Voices of Liberation: Samora Machel

Leader and Liberator in Southern Africa About the book Samora Machel was born in rural Mozambique in 1933 under Portuguese colonial rule. He trained as a nurse but abandoned this career to join the fledgling liberation movement Frelimo. He rose through the ranks to become secretary of defence and later president of the movement in 1969. In 1974, he assumed the presidency of the new People's Republic of Mozambique. In 1977 Frelimo formally adopted Marxist-Leninist ideology, and its policies focused on public health, mass literacy, and organising the rural population into collective forms of production. But first, white-ruled Rhodesia, and then apartheid South Africa, supported a brutal anti-government rebellion that by the mid-1980s had spread across Mozambique and decimated it. In October 1986, returning from a summit in Zambia, his plane crashed in mysterious circumstances at Mbuzini in South Africa, killing him and most of his delegation. This Voices of Liberation: Samora Machel presents the story of Machel’s rise in the liberation movement, and his successes and failures as president of Mozambique. It does so through a biographical introduction, selected translated extracts from formal and improvised speeches, and interviews. Machel was not a theoretician and wrote little. Nevertheless, he was a compelling orator with a command of multiple registers of Portuguese, and we hear his voice distinctly through his many speeches and in his interviews. This is the story of an authentic African hero, a man with a vision of a more just society, who died in the service of the liberation of his people. This book will interest historians and other researchers, academics, and the mainstream reader interested in African history, particularly Southern African history.

Contents

Introduction and Acknowledgements ix

Abbreviations and Acronyms xii

Samora Machel and Mozambique: a Chronology, 1933–1986 xv

Part 1: His Life

Locating Samora Machel 3

Part 2: His Voice 63

The Armed Struggle, 1965–1975 65

1 Developing the Eastern Niassa Front: Relations With African Chiefs and Problems of Guerrilla Orientation (November 1965) 65

2 The Importance of Unity: Message to Frelimo Fighters (25 September 1967) 71

3 Expanding the War against the Portuguese: Reviving Operations in Tete Province (16 March 1968) 78

4 Political Work and Production in the Struggle: Extracts from Two Reports on Niassa (1969) 84

5 Expanding the Struggle Through the Entire Country: An Interview with Iain Christie (March 1972) 96

6 ‘After Vietnam, Dialogue is Impossible’: a Conversation with Pietro Petrucci (March 1973) 107

7 Religious Practices and the Armed Struggle: Letter to Fr. Giuseppe Frizzi (24 February 1974) 116

8 Five Centuries of Colonial Plunder: Letter to Vasco Gonçalves, Prime Minister of Portugal, 18 April 1975 121

9 White People Are Not The Enemy: Speech at ‘Base Central’, Sector 2, Cabo Delgado (26 May 1975) 134

10 ‘I Never Left Mozambique’: the First Interview with a Portuguese Television Journalist, late May 1975 150

11 FRELIMO and Portuguese Citizens in Mozambique: Remarks at an Evening Reception in Pemba, Cabo Delgado (28 May 1975) 156

12 Dondo and Its Tragic History: Remarks at a Luncheon in Dondo, Sofala Province (15 June 1975) 160

13 ‘Independence for What Purpose?’ An Interview with Aquino de Bragança (16 June 1975) 164

The Challenges of Independence, 1975–1980 173

14 ‘The Main Task is the Building of a New Society’: Interview with Pietro Petrucci (17 May 1976) 173

15 Mozambique and the Zimbabwe Armed Struggle: a Television Interview with the BBC (28 September 1976) 193

16 Remarks after Talks with US President Jimmy Carter and a Visit to Cuba (October 1977) 201

17 ‘The Revolution is Irreversible’; an Interview with Beatriz Bissio (February 1978) 208

18 From Physical to Moral Imprisonment: a Speech Closing the Meeting with Former Political Prisoners, Maputo (8 May 1978) 222

19 ‘Everybody to the Rice Harvest!’: a Speech at the First of May Communal Village in Gaza Province (June 1978) 232

20 Break with Bourgeois Culture, Adopt the Values of the People: a Press Conference with Mozambican Journalists (December 1978) 242

21 ‘Ian Smith Will Be Defeated’: an Interview with Neiva Moreira and Beatriz Bissio (January 1979) 264

22 ‘There is Only One Marxism’: Extracts from a Press Conference on the Ofensiva (March 1980) 272

23 ‘A Revolutionary Process Moves at its Own Pace’: Extracts from Two Interviews by Foreign Journalists (June 1980) 279

24 The Struggle Against Mental Laziness: a Dialogue with Mozambicans Studying in Cuba (18 August 1980) 289

25 ‘There is No Single Model for Building Socialism’: a Conversation with Augusto de Carvalho (December 1980) 299 The Struggle against Destabilisation, 1981–1986 313

26 ‘Army Officers Must Not Be Dead Weights’: Extracts from Remarks at the Escola Militar in Beira (April 1981) 313

27 ‘We Know the Strength of Our Women’: Brief remarks on the Role of Women (7 April 1981) 320

28 The Constant Aggression of the Racist Regime in Pretoria: an Interview with Erasmo Terrero (May 1982) 324

29 ‘Our Sophisticated Weapon’: an Extract from a Speech to the Frelimo Party’s Central Committee (22 August 1982) 332

30 Breakfast in Bissau with Five Portuguese Journalists (20 December 1983) 337

31 What the Nkomati Accord Will Achieve: Extracts from a Speech to the People’s Assembly (5 April 1984) 347

32 The Question of Legality: Extracts from Remarks at a Rally in Nampula (24 and 25 May 1984) 356

33 ‘We Nationalised Schools and Hospitals That Were Instruments of Privilege’: An Interview with Joyce Sikakane (September 1984) 367

34 Meeting Eusébio (February 1985) 375

35 ‘Terrorism Against Mozambique is Only the Instrument of an External Project’: Extracts from a Speech to the 8th Non-Aligned Movement Summit (3 September 1986) 385

PART 3: His Legacy 393

36 Funeral Eulogy by Marcelino dos Santos (28 October 1986) 395

37 Message of Condolence by Nelson and Winnie Mandela to the Mozambican People, Machel Family, Frelimo and the Mozambican Government on the Death of Samora Machel 410 Conclusion: Popular Memory and the Legacy of Samora Machel 412

Further Reading 430

Bibliography 434

Author Bios 442

Text Permissions And Photo Credits 442

Index 443

About the Editors

Colin Darch has a PhD from the University of Bradford. He is an honorary researcher at the University of Cape Town, an honorary research fellow of the Human Sciences Research Council, and a ‘pesquisador associado’ in African studies at the Universidade Federal de Pernambuco. He is the author of Amélia Souto of A Dictionary of Mozambican History and Society (HSRC Press, 2022). Together with David Hedges, he is the editor of the collection Pan-Africanismo e as perspectivas para a Unidade Africana na Década de 1960 (Editora UFPE, forthcoming).

David Hedges has a PhD from the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, has taught history in Malawi, and, since 1978, at Eduardo Mondlane University in Maputo, Mozambique. He contributed to the second volume of História de Moçambique, edited by Carlos Serra (Maputo, 1983). He was the editor of the third volume in that series, under the title Moçambique no Auge do Colonialismo, 1930-1961 (Maputo, 1993). He is the author of Samora Machel: Retórica Política e Independência em Moçambique (with Colin Darch, EdUFBA, 2018), as well as multiple articles and chapters in both English and Portuguese.