7 January 2009
Maputo — Mozambique's first black lawyer, Domingos Arouca, who died on Sunday at the age of 80, will be buried in his home province of Inhambane on Wednesday.
The main funeral ceremonies took place on Tuesday, in Maputo City Hall, where Arouca's body lay in state.
A message from President Armando Guebuza, read by Justice Minister Bemvinda Levy, declared "We have lost a reference point that was built up with perseverance, determination and the certainty that obstacles become challenges for those who have dreams to achieve in their lives".
"Neither the discrimination and blackmail to which he was subjected, nor the dungeons and tortures of the bloodthirsty PIDE (the Portuguese colonial-fascist secret police) moved him from the path he was following to achieve those dreams", said Guebuza's message.
Luis Sacramento, the deputy chairperson of the Supreme Council of the Judicial Magistrature (CSMJ), the regulatory body for Mozambican judges, on which Arouca served for 11 years, declared that Mozambican magistrates had learned from Arouca that "it is through love and humility that good work is undertaken".
Sacramento regarded Arouca as a great defender of justice, and noted that, even when his health was deteriorating, he was always active In the live of the CSMJ, contributing to its work. "We thank him for his dedication throughout his 11 years on the CSMJ", he said.
Born on 7 July 1928, Arouca first trained as a nurse, but in 1949 became one of the few black Mozambicans able to study at a high school in Portugal. He then took the law course at Lisbon University, and was able to break into a profession which in Mozambique had until then been effectively reserved for whites.
On returning to Lourenco Marques (as Maputo was then known), he was not content simply to practice law, but threw himself into nationalist politics. In 1965 he was arrested by the PIDE, and accused of being a mamber of the liberation movement, Frelimo, and of responsibility for "subversion" in all of southern Mozambique.
After spending four years in a Maputo jail, he was deported to Portugal, and spent a further four years in the notorious fascist prisons of Peniche and Caxias. When, in 1973, he was allowed to return to Mozambique, the PIDE restricted him to Inhambane, though allowing him to resume his legal practice.
Arouca's nationalism was of a more conservative brand than that of the Frelimo leadership. He said that, after the fall of fascism, he refused the offer by Samora Machel of a post in the first government of independent Mozambique, because he regarded it as a communist administration.
Instead, he returned to Portugal, where he set up a small opposition party, the Mozambique United Front (FUMO). He only ended this exile after the introduction of a multi-party system in Mozambique with the constitution of 1990.
Arouca's hopes that FUMO would make an impact on Mozambican politics were dashed. Most opposition to Frelimo now gravitated around the former rebel movement Renamo, and in the first multi-party elections, in October 1994, FUMO did very badly (Arouca himself took only 0.76 per cent of the vote in the presidential election).
This failure paved the way for a split in FUMO. Most of the party leadership wanted to go into a coalition with Renamo. Arouca opposed this, arguing that it would be a serious mistake to enter parliament on the coattails of another party. He lost the debate and resigned from the party that he had founded.
Outside of politics, he pursued his legal career, and was never short of clients, despite his advancing years. Right up to his final months he was appearing in court, arguing in difficult cases. Although he could no longer walk unaided, and despite his failing eyesight, he refused to retire.
"The worst thing an octogenarian can do is stop working", Arouca quipped on 1 August 2008, at one of the ceremonies held to mark his 80th birthday.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2009 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.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
