonished at the rate of progress so
far; inspired by the example of determined revolutionary action which FRELIMO has shown to us; determined to
increase the level of political and material
support which can be achieved in our
countries; and more confident than ever
that FRELIMO will advance and triumph.
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