Eduardo Mondlane

Eduardo Mondlane
Chairman of theMozambique Liberation Front
In office September 1962 – 3 February 1969
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Samora Machel
Personal details
Born	Eduardo Chivambo Mondlane (1920-06-20)20 June 1920 Nwajahani,Mandlakazi,Portuguese Mozambique
Died	3 February 1969(1969-02-03)(aged 48) Dar es Salaam,Tanzania
Political party	Mozambican Liberation Front
Alma mater	Oberlin College(BA) Northwestern University(MA,PhD)
Occupation	Politician Professor
Profession	Anthropologist

Eduardo Chivambo Mondlane(20 June 1920 – 3 February 1969) was a Mozambican revolutionary andanthropologist,and founder of theMozambican Liberation Front(FRELIMO). He served as the FRELIMO's first leader until his assassination in 1969 inTanzania.An anthropologist by profession, Mondlane also worked as a history and sociology professor atSyracuse Universitybefore returning to Mozambique in 1963.

Early life

The fourth of 16 sons of a chief of theBantu-speakingTsonga,Eduardo Chivambo Mondlane was born in N'wajahani, district ofMandlakaziin the province ofGaza,inPortuguese East Africa(Mozambique) in 1920. He worked as a shepherd until the age of 12.

He attended several different primary schools before enrolling in a Swiss–Presbyterianschool nearManjacaze.He ended his secondary education in the same organisation's church school atLemana Collegeat Njhakanjhaka Village above Elim Hospital in theTransvaal(Limpopo Province), South Africa. He then spent one year at theJan H. Hofmeyr School of Social Workbefore enrolling inWitwatersrand UniversityinJohannesburgbut was expelled from South Africa after only a year, in 1949, following the rise of theApartheidgovernment.

In June 1950, Mondlane attended theUniversity of Lisbon,inLisbon,the capital of Portugal. On Mondlane's request, he was transferred to the United States, where he attendedOberlin Collegein Ohio at the age of 31, under a Phelps Stokes scholarship. Mondlane enrolled at Oberlin College inOberlin, Ohio,in 1951, starting as a junior, and in 1953 he obtained a degree in anthropology and sociology. He continued his studies atNorthwestern Universityin Evanston, Illinois. Mondlane earned an MA (1955), and then a PhD (1960) under the supervision ofMelville J. Herskovitson the subject of "Role conflict, reference group, and race".

In 1956, he marriedJanet Rae Johnson,a white American woman fromIndianawhom he met at a Methodist Youth conference. "

Anthropology career

Mondlane began working in 1957 as research officer in the Trusteeship Department of the United Nations which enabled him to travel to Africa and work on a PhD dissertation atNorthwestern University.His dissertation, under Herskovits' supervision, focused on the "liberal" tradition ofFranz Boas.

He concluded his PhD in 1960 and resigned from his United Nations position in 1961 to be allowed to participate in political activism. He took up a teaching position atSyracuse Universitythat same year where he helped develop the East African Studies Program. In 1963, he resigned from his post at Syracuse to move to Tanzania to engage in the liberation struggle ofFrelimo,the presidency of which he won in June 1962.

Political activism

After graduation, Eduardo Mondlane became a United Nations official. One ofAntónio de Oliveira Salazar's most important advisers,Adriano Moreira,a political science professor who had been appointed to the post of Portugal's Minister of the Overseas (Ministro do Ultramar), met Mondlane at the United Nations when both were working there and, recognising his qualities, tried to bring him to the Portuguese side by offering to him a post inPortuguese Mozambique's administration. However, Mondlane showed little interest in the offer and later joined the Mozambican pro-independence movements in Tanzania, who lacked a credible leader.In 1962 Mondlane was elected president of the newly formedMozambican Liberation Front(Frente de Libertação de Moçambiqueor FRELIMO), which was composed of elements from smallerindependentistgroups. In 1963 he settled FRELIMO headquarters outside of Mozambique inDar-es-Salaam,Tanzania. Supported both by several Western countries and theUSSR,as well as by many African states, FRELIMO began aguerrilla warin 1964 to obtain Mozambique's independence from Portugal. In FRELIMO's early years, its leadership was divided: the faction led by Mondlane wanted not merely to fight for independence but also for a change to a socialist society;dos Santos,MachelandChissanoand a majority of the Party's Central Committee shared this view. Their opponents, prominent among whom wereNkavandameandSimango,wanted independence, but not a fundamental change in social relations. The socialist position was approved by the Second Party Congress, held in July 1968; Mondlane was re-elected party president, and a strategy ofprotracted war based on support among the peasantry(as opposed to a quickcoupattempt) was adopted.

Death

In 1969, a book containing a bomb was sent to Mondlane at the FRELIMO Headquarters in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. It exploded when he opened the package in the house of an American friend, Betty King, killing him.Various parties have been implicated as potentially responsible for his assassination, including rivals within FRELIMO, Tanzanian politicians, the Portuguese secret service, andAginter Press.FormerInternational and State Defense Police (PIDE)Agent Oscar Cardoso claims that PIDE AgentCasimiro Monteiroplanted the bomb that killed Eduardo Mondlane.

Legacy and homages

Main articles:Mozambican Liberation Front,Mozambican War of Independence,andMozambican Civil War

Mondlane's death was mourned at a funeral in 1969 which was officiated by hisOberlinclassmate and friend the Reverend Edward Hawley, who said during the ceremonies that Mondlane "...laid down his life for the truth that man was made for dignity andself-determination."

By the early 1970s, FRELIMO's 7,000-strong guerrilla force had wrested control of some countryside areas of the central and northern parts of Mozambique from the Portuguese authorities. The independentist guerrilla was engaging a Portuguese force of approximately 60,000 military, which was almost all concentrated in the area ofCahora Bassawhere the Portuguese administration was finalising the construction of a majorhydroelectric dam,one of many facilities and improvements that the Portuguese provincial administration's development commission was rapidly developing since the 1960s. The 1974 overthrow of thePortuguese ruling regimeaftera leftist military coupin Lisbon brought a dramatic change of direction in Portugal's policy regarding its overseas provinces, and on 25 June 1975, Portugal handed over power to FRELIMO and Mozambique became an independent nation.

Mondlane's wifeJanet Rae Johnsonserved in various government positions, and his daughterNyeleti Mondlanebecame Minister of Youth and Sports and later of Gender, Children and Social Action.

Eduardo Mondlane University

In 1975, theUniversidade de Lourenço Marquesfounded by the Portuguese and given the name of the capital of Portugal'sOverseas Province of Mozambique,Lourenço Marques (nowMaputo,Mozambique), was renamedUniversidade Eduardo Mondlane,or Eduardo Mondlane University. It is located in the capital city of independent Mozambique.

Eduardo Mondlane Lecture Series

Syracuse University's Africa Initiative hosts theEduardo Mondlane Brown Bag Lecture Seriesthat invites speakers worldwide to participate in Africana studies.

Works

• Eduardo Mondlane,The Struggle for Mozambique.1969, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books.
• Helen Kitchen, "Conversations with Eduardo Mondlane", inAfrica Report,No. 12 (November 1967), p. 51.
• George Roberts. “The Assassination of Eduardo Mondlane: FRELIMO, Tanzania, and the Politics of Exile in Dar es Salaam.” Cold War History 17:1 (February 2017): 1-19. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14682745.2016.1246542.
• Robert, Faris,Liberating Mission in Mozambique. Faith and Revolution in the Life of Eduardo Mondlane,Eugene OR: Pickwick, 2014.

External links

• Secret History of PIDE / DGS: the elections of 1958 the death of Delgado