“Decisive”: Miguel Mkaima on the role of Frelimo schools in the emancipation of Mozambique

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“Decisive”: Miguel Mkaima on the role of Frelimo schools in the emancipation of Mozambique

4:00 CAT | 21 Sep 2020

Photo: O País

Education played a decisive role in the development of a liberating awareness in the population, a major contribution to the country’s independence, Miguel Mkaima said at the opening ceremony of Frelimo’s 50th anniversary festivities last Thursday.

The legacy of the Mozambique Liberation Front and the role of education in the process of fighting for freedom was the background to the start of the festivities.

Miguel Mkaima, former minister of culture and coordinator of the initiative, pointed out in his speech that the focus on education helped Mozambicans in the struggle for emancipation, explaining that it was not enough to train people, but was also necessary to work on their minds.

“Frelimo insisted on the importance and the need to train the new man, in order for the struggle itself to be able to move forward. For Eduardo Mondlane, education was a basic political-ideological condition for the success of the struggle, as the issue of training did not involve only the military aspect, but the integral training of men,” Mkaima said.

“The integral formation of man comprised three axes of the revolution, alongside production and combat, guided by the watchword: Study, Produce and Fight. So education was not just an exclusive task for teachers, but for the whole of society, including the guerrillas themselves,” the former minister of Culture said.

The idea of investing in education as a crucial element for the development of minds did not die with Mondlane, and the leaders who followed gave it the same importance,said Mkaima, who also served as ambassador to Portugal and Cuba.

“The immeasurable importance of education inspired Samora Machel to understand that armed action – which presented itself as the only alternative for the achievement of national independence – would only achieve success if it ‘made schools a base for the people to take power’. That is how the need for people with technical qualifications and a certain level of basic education to master the struggle on all fronts was created,” he explained.

Mkaima also said that, although today’s challenges are different, the celebrations of 50 years of Frelimo schools are aimed at transmitting these same values to the new generation.

“Today, new challenges are imposed, among them the consolidation of multiparty democracy and the democratic reform of the State. For young people, this will be a great opportunity to interact with the most experienced, receiving the experience of those who have followed this teaching model. For civil society, it will be a moment of reflection on the feeling of homeland. We are all indebted to this generation, because the training they have undergone has opened up new horizons. It is good that this be remembered,” he concluded.

The highest point of the celebrations for the 50th anniversary of the Frelimo party schools will be the 25th of this month, which recalls the creation of the first Frelimo school in Bagamoyo, Tanzania, in 1970. The ceremony will be attended by the party president Filipe Nyusi.

By Raúl Massingue

Source: O País