Mozambique: Chapo lights flame of national unity

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Mozambique: Chapo lights flame of national unity

7:57 CAT | 08 Apr 2025

Photo: AIM

Mozambican President Daniel Chapo on Monday lit “the flame of national unity”, which will be carried from Nangade in the northern province of Cabo Delgado, to Machava Stadium in Maputo, where it will arrive on 25 June, the 50th anniversary of Mozambican independence.

This is a deliberate echo of the torch that was carried across the country in June 1975, to coincide with the proclamation of independence by the country’s first President, Samora Machel.

The ceremony in Nangade also marked Mozambican Women’s Day, celebrated every year on 7 April. This year’s celebrations were held under the slogan: “50 Years Empowering Women and Building Gender Equality”.

Chapo declared that the emancipation of Mozambican women is the result of the public policies followed by successive governments since 1975, notably the increase of the access by women and girls to all levels of education.

In primary education, gender parity has almost been reached: Chapo said that 49.9 per cent of all pupils in primary education are now girls.

In health care, he added, matenal mortality has been cut from 1,092 women dying per 100,000 live births in 1997 to today’s figure of just 40 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births.

The symbolism of the torch of national unity, Chapo said, “is based on the traditions of Mozambican society, transmitted from generation to generation, in order to exalt our Mozambican nature, and to consolidate the union of the Mozambican nation, around a collective dream”.

Chapo stressed that carrying the torch across the country “is an act of State and not of any political party. It belongs to the Mozambican people and the Mozambican state”.

He noted that, in the recent past, “Mozambicans have faced successive challenges which could have shaken our national unity, our sovereignty, our territorial integrity and our national independence”.

Thos challenges included the islamist terrorism affecting parts of Cabo Delgado, the Covid-19 pandemic, successive cyclones and floods, and the “violent, illegal and criminal demonstations”, that had followed the October 2024 general elections.

The post-election unrest “claimed lives, and destroyed infrastuctures, with a damaging impact on our economy, our social fabric and our development”, said Chapo,

The torch of national unity was intended, he explained, “to invite all Mozambicans, regardless of their political party, their ideology, their ethnic, gender or racial origin, to come together and participate massively in the National and Inclusive Political Dialogue, which has already begun”.

“With the march of the flame of unity”, Chapo added, “we want to urge all Mozambicans to unite in the great mission to lay the foundations so that our economic independence can become a reality”.

Acaba de ser lançado em #Nangade, província de #CaboDelgado, a tocha da “Chama da Unidade Nacional”, que deverá ser passada de mão em mão, atravessando todas as províncias do país, até chegar #Maputo no dia 25 de Junho, dia da Independência Nacional. #Moçambique pic.twitter.com/hdp4NTMnUc

— Alexandre Nhampossa (@AllexandreMZ) April 7, 2025