Mozambique island, In 1531 and 1544 Sena and Quélimane were founded. Portugal hoped to discover important sources of gold and silver in the African interior. However, neither metal was ever found in substantial quantities; hence Portuguese penetration of the hinterland was limited and ephemeral,
By 1700 only the Zambesi valley as far as Tete had been occupied. ‘The Portuguese population along the coast did not exceed 1,000, With. the collapse of the spice trade and the Asian empire, the Portuguese lost interest in the east coast, The whole area declined, the interior and the coast of Sofala becoming deserted, By 1810 the Portuguese coastal occupation was the same as in 1600, consisting of forts and trading posts from Ibo to Lourengo Marques.
Only in 1885 -- scarcely 80 years ago -~ with the "Great Scramble for Africa" by the major imperialist European powers did Portugal become seriously interested in Mozambique again.
a21l-
- Prom 1895 to 1896 a campaign under Antonio Enes and Mousinho. de- Albuquerque reduced Gazaland in southern Mozambique, In 1897 Coutinho occupied the coastal area north of Quelimane. In 1902-04 the Zambestia Company "pacified" the area from Tete to the Nyasaland frontier, In 1906 the northern sector opposite Mozambique Island was subdued, In a series of campaigns from 1908 to 1912 the Yao tribes off Lake Nyasa were brought under control, This ends the period of military conquest,
| The Chartered Companies Oe
Up until 1890, the major vector of the new imperialism, the chare tered company, was almost nonexistent in Portuguese Africa, From 1891 on, concessionary companies operated in Mozambique. By 1900 the Mozambique Company (1891), the Niassa Company (1891-93) and the zZambesia Company between them controlled two-thirds of Mozambique's economy, These companies were very smail in comparison with their English or German counterparts in Africa, At this time the Portuguese economy was archaic and bankrupt, 1It.was scarcely touched by the com= _ mercial and industrial expansion of: Western Europe in the nineteenth century. It could not convert itself from an extractive imperialism to a modern industrialized power, This factor is the root determinan of the structure of the present Portuguese colonies, Population
About 1930 there were 17,800 whites and 8,350 mestizos ‘in Mozamebique, The total population was around 3,500,000. Beginning in 1940, emigration rose significantly: 1940, 27,500; 1950, 48,000; 1960, -80,000. _ i
Since 1950 some 5,000 families have been settled at Guiga in the Limpopo valley, In order to raise living standards for the Europeans, these settlers received up to 10 acres of irrigated and 60 acres of grazing land from the government, At present there are about 12,000,000 Africans in Mozambique. . ° - Missionary Activity
Missionary work was carried on mainly by Portuguese Dominicans, Despite intensive campaigns, proselytizing remained ephemeral, In 1825 there were just 10 priests and of these 7 were Goans, In 1850 — there were 4 on the whole coast and not a single missionary in the. . interior, Towards 1900 there was an influx of foreign missionaries == mainly German friars, French Montfort and Salesian fathers, and Italian .Consolate friars, These missionaries were supported by Portugal in their campaign to bring the Christian religion to the natives and "barbaric races," .To become an obedient slave, the African had to be . civilized, while being restrained from becoming. skilled or given to private initiative, The Salazar regime of today, under the official rubric of "Faith, Family, Toil" is intensely Catholic,
According to the 1950 census, Mozambique had 210,000 Catholics and 60,000 Protestants. A third of the Christian community is thus heretical despite the absence of a Protestant minority in Portugal,
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In “ie there were 310 Catholic and 200 Protestant priests (or minis~ ters).
Missionary activity is linked with wider activities, At the dawn of European imperialism Vasco da Gama said: "I seek Christians and spices," Messianism has always been partner to colonial enterprise -and as such suggestive of all its other dimensions,
Education
In 1956 out of a total population of 6,000,000 according to the census (the. real figure is probably much higher}, only 284,000 (including whites) were in classes, In 1954, 183, 082 were listed ag attending rudimentary schools, these being reserved for Africans only. Of these, just 3,595 took: the final examination (after three years ) and of them 2 y 774 passed. In 1955 there were 212,428 pupils in Catho~ lic rudimentary schools, of these only 2,761 passed to continue their education in the primary schools, In 1954 there were 120 Africans in commercial, industrial and secondary schools in the whole of Mozambique.
In the elite Liceu -- the preparatory school for university level ~~ there were 5 Africans and 800 white students in 1954, No African. has ever completed the whole Liceu course, There is no university in Portuguese Africa, All higher education has to be acquired in Portugal or other countries,
The outcome is that less than 1% of the Africans are officially reckoned as literate (1950 census), This is important to understand~ ing why political organization and revolutionary work are of such low level in Mozambique.
Social Practices . Any observer can attest to the most - flagrant and classic type of discrimination in Mozambique, Hospitals have black and white wards; restaurants have notices stating "Admission Reserved"; hotels employ all-white staffs; in buses and trains, in parks and gardens, all over | there is strict discrimination,
A bus ride in Lourengo Marques. costs one~fourth the average daily African wage. High prices seal off Africans from white commercial, social and entertainment centers, Special rent levels impose separate white and African districts, ;
In Lourengo Marques, as in Cape Town or Johannesburg, - there is a permanent curfew for Africans after nine ofclock in the evening, The African is forced to carry a pass -- a "cadernato' -- to > ef ficiently control and enslave him,
One sees the, whole Apartheid and Baasskep policy of the Herrenvolk of South Africa at work here,
Foreign Monopoly
Although the statistics and research work and inadequate, the panorama of foreign capital in Mozambique is nonetheless impressive.
__. In 1959-60 Mozambique exported mainly cotton, cashew nuts, tea, sugar copra and sisal, British capital owns two of the large conces-= sions (the third is Portuguese), including the famous Sena states. “The Matola Oil Refinery -- Procon is controlled by. England and the United States, In 1948 the petroleum concession was given to the Mozambique Gulf O11 Company. At Maotize coal is mined; the industry is chiefly financed by Belgium. Of the capital of the Compagnie de Charbons de Mozambique, 60% is held by the Société Minitre et Géologique Belge, 30% by the Mozambique Company and the remaining 10% by the government,
Of the three banks in Mozambique, only the Banco Nacional Ultra~ marino is Portuguese, the other two are Barclay's Bank, D.C.0., and the Standard Bank of South Africa, Out of the 23 insurance companies, 9 are Portuguese, Foreign companies hold 80% of the life insurance,
Recently the Lourengo Marques Oil Refinery was established by SONAREP [Sociedade Nacional de Refinazao de Petréleo], a French- Portuguese syndicate, In the sisal plantations Swiss capital is inves~ ted; in copra concerns, a combination of Portuguese, Swiss and French,
Judging from the above, it is quite clear what a stake most. of the countries of the "free world" have in continuing the exploitation and oppression of the millions of toiling’ African masses under Portu~ guese slavery,
Terror
The November 21, 1963, issue of the Freedom magnon of Ghana pub» lished the following: “People are being drowned alive; people are being buried alive; people are being burnt alive; people are being skinned alive: «- all in the 20th Century, in Mozambique! Slavery is Rampant,"
To show that this is no exaggeration, I wish to repeat the list of crimes charged against Portugal by the Liberian delegate at the United Nations recently: (1) Drowning Africans in her territories, (2) Burying Africans up to their shoulders in the ground and crushing their heads with bulldozers, (35) Selling people from Mozambique to South Africa ond Southern Rhodesia at £2 ga head. She produced firsthand evidence that 10,000 African workers were being sold each year to South Africe, And Portugal belongs to NATO!
Mozambican freedom fighters who have fled to South Africa or Southern Rhodesia are kidnapped and maltreated by the police of Welensky and Verwoerd and handed over to the Portuguese secret police (PIDE), This service is reciprocated by the Portuguese, Some examples: The kidnapping of Edward Ngubeni and Philip Sebral from South Africa, and of Jaime Sigauke from Salisbury, in April 1962, to Mozambique. Recently Filipe Madzodzere and Alfred Amargo were kidnapped from Salis-~ bury. In June 1963, Peter Balamanja -- founder of the Mozambique
cy.
Dhow As)
African National Congress -- was again kidnapped, The Dennis. Brutus, Angie Brooks and Dr, Kenneth Abrahams incidents are other examples of kidnapping and forcible expulsion from neighboring territories to South Africa,
Due to poor communications, high illiteracy and rigorous control by the authorities, political organization inside Mozambique is very difficult, Portugal persistently cuts off contact with leaders and co# thinkers in other countries,
However, all this is in vain, With the progress of the Angolan revolution and the forward march of the African revolution, Portugal will soon have to roll up her map in Africa,
. 1'éditeur)., Directeur-Gérant: Pierre FRANK.