Farewell, Marcelino dos Santos

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Farewell, Marcelino dos Santos

12:23 CAT | 19 Feb 2020

[Photo: DW]

This Wednesday (19.02), Mozambique pays its last tribute to a founding member of the Front of Liberation of Mozambique: Marcelino dos Santos, who passed away on February 11, and will have a public funeral at the Praça dos Heróis Moçambique in Maputo.

Marcelino dos Santos is considered by historians, journalists and filmmakers a man who upheld the pedigree of “the historical Frelimo”, and a defender of the well-being of the people.

This Wednesday (19.02), the funeral of the veteran of the armed struggle will take place in the crypt of Heroes’ Square, a ceremony preceded by the reading of messages.

In his lifetime, Marcelino dos Santos adopted and defended a Marxist-Leninist-oriented socialism as the best option for fighting poverty in Mozambique.

Marcelino criticised, in his interventions, the shift from socialism to a market economy in Mozambique, even revealing that the issue had not been discussed in a party which has been in power for four decades.

Journalist and historian Refinaldo Chilengue believes that this makes sense, because Marcelino dos Santos maintained his political integrity since the days of the struggle for independence. Chilengue thinks he resisted the changes that other fighting comrades made after the proclamation of independence.

The abandonment of Marxism-Leninism

“He, as a human being, may have had imbalances in his performance, but, fundamentally, Marcelino dos Santos maintained his ideological integrity,” Chilengue says.

Capitalism was an unthinkable model at the time of the proclamation of independence, but – from 1987 onwards, when Mozambique opened up to economic liberalism – many Frelimo members were criticised by Marcelino for having rapidly enriched themselves.

For Chilengue, Marcelino dos Santos has no history of accumulating wealth – at least as far as is known. This would chime well with the socialist ideology he always maintained.

“He is one of those who we know possessed no great fortune, did not get into big business of dubious origin. He died defending – at least publicly – that initial philosophy that we learned of when Frelimo first came to power in 1974,” Chilengue notes.

“Kalungano”

Film director Sol de Carvalho believes that “Kalungano” – a pseudonym adopted by Marcelino dos Santos in his poems – is a story that has yet to be told; the story of a major-general to be savoured with objectivity.

“Today, perhaps, there are still many prejudices, many desires that are not very coincident and that cause some friction in this objective historical vision. But time will tell why he really marked a generation,” de Carvalho muses.

When Mozambique achieved independence in June 1975, several political and economic scenarios pressured the country to change its political system, but poet Marcelino dos Santos continued with his dream, cultural journalist Belmiro Adamgy says.

“Because he continued to be a lucid person, very interventional when he had the opportunity to speak, he never shied away from saying what he thought, which shows that he had present in his mind the things that he and his colleagues who participated in armed struggle wanted,” Adamgy treats.

Kalungano was sometimes disenchanted with members of the party who had taken personal advantage, Adamgy also notes.

“He did not agree with that. He said that this was not what Mondlane dreamed of, and that, at some point, some people had becomes confused about the objectives for which Frelimo had been created.”

Source: Deutsche Welle