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Mozambique: Follow Example of Those Who Died for this Country - Guebuza
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Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique (Maputo)
8 July 2008
Posted to the web 8 July 2008
Mecula
Mozambican President Armando Guebuza on Monday urged young Mozambicans to follow the example of men like John Issa, a freedom fighter who died 40 years ago during the war waged by the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo) for independence from Portuguese colonial rule.
He was speaking at Macalange, in Mecula district, near Issa's birthplace in the northernmost province of Niassa.
"Let the young people of today embrace, with the same conviction as John Issa, the struggle against poverty", Guebuza declared. "Let them understand that poverty has its weaknesses, just as John Issa knew that foreign rule has weaknesses". That belief, he insisted, could be turned into the conviction that poverty can be defeated.
The best way of honouring those Mozambicans who, in 1964, took up arms against colonial rule, "is to relegate poverty to history", Guebuza added. "That will be a worthy homage to all those who, like John Issa, dared to struggle and to bring about the country's independence".
John Issa was born in 1940 in the Mecula village of Lulanga. He joined Frelimo in 1964, and received his initial military training at Bagamoyo, in southern Tanzania. When a larger centre was opened at Nachingwea, nearer the Mozambican border, Issa became a politico-military instructor there.
In 1966, he was appointed political commissar of a guerrilla unit operating in Macomia district, in Cabo Delgado province. When "sub-base Mocambique" was set up in that district, he became its commander.
In March 1968, he headed a major guerrilla attack on a Portuguese barracks at Lunyu, which led to the capture of a large amount of Portuguese military equipment, and which drove the colonial troops out of the area. But this was his last battle: on 24 March he suffered fatal injuries during a Portuguese air raid.
Guebuza described John Issa as "a man of conviction" and "a brilliant and fearless guerrilla". He not only commanded other fighters, but was also able to mobilise the peasant communities of Cabo Delgado to support the struggle for independence, and "to fight in order to become masters of their own destinies".
For Guebuza, men like John Issa "are a permanent source of inspiration". They were the generation who had forged the Mozambican nation during the struggle for independence, and created the sense of Mozambican identity. They ended "the oppression and humiliation of Mozambicans", and raised Mozambique "to the same pedestal occupied by the other nations of the world".
This year the government is paying tribute to several national heroes who died 40 years ago. Similar ceremonies have already been held for Tomas Nduda and for Mateus Sansao Muthemba. Later in the year homage will be paid to Jose Macamo and to Paulo Samuel Kankomba. Also this year, the country is commemorating the 40th anniversary of Frelimo's Second Congress, held at Matchedje, in the liberated zones of Niassa, despite the constant threat of Portuguese bombardment.
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All these commemorations have been held as solemn state occasions, to recall the life and work of those who made an independent Mozambique possible, and to encourage younger generations to follow their example.
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| Copyright © 2008 Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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