=r=:':

EDUARDOCHIVANBO)\immLAHE

1920-1969

In April of last year Dr I\1artin Luther King was struck down by an as aass i.n ' sbullet on the balcony of a Memphis hotel. The whol.e world was shocked by hisuntimely death. Noone who SaI', his f'unera l televised on American TV can erase fromhis mind the picture of the tens of thousands .- rich and poor, poverf'u.l and power-denied, men, womenand children of every race, nation, condition, religious con- ,viction and political persuasion - following the mule-train with his simple coffindown the streets of Atlanta to the open·-air service at Norehouse College. The wholehuman race had lost a leader, a warrior in the struggle for justice, dignity andfreedom for all men. Dr King has rightly earned his place in history and hismemory will continue to inspire me:t}wherever freedom and justice are cherished.

On February 3, 1969 another "freedom f i ghte r" was struck down, this time by anassassin's bomb in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania. But Eduardo Mondlane's death does notevoke the same universal response of revulsion, agony and even despair. One head-line of an English newspaper simply reads "Bombkills JIIlozambiqueOuer-i Ll.a'!, The newsstories only give the dry bones of the facts about his tragic death, the work he wasdOing, and conjectures about the possible enemies who were out to destroy him. Noneof them convey the true dimensions of the loss whi ch ,J"eall feel so keenly, or theseriousness of the cause for whi ch he gave his life. Unlike Jl'Iartin Luther KingEduardo Mondlane did not w i.n the Nobel Peace Prize, though he knew more about whatmakes for true peace than most men ever will. He did not organize non-violentresistance to injustice, though h~s Christian compassion was just as real andtransparent as that of King and his disciples. - lie 1ias not a great preacher, but avery articulate layman who could speak with passionate eloquence on the subjects ofwhi.ch he had first-hand knowledge and experience, notably the humiliation and violence0,£ which Africa and black men have been victims for far too long., But like Kinghe clung to life as a precious gift and yet did not measure its intrinsic worth bythe number of days that a nran could add to his life, 'but by the quality of thosedays and years which were given to him to carry out his own vocation, of leadershipin the struggle 'for freedom of all men in i:louthern Africa, whit,:.:, black and brownalike. Because he opted for violence does not diminish one bit his stature as aChrlstian or as a protagonist for freedom. It only serves to dramatize the differ-ences of the situations to whi ch he and Martin Luther King had been called to playtheir respective roles of leadership in thG struggle. Non-violent resistance hadbeen tried for over fifty years in South Africa by the African National Congressand had only culminated in the famous shooting a ': Sharpeville and Langa and in thebanning of non-white political parties.

The wh.ite Christian communit~", bot h within Southe rn Africa and in the westernChristian nations wh.ich have given ei thc r tacit or overt support to oppressiveminority regimes in Southern Africa, bears a large measure of responsibility forthe failure of non-violent resistance to oppression, and mU~3ttherefore share theresponsibility for the inevitable escalation of the violence of which Eduardo Mondlaneis one of the perpatrators as well as om")of the most important victims. Anyservice of appreciation of his life, and of his distinctive witness as a war-r-i orfor justice, which did not take that fact into account wou.ld be a hypocriticalgesture, cold comfort to his vridow,Janet, his three children and his comrades inthe freedom movements of Southern Africa. SOlve have come here to remember the man;but more than that we have corns to remember the cause for "Jhich he gave his life,and our own complicity, and that of our cuur-che s , in a desperate situation whi chmade his option for direct action against Portuguese oppression inevi tab I;:; • .

- 2 .-

First a few 'iJords about 'tho man. Eduardo Chivambo 110ndlane was born in 1920into the family of a proud and prominent chief of thE:;'l'songa peoples, whoseancestral lands s tr-e tch from Nor the rn 'I'r-anevaaI into; South::,rn Nozambique. He ,'TaSeducated in Swiss mission schools in both countries, hls early training being forth" work of a ca toch ..is t and school master. After completing his matriculation examsat 1omana, a Swiss mission secondary school in Northern Transvaal, h8 enrolled atthe famous .Ian Hof'meyr School for Social Studios in .Iohanncabur-g, and later atWitvmtersrand University in the S&110 city, when) he studied sociology. But theSouth African authori t.Los would not Lst him complete his uni versi ty studies therearid he was obliged to t.ake th,) entrmlc<; exami.na+Lons for the University of Lisbon,where he did am) year in the FacuLt:y of Lot te r-s bef'oro being granted a HGthodistCrusades Scholarship for study at Oborlin Collage in the U.S.A. On completingOberlin he did graduate work at Northwes tcr-n Uru.vers.i ty where he got his Ph, D. inanthropology in 1956.

'I'he samo YOaJ::'ho marriod .Ianot Johnson. 'I'ho interracial marriage vm-B',-to saythe· least, controversial. But it is to tho credit of both Janc t and Eduardo thatthey treated opposition and racist rebuffs I'dth gracious charity and redeemingsense of humour. 'I'he marriage was an outstanding evi dono-s of an authonticpartnership be tween two unusual peoplo. In recent years the mere fact of being evenq casual friend of the MondlanGs has been for some people a kind of status symbol;for others who knew the suffering, anxi eti.es , and uncertainties th8y daily livedas a family, just to be in their horn",for Q fev! moments was a humbling and dOE::plymoving exper-i.ence ,

In 1957 Eduardo joined thE; staff of the United Nations in the Department ofTerritorial Research and Analysis of the Division of 'I'rustoGships. He served inthis post until late 1960. Anyone who knows recent hi s tory ".rilL recognizo--thatthese were the tht'ee cru~i~l ye&rs· in \"hicJ:rthe fina1 phase of th:" nationaliststruggle culminatodin tho accession of many African nations to political independ-ence. In his strategic post in the UNEduardo was in a unique position to knowwhat was going on allover t}vd turbuLmt continent, and even to help shape events.He was involvod in the national referendum wh.ich divided th.) t.ru stoe sbi.p territoryof West Cameroun into two, one part going to Nigeria and the other to Cameroun.It was during this per i.od that ho was eapoci a.lLy in demand as a apeake r f'or studentconf'orcrrces and church conforcmcos all OVGrtho U.S,A.

It was during this puriod that I came to know him for th0 first time. I shallnever f'oz-gst th3.t first mcct.i ng , because it has Lar-goLy shaped my ovrn a tt irtudostowards events in Afr i ca in the year-s since. It vIas..at a seminar on Af'r-i.ca atChatauqua , NewYork, orgaru zod by the Afr-ica-Amer'Lcan Lnsti. tu to , v.rj,thDr Emory Rossas chairman. I was just back f'r-omCongo on hem> leave and was deeply troubled bytho proliforation of tribal political par ta.os in the; Congo, par-t i.es whose divisionswerG jeopardizing the struggle for independence. I discovered that Eduardo knewand understood what was going on in Congo f~r better than I did, although I hadlived there for a large pa!r't of my life. HGhad the brilliant and incisivo mindwhi.ch allowed him to put together tho pieces of the crazy jig-saw puzzle of eventsand make an intelligent picture out of 'them, We talked many long hours about ovont sin Congo, in particular, and Africa .in general, and it was these talks that gaveme 3. consuming interest in the political, economic, and social factors that makeup the whole fabric of history. I shall never forget how skillfully Eduardo wouldtake on the "pr of'es eaona'La'", liko Joseph Satterthvrai te, then President Ei.senhower ' sSf2cretary for African Affairs in the U.S. State Depar tmont ; In his quiet butpersistent "my he would unmask the vagar-i os , i;nconsistencies, and hypocrisy of U,S.foreign policy in relation to Africa, exposing the vast chasm h'otwGon the idealswe profess publicly as a nation and t.ho nar-r-owself-inturest whi ch actually deto mu.neour relations with the b.lack people of Af'r-ice., And yet y while doing this, Eduar-do,like the true: pr-ophot he was, neve r left any doubt in anyorie ' s mind that he lovedthe American people and was deeply committed to the ideals enshrined in theirconstitution.

3 --

. He was a remarkab'ly froo man. B'roe of self-righteousness. Pree of any self-justifics.ti.on because the Croator had cast him into +ho role of a black man, andpr-esumabLy he did not t.horof'or-e have to g'ive ac count for th0 si ns of the whi t,,~man.Let me illustrat,,,. \~!:J r-oomed togethGr at the gr,::':tt student quadrennial at OhioUniversity in Athens, Ohio in .Ianuar-y 1960•. One night I 1ms s i t t i ng noxt to himduring a pc.rf'ormance of Gunther Rute rbo rn ' s The Sj..g1l o( Jonah. 'I'ho theme of thiqplay by an East Bor-Li n theologian has to do ,vith th& whoLo question of g:uil t forthe crimos of the Cormans against th2 Je,·TS·and other minori ty racc:s in Europeduring thG Hitler period. Since each per-oon in the pl.ay absol vas himself of guilt,pleading ignorance of what ,was going on, or :::xtenuating circumstances which mader-ss.is t.ance impossible, the conclusion is 'tha t God is guilty, and. therefore He mustdi o , vihon the play was over Eduar-do was doep in thought .irh wa.lked back to theroom and he di.d not want to talk. Tho play had moved him deeply and when lO.ter Iremcns tz-ated with him, "But Eduardo, you of all people. 'I'hat play was not forpeople like you who have a'lways been the victims of my raco' s violc.:nce. It was for,;),8 and for people like: me, who Li.kr, to rationalize our innocence b3' having theright ideas and the right attitudes? but who will not lift Q finger to really getinvolved in tho struggle against cppr-oaai.on l " But he woul d not accopt that. Hefel t a deo)) solidarity vli th all members of the human r ace , whi.ch wouLd not a.lLovhim to disassociate himself from tho con1ffionguilt and the collective bad conscience.

I met him again a t Ihndolo Ecumenical Centre in KihT8, -Zamb-i.a , in Juno 1964.A lot had happened in four years. Eduardo had loft his jo'b with the United Nationsand had taken on a position at Syracuse University in l'ifeN Yo:rk, teaching anthropologyand African studies thore for two years. He had a comfortablo position, academicpr-es ti gc , and a wife and. three chi Ldron, for whose future he could bo ,justifiablyconcerned. Bu-t in 1961 tho terrible blood-bath had. taken place in Angola in whi chthousands had lost th'2ir lives. Tho liberation struggl",) in Por tugues o territorieshad begun in earnest. Guerilla action in Angola and Portuguese Guinea, had evokeda massive military response from the Por tuguc se govermnont. vomething had to bedone about getting tho struggle aga.i.nst the Por tuguo sc r,;gime in Mozambiqueorganized. Various splinter Liber-ati on movomant s had emerged, but thoy just didnot seem to be able; to get t: unified, coordinated effort started. Eduardo in 1963had responded to tho call of his pcopl.e and had managed to put togeth(r a ratherfrail coa.li tion of movernont s , callod the IvIozambiqueLi.bur-a't i.on Front, or FRELHrO.They had very Lit tLe to start w i t.h oxcep t a base and a fevJ peasant voLuntoor-s foran army vri thout weapons or training. The base was granted by t.hs newl.y independentgovernment of Tanzania? wh.ich was itself in a dangerously vulnerable position toPortuguese retaliation. The vi'Oaponscame ma.inLy from Chi na and the socialistcountries of Easto rn Europe. '1'11(') training was provided in camps in Algeria. By1964 FRELH10was ready. to take to tho f i.eLd.,'Ti th a pitiful rag-tag force of acouplo of hundred volunteers against a Portuguese army of thousands armed with themost modern, sophisticated weapons.

It was at this time::Eduardo Ifondlane carne to the Consultation on Race Relationsin Southern Africa, jointly organized by the llorld Council of Churchcs , rhndoloEcumernoa.I Centro, and the, South African Institute of Race Relations. All the"z-i.ght people" were there from Southern Africa, that is church people, for t.ho mostpart? from South Africa 1 Rhodesia, Zambia and staff mcmbar-sof the wce. Some ofthem had suffered because of thci r r0sistance to racism, B.n(iits incarnation in SouthAfrican ,.§2.arth€id. But our collective commitm:Jnt added up to one thing, a co;nmit-morrt to non=vi oLerrt change , 1r.TG would ask the churches to radicalize their commit-mcnt to that change, to intenSify their opposition to apSlr't1?",id, to be morecourageous in accepting the risks of confrontation vIi th Vorvocrd and Smith, butwe shrunk from talking about violence in concrete, existontial torms, ~'IG could anddid talk about it in thobreiical tdrms? even accepting its inevi t.abili ty in certaincircumstances when all other efforts fro chango had failed. Por th", South Africans,whi te and black, to even t aIk about it as a possibili tyvJOuld have beon an act of

----_.-._'---------

- 4- -

t reason whi.ch wouLd have cxoo scd +hom to Lmpr-isonmcnt on return to South Africa.(Two of thsm publicly disas~oci[1. toel t uj,1:;;olV8S f r om the consul to.tion roport forthis reason.) 'I'hen Eduardo car.c , K, was only abl.e to stay for one day of -theconsul tation be cause of pressing business, but hi e pr-osenco mada a profoundLmpr-esa ion upon all. He dismissed t110 th~,oretical taIk of vi.oLonce and movinglydescri bed thE; ci r-cumstance s which had 1,A to thc organisation of an army of"freedom fighters" to Li.bera te Hoz.ambi.que f'r-o.nPo.rtugue se ru.Lc, an ar-my that wasa few weeks later to embark. on i t3 first campagn nga.ins t overwhelming odds. liha the and his comrades of FRELHlOn.oded v;eranot ser-mons on p.on-violence as opposodto violence 9 but 'tho help of the Chr-Lst i an cornmurri.ty in learning how to use violoncewithout ha te , with maxi.mumrestraint and d.i.ecipLi.no, and wi t.h the clear gon.L ofth,:) establishment of [;\ non-a-ac i a.I society ::s'uaranteeing justice and dignity forall men.

vIi th or. without the 'help of the Christian community Eduardo MondlamL..sllcceededadmirably in living up to the ch~110nges he placed before tho Mindolo Consultation.His movement was noted for its disciplinu, its I'estrsint and its gcnuino concornfor the vi81fare of all th:.:: pcop.l cs of flbza,'lbique, including th0 thousands ofPortugueso pea.aan t s who have been pawns in the hands of the military, the police 9

,and the corrupt aristocracy of Portugal. There have even been a fe1tl def'ec t.i.ons ,both ci vi.Li.an and mili +ary , to the r-anks of FRELHlObecause the enemy knew thatFRELIMOdOGSnot trGat its pr-i sone r-s the way that the Por tuguuse army and policetrea t theirs. In a r08.1 way Eduardo and FRELH'IOhave been fighting not only forthe f rocdon of black men in ~~ozambiqu8, but also for that of white men in bothMozambique and Portugal who ar-e bur-donod down under an anachronistic and cruo lregime that protects the privileges of tho f0l'l at th,:: expense of th,'} many.

-Eduar-do and his f'anu Ly lived -urrder +ho con stnrrt shadow of danger and possiblo

vi.oLant death. Tho pro s s have referred to him as the "most wanted man in Portugal".That is possibly no exaggeration, for his army had grown to over 1 J., 000 and bylast y.,,',~rhad n':mtr0.l:i.zed a sufficiently large ar(~a of Nor-tho rn r1ozambiquo as tomake it possible to hold the Second Congress of F'RELHmvIithin Hozamb i que for thefirst time. Por tuguo sc planes d.isc ovor-ad th", pl ac e of mcot i ng on the last day ofthe Congross and came back 'tho next morning to bomb it 1 but(y that timc', thecongress had dispersed. Eduardo has been compared w ith tho Cuban r-cvoLut i.onar-y ,Ch0 Ouevar-a, but unlike ChG 11(. had mas s.ive , popular support of thc p,:;ople he wasleading. Various conjectures arc boi.ng made as to who p12nt0d UK' bomb - thePortugueso or political enemies v[ithin his party. Eduar-do made vonomi os , There isno denying that. He was no doctrinaire revolutionary. Ho accepted aid and suppor-tfrom whoovor 'would givi;:; it, whethcr- from the East or f'r om thc ikst. That made somepeople unhappy on both sides of the: Cold VIal'. Ho also .made it clear th[].t _FRELHIOwas organi zed in the interests of all tho peoples of lVIozamb.i.que9 and that he wasnot intorested in tribal politics. That too made some tribLLl opportunists unhappy.And of course he made tn-, Portuguese very unhappy.

But who killed Edua.rdo is not the matter of urgent concern. According to hisown understanding of human solidarity we aL], conni VGd in his murder. Of coursenone of us ,planted, th,; bomb, and probably none of us w i shed him or his cause anyill. But we all live from the fruits of an economic, political and soci:'.lorderthat gua rarrte es Portugal's immunity from those srmctions whi ch aLorie can bringabout tho changes in Mozambique for wh'ich .Eduar-do fought and died. As long as the,NATOAlliance of •.rh.i.ch Po.rtuga.I is a member puts a high,':)r priori tyonAmerican basesin t.ho Azores than it doos on the par-t ic i pa ta on of Africans in Portuguese territoriesin the; political and uconomic docisions by which their fate is doc i dod ; as long as1rJ'estern f'Lnanci a.l interests con t inue to prop up tho "sick man of Europe" 9Portugo.l;as long as the unholy <:111iance of church and th<:,~military junta in Portugal remainsunc.ha.LLengod by men of conscience - Portugo.l ,..rill corrt i.nue to use tho resourcesprov:i.ded by he.r ~Vost()rn al.Li.es , including investment capi t'll and NA'rO weapons, fapursue her shameful colonial va r in Africa, a ".Tarthat has riLr-eady cost the lives ofuntold thousands of victims and forced hundreds of thousands of others into exile.

- 5 -

Edu.i rdo did not ask or expect too much from his friends in the chur-ches , Hedid not expect us to come and join his guerilla forces. Ho did not 8V€n ask usfor arms for thc strw;gL:; he; knou "ihera he could get thOS0. The little moneythat vas made avadLab l.o through the chur chce for MOZ8..111biquGr0fug88S? and forci v i.Li an projects such as the I'iloz.'10biqu;..Insti +ut e in Dnr-es-S'llaam, was little moreth'ln a. token involvement on our part in a struggL, that demands of us more thanjust token involvement. He asked for understanding of th8 issues that ::,rd ;:;,tstakc , He pled pat icn tly, and 1tTith amczi ng cha r.i t.y, for us to open our ·:)y:};sandsee how de8ply our soc i eti es ar;_; Lnvo l vod in por-petua t i.ng injustices that screamto heaven to be rcdrussed. His ck;"t;h leaves us still 1trith tho unanswer-ed question:Are tho churches willing to risk t.hei r insti tutional secur i. ties by getting involvedin the struggle to unmask and eradicate +ho evil that ef'f'ec t iveLy undermines theirmoral credibility among men of colour in thu vrorld todo.y? Are we as Christiansready to bke on t.hc Lnc r cd.ib.Iy difficult and th:1nkloss job of educating thochu rcho s as to wha t is at stake? 'llhe most fitting memo r-ial t.hat we could possiblycreate for Eduardo Mondlane would be well-organized lobbies of Christians dedicatedto tile goals of th0 stopping tho f'Low of NATOarms into Portugal's c oLorri a.l, ,,;rarand to tho political, economic and social quur-an t i ne of t.he pr·...;sont r-ogirne in poworin Portugal, until such time as that regimE; is ready to negotintG il politicalsettlement of the conflict based upon majo r i ty rule. This much "Ie can do throughthe various institutions +hrouch wh i.ch we express our political convictions asChristians. We can not af'f'o rd to do less.

DVlME/69/10

/