January 1986 – Vol.2 – No.1
The first article on Mozambique, published in October’s Evangel, traced its history from the first encounter with Portuguese explorers in 1487 until the birth in 1961 of an African movement destined to overthrow those who came after them hoping to find fortune and happiness on the new frontier. Viewing the territory as profitable for agriculture and the natural harbors ideal for controlling trade to and from much of the continent, the Portuguese had gradually conquered the local people whom they did not hesitate to forcibly use in carrying out their designs upon the land.
The day came, however, when an African slipped through the system that kept them from regaining control of their country. The man was Eduardo Mondiane, a Mozambican who left his home to become educated in South Africa, Portugal, and finally the United States. He taught anthropology at Syracuse University for a time, found an American wife, and in the 1950’s became a functionary of the United Nations.
In 1961, Mondlane visited his native land, using his status as a U.N. official to exercise freedoms he could not have enjoyed as a local resident. After meeting with the many African protest groups that had sprung up spontaneously throughout the country, he convinced the leaders that by joining together they could not only bring change, but could actually take control of the government that ruled them.
And so it was that in 1962, FRELIMO (the FROnt for the LIberation of MOzambique) was created under the leadership of Mondlane. Within three years FRELIMO guerrillas trained at bases in neighboring Tanzania were systematically attacking major industries and communication lines in Mozambique. Though they never controlled more than one fourth of the countryside, or any of the cities, the few thousand guerrillas did make their presence felt, tying up 60-80,000 Portuguese troops that were never successful in protecting such a large territory from the small, elusive bands. Finally, after ten years of continued harassment by FRELIMO forces, Portugal announced it was willing for the Africans to establish their own government, after which Portugal would withdraw from Mozambique affairs.
From the earliest days of FRELIMO, there were two competing philosophies regarding the type of government Mozambique would have if the revolution succeeded. Some wanted to keep the current system, only with Africans in control. Others envisioned a radically new society patterned after the theories of Marx and Lenin. When independence came, however, the contest was not to be decided by the people of Mozambique. It had already been determined six years earlier within FRELIMO itself. And the events surrounding those days remain a mystery even to the present.
It happened in 1969. Eduardo Mondlane was at home in neighboring Tanzania opening a package postmarked “Moscow” when a bomb concealed within it went off, killing him. FRELIMO immediately accused the Portuguese government of planning the assassination. The government in turn blamed it on the more radical elements within FRELIMO which had been openly critical of Mondlane’s ties with the west. The actual origin of the letter bomb will probably never be known, but it necessitated a general meeting of FRELIMO leaders to appoint a new head.
Until this time, the different factions within FRELIMO were held together by the skillful diplomacy of Mondlane, but in the days that followed his assassination, it became clear that the Marxists were in command. Finding their point of view increasingly disregarded, the moderates eventually abandoned the movement altogether.
The moderates carried the cause no further, however, and when Portugal finally allowed Mozambique to establish a new government, FRELIMO was the only group organized and prepared to take over. Given the 40 to 1 African majority, it probably would have won an election even if the Portuguese settlers succeeded in patching together a coalition ticket. However, unwilling to take any chances after ten years of fighting, FRELIMO refused to cease fire until Lisbon agreed to turn the country directly over to them. As the local Portuguese waited anxiously, Lisbon deliberated, then announced it would give the reins to FRELIMO without requiring a popular vote.
The Portuguese settlers were devastated by the news. Many had spent their entire lives in Mozambique and knew no other home. Having no hope of any voice or influence in the new government, they left, taking all they could and bitterly destroying much of what they couldn’t. By the time FRELIMO took over on June 25, 1975, only 40,000 of the original 250,000 Portuguese remained. As conditions rapidly worsened, most of those also departed, so that today only 10,000 Portuguese are left. Thus the day of independence was indeed a resounding end to Portuguese control over Mozambique’s affairs.
During the celebrations that took place that day none could have guessed the difficulties that lay ahead for the new nation. Probably at that time, none would have cared, as anything would seem better than remaining a non-citizen with no hope for the future. Nevertheless, the Mozambicans were unknowingly on the threshold of economic ruin, unprecedented physical privation, and a vicious war waged by hostile guerrillas that would soon paralyze the country.
The irony is that the stage for it all was being set in the midst of the very celebrations taking place that day. As President Samora Machel proclaimed in his inaugural address, FRELIMO came to power with two main objectives: to make Mozambique the “first fully Marxist state in Africa,” and to bring to an end colonial regimes in other African countries.
To fulfill the first objective, the new president declared that all land, economic enterprises, property, and public services (medicine and education) now belonged to the people. Everything from gigantic office buildings to family operated ice cream shops and funeral parlors was to be taken over by the government, even though it knew very little at this time about managing a business or maintaining a modern office building. The fact that the people currently doing the job would not cheerfully continue once the benefits went primarily to the state rather than to themselves did not seem consistent with the Marxist view of man. Still, the government probably was not surprised at the mass exodus of Portuguese before and after independence.
They might have been surprised, however, that even the “humanitarians” would leave rather than work for the state. But after nationalizing medicine all the doctors joined the exodus, with only 20 remaining in a nation of 14 million people.
The resulting health care crisis was only a small part of the general problem Mozambique now faced. Since the Portuguese system had prevented anyone else from obtaining advanced skills and education, the country was left without the people necessary to keep it operating, and the result was economic ruin. The Africans happily moved into the fine homes and apartments vacated by the fleeing Europeans, but today they have no gas, no running water, and frequently no electricity, because there are not enough people left who know how to keep the system working.
Because of the economic problems, it is impossible to import much of anything. The people are still living off the supplies left in the country at the time of independence. When something breaks, it generally cannot be fixed, and it cannot be replaced. The stores are virtually empty, and what is available for sale is priced well out of reach of the typical Mozambican. And so the people do without.
This physical privation was greatly amplified by the drought that has recently been severe in the southern hemisphere. Though only 5% of the land was in use at the time of independence, Mozambique was more than self sufficient in food. It wined and dined a growing tourist industry as people flocked from both Portugal and South Africa to the resort areas in and around Maputo, enjoying the many gourmet restaurants and feasting on some of the largest prawns in Africa. In recent years however, the people have been dying for lack of food. In 1984, more people died from starvation in Mozambique than any other country in the world, 270 people starving to death every day. Ironically, while the north was hardest hit by the drought, the south was slashed by a hurricane inflicting further damage hard to repair by the already overtaxed government.
Economic woes were further aggravated as Mozambique sought to fulfill its second objective, to liberate neighboring nations from their colonial rulers. To help topple the Rhodesian government, it closed its borders to that landlocked nation despite the fact that doing so shut off almost all trade rolling across Mozambique and through its harbors, the nation’s single greatest source of income. In making such a sacrifice, the financial loss absorbed by Mozambique over the years was 300-500 million dollars, nearly one third of the yearly gross national product!
Mozambique’s livelihood, however, depends even more on South Africa than Rhodesia, and despite its great abhorrence of South African policies it was constrained to avoid similar sanctions there. Nevertheless, because Mozambique openly supported the guerrilla forces attacking South Africa, South Africa curtailed all dealings with its hostile neighbor to the extent that it did not inconvenience itself. Whereas the Portuguese government netted 150 million dollars yearly by furnishing workers for the South African mines, South Africa drastically reduced the number of Mozambicans it would hire and began giving the entire salary to the worker, cutting the government completely out of the pie – and it had been a significant piece of pie, as the revenue formerly gained by the Portuguese in this manner covered half the government’s yearly budget!
South Africa inflicted its greatest blow, however, in maintaining the ongoing war that has terrrorized the people of Mozambique and made efforts to rebuild impossible. The problem started when Mozambique began aiding guerrilla forces in Rhodesia and South Africa in an effort to help their brothers gain independence. Those nations retaliated by using their far superior economic and military might to supply dissidents within Mozambique with whatever they needed to wreak their own havoc. Though the number of dissidents is probably small, it does not take many men to blow up an important railroad bridge or power line or to plant a mine in a road and destroy a passing bus, maiming and killing those on board. The mercenaries attack defenseless villages killing any who have not fled. The result is that much of the country lives in terror. Travel over land is risky at best, and efforts to help those people dwelling in desolate regions is nearly impossible.
In the midst of all this, the government watched in disappointment as more sad facts emerged, this time on the political front. The masses who were to carry forward the Marxist ideals and participate in ruling the new society did not measure up to former expectations. It was no surprise that the “self-serving” Portuguese did not fit the mold, but when the army was expected to carry on without pay after independence, there was widespread discontent. Having fought for independence ten years without pay, it seemed reasonable that they would just as freely defend the ideals they had so nobly brought into existence, but apparently even they were not that committed. Within a few months, it became necessary to pay the army for doing its job.
A series of such disturbing realities finally compelled the government to abandon its original plan and replace rule by the masses with rule by a very small minority, or “vanguard party.” The purpose of the vanguard party is twofold – to help the proletariat outgrow the self-centered mindset that motivated the former society, and to rule the state in place of the masses until such a transformation occurs. Nowhere, however, has this transformation taken place, and all Marxist countries continue to be under the control of a minority. In establishing such a vanguard party, the optimistic idealism of the revolution has of necessity been replaced by a more pragmatic approach.
This pragmatism is being manifested in other areas as well. To overcome the economic problems brought about by nationalization, the government has backtracked to encourage small family run businesses. A limited form of free enterprise is being tolerated in an effort to attract foreign investment. Having received less than expected from Soviet allies, Mozambique is increasingly turning for help to western countries which have responded favorably to what they consider a genuine openness to alternatives. And in 1984 a treaty was even established with formerly hated South Africa in hopes of rebuilding economic ties and bringing the guerrilla war to an end.
Mozambique today is indeed very different from former times. War, famine, poverty, and a marxist government have radically altered the face of the nation. But the country continues to change as the government wrestles with Marxist philosophy on the one hand, and pressing realities on the other. The final direction that this potentially prosperous nation takes is a matter of great interest to the watching world.
But for the Christians living there, it is far more than just a matter of interest. They not only walk through the valley of terror, famine, and poverty experienced by all Mozambicans, but must also face the special difficulties that stem from professing Christ in a Marxist society.
Life for the brethren in Mozambique is a cause for prayer and concern on the part of Christians throughout the rest of the world, and will be the subject of the next issue of the Mozambique Evangel.
Abstract: After waging a ten year war for Independence, a relatively small band of guerrillas succeeded on June 25, 1975 in placing Mozambique’s government in the hands of FRELIMO, a Marxist liberation movement. Though there were no elections, FRELIMO would almost surely have been the popular choice because of antipathy for anything the Portuguese might have proposed, and lack of moderate alternatives. FRELIMO’s two main objectives, to establish overnight the first fully Marxist state in Africa and to overthrow colonial regimes in the rest of southern Africa, virtually ensured a period of severe economic depression and military retaliation on the part of neighboring nations crucial to Mozambique’s own well-being. Drought, famine, a hurricane, and disease have compounded problems. Further, the masses have not proven equal to Marxist expectations in political ways. The result is that life in Mozambique today is difficult, and the government has begun to moderate its former policies. The effect of this on the church in Mozambique will be covered in the next issue.