Movements of Liberation in Mozambique
Frelimo Versus Renamo for County Control
- Sep 2, 2009
- Maureen Zieber
View of a Mozambican street. - marissarose3
Revolutionary acts rip countries apart. For decades Mozambique was a
center for civil war and revolution. Two movements, Frelimo and Renamo,
fought for freedom.
In the last forty years, Mozambique has had eventful experiences that
have reshaped the nation. The movement that started the drastic changes
and which lead to revolutionary war was Frelimo, Mozambique Liberation
Front. This movement was started by educated Mozambicans, one of which
was Eduardo Mondlane who later became its first president, in the early
1960’s. After the death of Mondlane, as well as a short stint of the
next leader of Frelimo, Samora Machel finally took the reigns as the
third president of Mozambique. Machel’s goal was to bring the movement
to revolutionary victory, and then to governmental power.Humble Origins of Frelimo
In the need of liberation, the people of Mozambique did their best to live within the colonial regime. June of 1962, Frelimo was founded and was stationed Tanzania. Previously to the advent of Frelimo, Mozambique had several parties that were not well known as well as not having a well-known leader for the resistance to colonial rule. But, Frelimo rose to the occasion, and its first president was Eduardo Mondlane, who has moved to America to earn his PH.D. While in America, Mondlane married Janet Johnson, and moved back to Mozambique with his family to begin their lives as activists of anti-colonial rule.Evolving Responsibility of the Frelimo Presidency
Prior to Mondlane’s death, leadership war between Uria Simango (the then vice-president to Mondale) and Samora Machel. In the end, the embittered battle drove Simango to leave Frelimo, and in 1970, Machel was officially instilled as President of Frelimo the movement and then the Party of the newly independent Mozambique until his death in the early 1980’s. It was during his presidency that the life of Machel and the accomplishments of Frelimo are hard to separate. 1975 marked the year when Frelimo took over Mozambique. Frelimo pushed the fact that it was there to liberate the people from colonial rule, and to allow them to think for themselves.As a resistance to the new government, Renamo, the Mozambican National Resistance Movement, was formed one year after liberation. The group was financially backed by South Africa and their allies, as well as rural Mozambicans. These rural people resented Frelimo government who was attempting to establish communal villages and change agricultural traditions. The countries funding Renamo were known to be highly racist regimes, and the guerilla fighters that they sent into Mozambique raped, murdered and pillaged thousands of homes in the rural areas ruining farming production and exporting. Some people were forced to join Renamo, which lead to illegal and inhumane actions. It wasn’t until almost two decades later that the war between Renamo and Frelimo was finally ended in a peace treaty.
For more information, please read Mozambican Women During Revolution, and Janet Mondlane: American Made, African Formed.
Sources:
- Hastings, Adrian. (1974). “Some Reflections Upon the War in Mozambique.” The African Affairs, Vol. 72, Number 292.
- Krunks, Sonia, Rayna Rapp, & Marilyn B. Young, ed. (1989). Promissory Notes: Women in the Transistion to Socialism. New York, New York: Monthly Review Press.
- Sheldon, Kathleen E. (1989). Pounders of Grain: a History of Women, Work, and Politics in Mozambique. Portsmouth, New Hampshire: Monthly Review Press.
- Wright, Robin. (1974). Machel’s Marxist Mozambique. Pasadena, California: California Institute of Technology.
Read more at Suite101: Movements of Liberation in Mozambique: Frelimo Versus Renamo for County Control | Suite101.com http://suite101.com/article/movements-of-liberation-in-mozambique-a144766#ixzz24yrpdlt3
