‘White Priest’: Mozambique’s future depends on the absence of the threat of armed conflict

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

‘White Priest’: Mozambique’s future depends on the absence of the threat of armed conflict

11:57 CAT | 21 Jun 2017

One of the thirty-four Catholic priests expelled in the 1970s by the Portuguese colonial regime said in Beira in a meeting with journalists last week that there was no future in Mozambique as long as weapons were raised for the purpose of creating fear.

“This continually threatening does not build up the country, does not guarantee the future of the nation. Even in colonial times, when I went to the airport accompanied by PIDE [the colonial secret police], I told them to take a good look at my face because I was going to return. The colonial regime was not eternal,” the author of “Provérbios dos Sena”(“Proverbs of the Senna”) and the short story “Mphyanga”, Jose Pampalk, said.

He was answered a question about peace in Mozambique. “We continue to receive news about everything that happens in Mozambique. Even about the hidden debts,” he added.

“I cannot believe that the Mozambican people have this will to kill each other. I do not believe the people are in the mood for war. The people only want peace. They want the constructive thing,” he said.

Pampalk added that living in a climate of tension created by gunfire is itself a crossroads, since the same people who just yesterday waged war to get rid of the Portuguese colonialists were again plunged into the same situation, which would not generate a hero at the end of the day.

Pampalk said his expulsion was due to the fact that he and other priests denounced the barbarity practiced by the Portuguese colonial regime against the Mozambican people. Even so, there were voices in the Catholic church urging silence.

“We were expelled because we opened our mouths. They said it was not up to the church to stand up for justice. They said that because they were the settler’s priests. We could not remain silent, because we would be complicit in injustice.”

“I was in Inhamízua, starting up the Centre of Nazaré. We were called ‘the white priests’, Missionaries of Africa. At that time the official church was linked to the colonial regime. We defended the people and justice. We had to protest. We could not stand alongside bishops who do not defend the people.”

He goes on to say that the archbishop of Lourenço Marques, Custódio Albino Pereira, “defended the war against the terrorists. When Inhaminga’s priest, Jose Marques, denounced the massacres of Inhaminga, he said it was a lie, an exaggeration against the Portuguese government.”

“Mozambique suffered. The people suffered greatly. But why do you continue to suffer? Mozambique conducted its liberation struggle. Many sacrificed their lives. But why the suffering? Freedom has not come for all. The benefits of liberty did not cover all. Some think I have the right to everything because I fought for liberation. “Mphyanga” [“It is mine.”]. But everybody fought for independence.”

pamplak