Launch of ‘Eduardo Mondlane: A Silenced Voice – New elements about his assassination’ – Watch

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Launch of ‘Eduardo Mondlane: A Silenced Voice – New elements about his assassination’ – Watch

1:51 CAT | 06 Jul 2023

Photo: Diplomacia PT/Facebook

The book ‘Eduardo Mondlane: A Silenced Voice – New elements about his assassination’ travels back to 1969 to try to unravel the death of the first president of FRELIMO. The perpetrator “possibly had help within the party”, the author of the work says.

Eduardo Mondlane is an unavoidable figure within the scope of the movements that fought for the liberation of Portuguese-speaking African countries from the colonial yoke.

The first president of the Mozambique Liberation Front (FRELIMO), the party in power in Mozambique, was assassinated in Tanzania on February 3, 1969, when he opened a parcel containing a bomb ostensibly sent from the then Soviet Union.

To this day, questions are asked about the real motivations behind his murder in Dar-es-Salam. It is not known how the deadly device got into Mondlane’s hands, and why he was the one to open the package containing the bomb.

Author and retired ambassador José Duarte de Jesus has thoroughly investigated five hypotheses in an effort to identify the main author of the death of the African leader. “There was only one hypothesis,” he argues.

“That [Mondlane’s assassination] was organised by the International and State Defence Police (PIDE) and by Aginter-Press, an extreme right-wing organisation in Portugal linked to the French Organisation Armée Secrète (OAS, “Secret Armed Organisation”), which was against the independence of African countries. In practice, it was executed by Casimiro Monteiro, who worked for the PIDE and who had already been involved in the death of Humberto Delgado. He was an expert in bombs,” José Duarte de Jesus explains.

Mondlane was “of the most moderate”

The diplomat adds that the author of the murder possibly had indirect help from within FRELIMO. “Some are certainly still alive,” he admits, recalling that Mondlane was one of the most moderate among African nationalist leaders.

“It was precisely because he was the most moderate that there was interest [in eliminating him]. At the time of Salazar’s death, the Portuguese extreme right was afraid that the new president of the Council [of Ministers] would fall into the dialogue. So, who would have to be eliminated? Not the most extremist, but the most moderate, who could lead to dialogue,” he argues.

That dialogue was aimed at negotiating the independence of Mozambique. However, after more than 50 years, the investigator points out that “what is mysterious is that the Tanzanian police report has disappeared”. Or, at least, “it was never published again”, he adds.

“Non-alignment positioning”

José Duarte de Jesus’ connection to Mondlane was born during his diplomatic mission as Portuguese ambassador in Bonn, Germany, in 1963.

Since then, he has established a strong relationship with the Mondlane family, namely with the politician’s widow, Janet Mondlane, and their children, which led him to write two books about the FRELIMO founder.

His latest publication, ‘Eduardo Mondlane: A Silenced Voice’, is is his second book about Mondlane and was launched at the Instituto Diplomático in the Portuguese capital, Lisbon, on Friday (June 30) .

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The leader’s son, Eduardo Mondlane Júnior, said that his father, who also embodied the qualities of a diplomat, “would be surprised, perhaps delighted” that a work about him was launched in 2023 on the premises of the Diplomatic Institute.

“It was through Mondlane’s diplomatic acumen that, in the context of the Cold War, the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique took the position of non-alignment, a move that probably cost him his life. Thus, we think that the symbolism of the launch of this work here in the Instituto Diplomático de Portugal, has its own reason,” he says.

The great man’s son also recalls that Mondlane was not just a nationalist, but above all a man with a vision which had, indirectly, contributed to the Pan-African policy of the then US President, John F. Kennedy.

Edward Mondlane Jr was accompanied at the presentation of the work of José Duarte de Jesus by his sister, Mozambique Minister of Gender, Children and Social Action Nyeleti Mondlane, who participated at the launch in a private capacity.