VISITORS   IN    FREE   MOZAMBIQUE
post-liberation Mozambican society. As
a result we everywhere witnessed the emphasis which is placed upon the primacy
of politics and of the people in the
present struggle. All militants, even
those most clearly involved in administrative chores, have military training,
and ordinary villagers are actively engaged in the militia; no caste system
premissed on military professionalism is
to be allowed. And those most clearly
engaged in military activities are constantly reminded of, and instructed in,
the basically political nature of the overall struggle for Mozambican independence.
A fourth aspect perhaps impressed me
forceably because of my own studies of
efforts at collective rural development in
Tanzania. For in the village at which we
spent the longest time during our 16
days inside the liberated areas, it was
clear that exploitation was being actively
discouraged and that the villagers where
rapidly finding collective solutions to
their agricultural problems. Seven communal fields were in operation and artisans - basket-makers and iron-workers -
who had previously worked and earned
individualistically had now taken their
places within a collective division of labour. The community spirit thus engendered seemed also to make it easier
for the village to shoulder its broader
responsibilities - helping feed the fighting
forces by providing produce, joining
periodically in the carrying of vital war
materials from the frontier. In short,
this was an experiment which compared
favourably with most of the «ujamaa
villages»   that   one   knew  in  Tanzania.
Fifth, one could not fail to be impressed
by the spirit of internationalism which
seemed consistently to animate the Mozambicans with whom we came into contact, even at the village level. As was
constantly reiterated, both at meetings
and in casual conversation, here there was
no room for simple-minded racialism or
opportunist brands of «ultra-nationalism».
Instead a more sober national spirit defined the enemy - the Portuguese State,
Portuguese colonialism and its imperialist allies - more clearly and more effectively. It was gratifying - as a white
and as Canadian — to be warmly accepted
as a comrade by such people, despite the
graphic realities, on a world scale, of
racial oppression and North American
imperialism. It also heightened my own
awareness of how much more progressives
in the metropolitan countries must do to
be worthy of such trust and friendship.
John Saul meets two Mozambicans who deserted from the
colonial army to join FRELIMO
A final point touches on the military
sphere - and certain of its implications.
Talking to militants and cadres from all
corners of Tete Province, to the people
themselves, and even to several deserters
from the Portuguese army, it was clear
that FRELIMO is winning the war in
Tete as it is also doing in Cabo Delgado
and Niassa. Clear, too, that so important
a project as Cahora Bassa in Tete is
seriously threatened as its supply lines
are increasingly harassed. And further
advances-are inevitable. Yet already the
Rhodesians are an active military presence in Tete beyond the Zambezi; a
deserter from the Portuguese army we
met revealed that he had even had
Rhodesian instructors in his counter-
insurgency course while with the Portuguese! And the intensified involvement
of the South Africans can surely not be
far behind.
In this respect, too, my Tete experience
dramatized the responsibilities which will
increasingly fall upon metropolitan progressives who are concerned about the
future of Mozambique. For in a wider
war, our own governments will be tempted
to back the side of their investments, as
indeed they have already begun to do in
dramatic ways. The necessity to alert the
Canadian people to such a danger was
one of the imperatives which struck me
most forceably during my stay in the
liberated areas. The ten or more years
which elapsed before a significant challenge - intellectual or political - could be
mounted at home to imperialist intrigues
or subterfuge in Vietnam must not be
allowed to occur with respect to Mozambique.
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