Mozambique: The New Phase

Abstract

Living in Tanzania, initial base of the Mozambican struggle for independence, I had the opportunity more than a decade ago to witness at close quarters the dramatic developments which were forging, in FRELIMO (Front for the Liberation of Mozambique), a strong and exemplary revolutionary organization. A trip to the liberated areas in 1972 enabled me to see on the ground the extent to which such developments were also foreshadowing the construction of a new, independent, and socialist Mozambique. Then, in June 1975, I returned as a guest at the country's independence celebrations to observe the initial phases of the effort to generalize the lessons of the liberation struggle to the entire country and to carry forward these lessons as policy in the many novel spheres which now lay open to FRELIMO action. Small wonder that a trip back to Mozambique this year (1978) seemed an important one to make, offering as it did the chance to see how three years of the sobering realities of state power had affected the thrust of those previous initiatives.

This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website, where most recent articles are published in full.

Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.