Watch: The Barue revolt broke out exactly a century ago, sparked by forced labour in Mozambique

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Watch: The Barue revolt broke out exactly a century ago, sparked by forced labour in Mozambique

9:16 CAT | 31 Mar 2017

presidencia.gov.mz

Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi on Tuesday urged Mozambicans to honour the heroes of the Barue Revolt, which broke out exactly a century ago, in March 1917, for the courage, unity, determination and daring they had shown.

The revolt, sparked off by the Portuguese colonial regime’s demand for forced labour, erupted on 27 March 1917. Centred on what is now Barue district, in the central province of Manica, the rebellion attacked Portuguese positions throughout the Zambezi Valley, and united several ethnic groups against the colonial occupying force. It took the Portuguese until 1920 to extinguish the flames of revolt.

Nyusi inaugurated a monument in the Barue district capital, Catandica, to the Makombe, the most prominent of the traditional ruling families that led the revolt.

“Just like the people of Barue, we should revolt against everything that brings us disunity, against everything which prevents us from progressing economically and socially, and we should take control of the reins of our history”, declared Nyusi. “Let us be the masters of our own destiny”.

Paying tribute to the heroes of past resistance, he added, meant “solidarity, reconciliation and peaceful coexistence among Mozambicans”.

He praised the heroes of the Barue Revolt for daring to fight against a much better equipped army, and never vacillating in their struggle. “We are here to do justice to our own history”, he declared. “The dream of our ancestors was to see us all free. 25 June 1975 (the date of Mozambican independence) was the result of our wanting to be free and independent, an ideal that began right from the early days of the attempts to implant the Portuguese colonial system in Mozambique”.

Thus the date of Mozambican independence was also “the day of the victory of the Barue Revolt”.

“This is the reading of continuity that we should make of our past”, added the President, “where we look on the facts that led to a more structured form of nationalism in Mozambique. These are the corner stones of the strengthening of our peace, our sovereignty and our national unity”.