Last July three young Mozambicans deserted from the Portuguese Grupos Especiais (Special Groups) to join FRELIMO.
In this interview, the 3 men — Antonio Anselmo Seremenga,
Pedro Alvaro Cabral da Camara and Dias Boaventura — describe their experiences in the Portuguese armed forces.
Q: What made you desert the Portuguese
army?
Pedro Camara: It is because I am a Mozambican, a nationalist, and could not
accept to fight against my own people. I
decided to join FRELIMO because it is
the force which is fighting for the independence of Mozambique, and is following the right path.
Boaventura: I deserted because I did not
like what the Portuguese told me to do. I
could not kill my brothers. And as I
knew there is FRELIMO, I decided to
join it and participate in the struggle to
free my country. I am Mozambican and
logically this is the side where I should go.
Seremenga: I deserted because in the
first place I did not want to join the
army, I was forced to do so. Even during
the training in Goba, my idea was always
how to desert to FRELIMO.
Q: From your experience, how do our
people consider the struggle?
Camara: In the colonial army everybody
knows that the whole people agree with
and openly support the liberation struggle.
Nobody has any doubts about it. We
saw it ourselves — when we were taking
the people to the «protected villages))
they would run away into the bush at the
first opportunity. And in fact, one
strong reasorl that made me desert was to
see that the people supported FRELIMO
and we were looked on with hostility by
them.
Q: Did you talk about FRELIMO among
yourselves, while in the Portuguese army?
Camara: In the colonialist army we were
under enormous pressure, we were controlled, we knew that among ourselves
there were spies, PIDE agents. So we
could speak about FRELIMO only with
those whom we knew and in whom we
had absolute confidence, when we were
sure we would not be heard by somebody
else.
Q: How are the relations between the
white and black soldiers in the Portuguese
army?
Boaventura: There is racialism. Maybe
less than in civilian life, but it is still present.    For example, there are extremely
few African officers. And even concerning the privates, when the officers
distribute the daily tasks among the privates, they give the heaviest and dirtiest
to the black soldiers. In my unit we were
many Africans, but all sergeants and officers were white.
Q: And what about the mulattoes -
what kind of treatment do they get?
Camara: It depends on the whiteness of
one's skin. If you are fair, you are
treated almost as a white. If you are
dark, you are more or less discriminated
depending on how dark you are.
Q: Are there any differences in the behaviour of the white soldiers coming
from Portugal and those born in Mozambique?
Camara: The white soldiers from Mozambique are more racialist than those
recently arrived from Portugal. I think
the reason is that the soldier just arrived
from Portugal has not yet had time to be
influenced by the colonial mentality of
racial superiority - he comes usually
directly   from   the land he was toiling on
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