TOPIC : PRIMARY RESISTENCE MOVEMENTS AND ARMED

STRUGGLES IN OTHER COUNTRIES

SUBTOPC : ARMED STRUGGLE IN MOZAMBIQUE
OBJECTIVES
By the end of the subtopic, learners should be able to;
 Explain the causes of the armed struggle in Mozambique.
 Discuss the main events of the armed struggle in Mozambique.
 Evaluate the results of the war.
 Examine the contribution of foreign states in Mozambique’s armed struggle.
INTRODUCTION

The map of Mozambique

 The struggle for independence in Mozambique was one of the successful revolution in the
African continent and it was based on Mao Zedong military teachings as well as enlightened by
the teaching of Ho Chi Minh who was a veteran of the Vietnamese revolution.
 Mozambique was conquered by the Portuguese in the 16th century up until the 19th century
during the scramble and partition of Southern Africa that the Poortuguese effectively colonised
the Mozambicans.
 Settling at the port of Sofala in 1505 on the Coast of the Indian Ocean the aim of the Portuguese
was to exploit mineral resources in the interior and during that period the interior belonged to
the Mwenemutapa people.
  The Portuguese were not the first foreigners to settle in Mwenemutapa, but there were Muslim
traders whom the Portuguese used their techniques to drive them away and began to establish
commercial and administrative centres in areas such as Tete, Sena and Quelimane.
 The presence of the Portuguese in the Mwenemutapa kingdom and the rest of Mozambique
was never accepted by Africans. The establishment of colonial rule in Mozambique was a
systematic strategy which was overseen through the scramble and partition of Southern Africa.
 The occupation of African states meant undertaking public works such as the construction of
infrastructure and establishing an administration but in Mozambique an effective occupation
generated into a brutal system and cruel process of torture and exploitation of both classes that
existed in Mozambique.
 The colonial government ruled Mozambique with the help of the chartered companies that had
been granted concessions and these includes the NIASSA company which operated in the Niassa
District and the Cabo Delgado, MOZAMBIQUE company which administered the areas of Sofala
and Manica and the ZAMBEZIA company which ruled the areas at Quelimune and Tete while the
colonial government controlled areas around Gaza, Lorenco Marques and Inhambane.
Causes of the armed struggle

Forced labour

 The economic designs of the Portuguese authorities required huge supplies of cheap labour as
they wanted Africans to work for them on their mines and farms.
 Soon after the Portuguese had established themselves in Mozambique they wanted production
to cover up their financial problems at home and moreover they wished to get rich earnestly.
 Since the Africans had their traditional economy which they depended on it became difficult for
them to work for the chartered companies.
 However the colonisers owned large pieces of land and they established prazo systems which
exploited Africans as t was characterised by brutality. The need for labour saw the passing of
laws in 1930 to 1942 where able-bodied men were recruited for forced labour and they worked
for six months.
 Workers worked for longs hours, received low wages and sometimes were bitten so as to
continue working in order to produce.
 In 1930 Salazar the Portuguese Prime Minister introduced cotton concessions which further
exploited African in their own land as they required more labour.
 To act towards the grievances of African towards labour issues the chartered companies were
replaced by the Portuguese which aimed at easing the exploitation of Africans but the exchange
worsened the situation for Africans.
 The concessionaire in provinces monopolised the production and a band of Africans were
recruited to monitor the activities making the life in the Prazoes a worst nightmare.
 The Portuguese continued with their oppressive colonial system based on forced labour and
thousands of Africans were sent to South African mines and Southern Rhodesian plantations
while the colonial government received payment for each labourer.
 Death was common especially in the south African mines as a result the Portuguese government
lost large sums of money and this caused clashes within the country between concessionaire
and the colonial government and the Africans became victims.
 Africans also provided labour by way of collecting rubber and working at ports especially Beira
which was the centre for trade. Regarding that forced labour made women independent as they
 were left by their husbands this became a receipt for the disintegration of communities leading
to the armed struggle.

Poor educational facilities

 Antonio de Oliveira Salazar, the Portuguese dictator who ruled Portugal from 1932 to 1968, was
intent on repressing opposition in Portugal's African colonies and thus, the programs of state-
sponsored schooling established by the Salazar regime created a schooling system available for
the children of settlers.
 These programs were a duplication of the primary and secondary schooling system operating in
Portugal, directed by the Ministry of National Education in Lisbon, which included within it a
Department of Overseas Education.
 The enrolment by 1950 was small in Mozambique but due to the arrival of settlers in 1954 to
1956 the enrolment increased and these schools were open only to "assimilated" Africans and,
as late as 1954, only 322 Africans were enrolled in the government primary schools.
 The African schooling denied more access than it created and failed more students than it
passed. And it paid a blind eye to the African education In Mozambique.
 Most African who received education during that period passed due to the works of the
missionaries who provides a number of schools that Africans had access to.
 The settlers in Mozambique depended on white colour bar to discriminate Africans especially in
education as a provisions of other resources such as transport, employment and
accommodation.

Taxation

 To ensure some kind of loyalty and obligation, Portugal relied on individual settlers. These were
given title deeds by the Portuguese king for lands they had coveted for themselves.
 As mentioned above the individual Portuguese established prazoes that enabled then to control
Africans through forced labour as well as taxation.
 The peasants were subjected to heavy taxation and this was paid to the Portuguese colonial
government in form of money or in kind.
 Due to the traditional way of life of the Mozambicans that is they did not possess any currency
they were forced to provide labour for the colonial government in order to obtain money to pay
taxation.

Forced cultivation of Cash Crops

 The Portuguese occupation of Mozambique was associated with lack of funds and this made
Africans to be victims of developing the economy of the Portuguese. In order to raise the
revenue for Portugal and the colonial state the government introduced forced cultivation of
cash crops especially cotton.
 Africans were forced to cultivate cotton regardless of the type of soils in their area and had to
supply stipulated quarter of the crop each year to the concessionaires who bought cotton at a
low price.
 The cultivation of cash crops destroyed African economic activities as it meant that the
production of crops such as nuts, vegetables and sesame seeds have to be abandoned
benefiting only the Portuguese.
  This method of exploiting and abusing Africans led to starvation as produced crops were now for
exports.
 Considering the onerous nature of cotton production some African farmers refused to grow the
cash crop thus they received punished while those who failed to reach the standard required
were forced to on sisal, tea and sugar plantations.
 The cotton regime became the central grievances around in which Africans mobilized and
protested.

Living and working conditions

 Life in urban areas (Maputo and Beira) was not smooth, workers worked for long hours,
conditions in their work places were filthy making the place prone to deadly diseases.
 Workers lived in shanty shelters and the living conditions in these shelters were characterised by
alcoholism as well as prostitution since men were separated from their wives.
 To address such living conditions Africans were forced to establish trade unions such as the Unia
Africano in 1911 and these trade unions were staged to protest against the working and living
conditions as well the Portuguese rule.

Early resistance and failures

 Africans deliberately worked slowly, sometimes faking illness, vandalising agricultural

implements or burning seeds so they would not grow for example in Mapondera, people fled to
areas that were not easily reached.
 At other times, peasants simply revolted, destroying symbols of exploitation and Portuguese
property and burning plantations. Though, these revolts tended to be sporadic and
uncoordinated, and thus they were easily suppressed by the Portuguese.
 Forced labor, or chibalo, also contributed to revolts. African peasants preferred to expend their
energies on their own lands, but the colonial system forced them to perform manual duties for
the Portuguese. Often peasants staged small scale uncoordinated revolts, save for the 1893
rebellion in Tete, which temporarily united neighbouring states in destroying cyphers of
oppression.
 From about 1884, Mozambique witnessed several rebellions aimed at driving out the
Portuguese. The Massingire rebellion of 1884 was sparked by tax resistance. The 1897
Cambuenda-Sena-Tonga was the result of a 45 per cent increase in the hut tax.
 Makanga opposed the Portuguese demand of two thousand males for labour, Tawara wanted to
assert the independence of the Mwenemutapa and the Shona in 1904 were against forced
labour policies. The rebellions, significant as they were, were ultimately quelled because they
were not united or well-organized.
 Workers also demanded healthier working conditions and wages and various independent
churches expressed anticolonial sentiments. Meanwhile, the rural population continued with its
sporadic and uncoordinated resistances.

Rise of political parties

 From the 1920s through the 1950s opposition to the Portuguese took various forms that
included intellectual, rural, worker, church, and finally national opposition to Portuguese
colonial system. Leading assimila-dos and mulattos of the 1920s started a newspaper, O
 Africano (The African), which spoke against the injustices of the Portuguese colonial system. In
the 1950s writers and poets produced works condemning the atrocities of the Portuguese
system.
 The assimilados played an important role in the armed struggle as they gave birth to the
assimilado nationalism and this group used non-violent methods in an attempt to change the
status quo in favour of the Africans in Mozambique.
 The assimilados established such as the Gremio Africano and the Assicio Africano which were
meant to address living and working of Africans.
 Following the works of the Assimilados in 1959 Joaquim Chinaso and Eduarado Mondane
formed a Nucleus group of African secondary Students of Mozambique (NESAM) and this was a
radical political club and it aimed at educating and politicizing its members.
 As mentioned they started their political activities by educating its followers up until they
captured the attention of the colonial police and the majority of its members were arrested
while others fled into exile.
 Thus the activities of the assimilados failed to gin due to their no- violent methods and lack of
support from the masses and despite its failures they managed to plant the seed for
nationalism.
 A number of political parties emerged soon after the failure of the assimilados and these
championed the liberation struggle in Mozambique.in 1960 peasants from Cardo Delgado
demonstrated in the town of Mueda against forced labour and forced cultivation of cash crops.
 In response to the demonstration the colonial polices opened fire leading to the death of 5000
demonstrators and this incident opened the eyes of the nationalists on the intentions of the
enemy thus the saw the need for an armed struggle to deal with the enemy.
 Soon after the incident radical political parties formed that advocated for recourse to war.
 The Mozambique African National Union was formed in 1961 in Kenya, UDENAMO was formed
in Harare
 The struggle for liberation was given its modern form with the formation of the FRELIMO (Frente
de Libertacao de Mozambique in Dar es Salaam in 1962 June in Tanzania.
 The FRELIMO was the unification of three political groups that id UDEMANO, MANU and UNAMI
and it was under the leadership of Eduardo Mondlane and Rev Uria Simango became the deputy
while Samora and Joaquim Chisano became outstanding leaders.
 Samora Michel and Eduardo and Mondlane

 In its formation the party aimed at changing the political, social and economic conditions that
affected the Mozambicans under the rule of the Portuguese thus at a congress that was called in
1962 the party advocated for unity among the Africans in order to deal with the enemy and to
win the liberation struggle.
 The party also advocated for the spread of these political ideas to different institutions around
the country especially in schools and trade unions so as to make people aware about the
political realities in the country.
 The members of FRELIMO also worked with other sister revolutionary movements in Portuguese
colonies such as the Cape Verde Islands, Guinea, Bissau as well as Angola.
 It party also worked on laying the foundation of the armed struggle while on the hand urban
workers and peasants united forming a mass movement that resisted against the settler
occupation.
 Cadres were sent to Tanzania, Algeria and Russia to receive adequate military techniques that
will enable them to challenge the settlers in their country.

Course of the War

 The struggle for independence started on the 25th of September in 1964 when the FRELIMO
attacked a Portuguese administrative post at Charin Cabo Delgado with the assistance of the
peasants and the attack eventually marked the beginning of the armed struggle.
 Within a short period the Portuguese colonial was pushed away from the Northern provinces.
 The first phase was basically based on the teaching of Mao Tse Tung a Chinese leader as his
teachings advocated for the use of peasants in the armed struggle and he went on to view
peasants as the water while the guerrillas were the fish.
 Karl Marx on the hand advocated for the use of the working class and the proletariats to bring
about a socialist revolution.
 Civilians played a crucial in making the first phase of the revolution a success, peasants provided
the guerrillas with food as well as intelligent information on the whereabouts of the colonial
while young boys became baggage carriers.
 Apart from providing information to the guerrillas they went on to an extent of hiding them
from the colonial army.
 Most women during this period became victims of the struggle as they faced brutalities of the
colonial forces in order to release information that was need thus they ended lying in order to
save their lives.
 Some women joined the FRELIMO and they7 received military training.
 FRELIMO soldiers

 Settlers used various way to destroy the spirit of nationalism amongst the Mozambicans for
example some peasants were paid to release information on the guerrillas, they sold out to the
enemy and many died.
 Just like in Zimbabwe the Portuguese settlers used the divide a rule policy between the chiefs on
the grounds of tribe to an extent that they rejected their nationality.
 The success of the first phase saw the creation of liberated zones in the Northern provinces
where peasants lived under the protection of the guerrillas and away from the colonial
influence. In these liberated zones people were educated about the armed struggle and the role
of each individual in making independence a reality.
 Political structures were elected to replace the chiefs, schools and clinics were built, co-
operatives were formed and the curriculum in the liberated zones focused on the current
situation.
 The activities which were carried out in liberated zones boosted the popularity of the FRELIMO
and it earned respect especially on education and health thus they began to view guerrillas as
liberators.
 Even though liberated zones protected the peasants the situation was not a bed of roses as
peasants lacked infrastructure to support their agricultural activities as well as books and
medicine.
 The death of Elduardo Mondlane through the letter bomb in Tanzania marked the second faced
of the liberation struggle in February 1969, even though the execution was a setback for the
struggle Samora Michael succeeded Mondlane.
 As mentioned the death of Mondlane sparked the second phase of the struggle in which the
colonial government devised different methods to undermine the guerrillas and tilt the war
against the FRELIMO.
  Firstly Portugal responded by creating protected /aldeamentos, after realising that the victories
of the guerrillas and the FRELIMO where obtained through the support of peasants the
government devised methods that eliminated peasant support.
 Africans were forced to move into fortified villages guarded by the Portuguese armed forces.
These villages were designed to stifle FRELIMO recruiting efforts, permit Portugal to provide
social and other services to peasants as well as establishing a defence perimeter around
Portuguese controlled areas.
 Portugal placed sixty thousand soldiers on the battle field to fight against ten thousand FRELIMO
fighters. Of these soldiers, forty thousand were African troops under the command of white and
assimilado officers.
 FRELIMO troops fought a hit-and-run war. They attacked Portuguese troops and African self-
defence units. When large rockets, provided by the Soviet Union, were available FRELIMO used
these to attack large Portuguese military headquarters and Portuguese-controlled towns.
 The Portuguese government introduced the Cordon Sanitaire system (roadblock system) which
provided the barriers to guerrilla movements especially from the neighbouring countries such as
Malawi, Tanzania and Zambia.
 The colonial government also made use of propaganda which fuelled the divisions between
Africans as guerrillas were regarded as terrorists who enjoyed shedding blood and disturbing the
normal activities of the country. By saw doing the majority of Africans sympathised with the
colonial government and it gained support of the peasants.
 After the divide and rule policy the colonial government to forcefully recruit more African
soldiers into the colonial army. The increase in the army marked an increase in the attacks of the
FRELIMO and the war was now against the liberated zones and the protected villages in the
south.
 During the armed struggle in Mozambique there two conflicting ideologies namely capitalism
and communism thus the Mozambican war was fought against his background of a political
divided world, Russia and China supported Mozambique while America and Britain sided with
the colonial government.
 The war escalated within a short period thus leading to the launching of the Operation “Gordion
Knot” by the settler government to destroy the FRELIMO stronghold in the liberated zones.
Despite all these measures the operation failed to produce the required results because the
guerrillas penetrated the protected villages.
 By attacking the protected villages it became clear that the enemy was losing the war and on
top of that it lacked resources and capital to finance a protracted war.

Road to independence

 It was becoming clear that Portugal was losing the war in spite of the western support as they
only gave her capital and moral support on the other and FRELIMO was gaining ground and
power as the areas under the liberated expanded to the south.
 They managed to expel the Portuguese settlers who had prazoes, in response the colonial
government increased pressure on the war fronts.
 As the FRELIMO moved towards the north situation became worse for the Portuguese as they
now lacked international support as well as moral justification this might have been caused by
their atrocities which attracted the world condemnation.
 The massacre of 400 villagers at Wiriyamu in the south of Tete led to loss of support on the side
of the Portuguese especially abroad for example international humanitarian organisations such
 as churches and no-governmental organisations criticised the works of the Portuguese I n
Mozambique and began to support the FRELIMO.
 The publicising of the Portuguese in the Times embarrassed destroyed the Portuguese
propaganda due to its progressive nature of non- racial harmonious colony and its colonial
methods came under colonial examination.
 More abuses of the Portuguese were uncovered by the Western Press making it difficult for the
European countries to continue supporting Portuguese and this undermined the moral of the
Portuguese forces.
 The settlers began furious on the colonial regime which failed to protect them from the works of
the FRELIMO especially the agricultural attacks.
 In Portugal young radicals began to question the whole unpopular expensive colonial policy.
 In 1974 April the Armed Forces movements staged a coup to remove the leadership in
Portugal leading to the replace of the president by General Spinola thus the AFM promised an
end to colonial wars while the new president intensified the war in Mozambique.
 The FRELIMO took advantage of the situation at the confusion in Portugal and extended to areas
were its presence was needed when the colonial regimes collapsed.
 The need for the AFM presence grew as African collaborators set neo- colonial organisations to
ensure that the FRELIMO did not rise power if the colonial regime collapsed.
 The AFM reacted to these problems by creating local cease fire with FRELIMO, the coup offered
Mozambicans self- determination thus these factors led to Mozambique achieving its
independence.
 Anti-FRELIMO parties joined to become the National Coalition Party in 1974 but it lacked
support as compared to the FRELIMO which had support all over the country including the
peasants.
 FRELIMO found it easy to negotiate for the cease fire and hand over power to the military
officers of the MFA.
 On 7 September 1974 Michael and Soares a Portuguese Prime Minister signed an agreement
which called for a cease fire, a FRELIMO dominated government to take office immediately and
independence was granted on the 25th of June 1975.
 The FRELIMO hold was increased when settlers protested against this agreement and attempted
a Coup in which they terrorised black towns and killed many Africans. The events of September
1974 till 1975 of saw the exodus of whites and African collaborators and this undermined the
National Coalition Party.
 Africans revenged the death of the FRELIMO soldiers in Lourenco Marques and some whites fled
fearing the FRELIMO economic and social revolutionary programmes.
 Michael called for reconciliation, peace and socialism.

Results of the war

 High unemployment.
 Migration of skilled personnel in favour of the FRELIMO.
 The Portuguese were defeated.
 Declining of national income due to war.
 Sabotage of factories and infrastructure by fleeing whites.