June Editorial - 2025 - in addition to the previous one
June 25, 2025 – 50 years of Mozambique's Independence
50 years of being blacklisted by the UN poor countries!
Remembering the 25th of June 1975....
It seems like yesterday! Having lived such an intense and long-awaited day!
I was in the Mission of MUIANE, Locality of the Administrative Post of Alto Ligonha, District of Gile, Province of Zambezia, as a Missionary of the Sacred Heart. Everyone was waiting for this day even though there was still a life, called "colocial", where the mainly commercial presence of the settlers was very strong and deep-rooted. Despite so many ambiguous behaviors, they lived with them and there was a certain respect and reciprocal services in the countryside. All the product was channeled to them and the food and other material was advanced with a booklet before the harvests. In short, unlike the capital cities, where the atmosphere of intolerance was accentuated and the contrasts, especially in the right to education, in the countryside coexisted serenely and the "Mulungo" was respected.
But, for me, who came from an experience of struggle and the right to indipendence, having lived well the moments of intolerance with the PIDE, both in Portugal and in Nampula, arrested and mistreated by them at Nampula airport, as if it were the Police, Sernic and UIR today, the attempt to kill me in Pebane for defending the cause of Mozambique, ... the moment of the Declaration of Indipendence was much desired... and nothing else was expected!
That morning, together with my employee, Carlos, deaf-mute, but an expert in the liming of semi-precious stones, tormaline and aquamarine, which abounded in the Muiane Mines, came with me grabbing two Mozambican flags and with the 4x4 car, we left and went around all 32 Communities scattered throughout the Administrative Post of Alto Ligonha, I say 32, being the number of communities that, together with the local population, frequented the rural chapels and in them the rural Associations were organized, to which we gave technical and financial assistance. There was a real conviviality between the rural Christian communities and the whole community.
We traveled everywhere and every time we met people on the street or at the points of sale, we waved the flags, shouting that we were already indipendent and with a raised closed fist... in close proximity to the shops, however, with the presence of Portuguese merchants... so instead of raising our fist, we would squeeze with our hands as a sign of greeting and with a smile... In this way, we get out of negative situations that could occur... and after an all-day run... home-facing, tired and cheerful.
The big news was that Carlos, who had drunk a little on the way and had heard so many screams from the population... Arriving home,,,, shout himself, "long live Frelimo". I was scared and amazed! How was it possible that a Sudomudo could speak after a year of living together in silence and signs? Unfortunately, after that scream everything returns to silence our relationship!
Closing this personal story that I have lived intensely, I feel like reflecting, after 50 years of Mozambican life, on the situation in which we find ourselves!
I recall that at the Indipendência Act I wrote a Letter of Council to Samora Machel so that the governance would have an inspiration and imitation with the great fighters of Latin America, who after having defeated the dictators, did not intend to enter a government directed by the military and gave an opening for there to be a democratic governance with the participation of all political forces and tendencies.
The request was not accepted, as it happened and is happening throughout this year in African countries. The political leadership, directed by the military, will always fail and despite the democratic proclamations... the seat of power always remains in them and the initial proclaimed purposes become fragile and difficult to apply.
However, we have lived through the various stages of the revolution, the nationalizations, the creation of state-owned companies, the departure of most of the settlers, good and hands, and we have collected a series of decades in view of the Development of Mozambique.
Civil society took weight with the law of Associativism and private property began to have weight with the Law of Land; private companies had access to great opportunities in the country and increased day by day schools and universities... . until we now have more than 125,000 university students spread across the country. To think that in 1975, before the Independence, there was only one black man in the University...!
We have lived all the experiences of the struggle for apartheid and the Liberation of Mandela and his great and democratic Government. We have experienced up close the whole process of Zimbabwe's independence and the ups and downs of its governance.
After 50 years, something has grown, despite the great crises that all these phases have had. A question then arises:
How is it that Mozambique after so long always remains on the last steps of developing countries according to the United Nations Charter?
It is true that all countries are in a growth phase.... and so we were in the third last place and we continue like this... but Mozambique had and has a mountain of resources that other countries do not have... And then?
Everything is related to the Capacity for Governance!
The Single Party does not give, which, despite the positive sides demonstrated in the first years of Government, created an autocratic and dominant state.
The permanence of a political elite with old ideas and habits does not work, which despite the esteem we all had for them, created a great dependence and proselytism, stifling any new idea of governance.
The Centralization of all powers in all sectors of Mozambican society only fostered corruption and lambetismo, without other social and entrepreneurial forces and dynamics being able to contribute greatly to the social and economic growth in the country.
In short, while thanking all those who willingly made a positive contribution to the country's growth,
It's time for a change,
It is time to truly democratize the country and make it competitive and modern.
It is time that the good will of the Rulers must be active and concrete.
It is time that the active participation of all is extremely important and we should all feel the benefit of this participation.
It is time for us to live in all social and political spheres, in a climate of TRUTH!
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Yours sincerely,
Dominic Liuzzi,
National Director of KULIMA.
