27 August 2008
Inhassoro — Mozambican President Armando Guebuza on Wednesday warned the people of Inhassoro district, in the southern province of Inhambane, that the struggle against poverty will be lengthy - but if all Mozambicans are committed to this battle, then it will be successful, just as the war against Portuguese colonial rule was eventually crowned with success.
Speaking at a rally on the second day of his working visit to the province, Guebuza said that in the past Mozambicans were unable to fight in a coordinated way against poverty because the colonial system stood in the way. Colonialism was the immediate enemy that had to be removed before poverty could be tackled.
Colonial rule had caused the development of Mozambique to stagnate, he argued, and Portugal had proved one of the worst of colonial powers, since it even prevented those it ruled from obtaining education.
Portuguese colonialism had never been interested in the economic development of Mozambique, shown clearly by its concentration of educational facilities only in the areas where the Portuguese settlers lived. It was only after independence in 1975 that schools and even universities could be multiplied across the country.
The post-independence government, Guebuza stressed, designed strategies to pull Mozambique out of its poverty, and schools and universities were key to this. Knowledge, the President insisted, was a crucial weapon in the fight for prosperity.
In clear reaction to those who say that the ruling Frelimo Party has "done nothing" in its years in power, Guebuza pointed out that in three decades of independence, more schools and hospitals have been built than in all 500 years of colonial presence in Mozambique.
Nonetheless, the eradication of poverty would certainly take a long time, Guebuza admitted, since the starting point, inherited from the Portuguese was so low.
What was fundamental, he said, was that each Mozambicans should believe that it was indeed possible to overcome poverty, just as other peoples had done.
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