adminPresident Filipe Nyusi declared on 3 February that the heroes who fell in the struggle to liberate the country from Portuguese colonial rule “do not signify only the past, but also the present, and they will signify the future – the future that we are all building”.
President Nyusi was speaking after laying a wreath at Maputo’s Monument to the Mozambican Heroes on the occasion of Heroes’ Day – the anniversary of the assassination 47 years ago of Eduardo Mondlane, the founder and first President of the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo), generally regarded as the founder of Mozambican nationality and the architect of national unity.
The future that Mozambicans are building, the President said, should reflect the efforts and sacrifices made by the country’s heroes during the liberation war. He stressed that the goal of the country’s heroes, was not merely to throw out the Portuguese colonialists, but to ensure independence in the economic as well as the political sphere.
“While the people still do not have drinking water, electricity, sufficient schools and hospitals, we still have not competed the mission for which our heroes fell”, he declared. “This is a moment for reflection, for commitment to the development of Mozambique”.
Among those who came to the monument to pay tribute to Mondlane and the country’s other heroes were members of the ruling Frelimo Party and of the opposition Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM), carrying the flags of their respective parties. However, as usual with all state occasions and commemorative dates, the main opposition party Renamo were not present.
After the ceremony, President Nyusi called on Mondlane’s widow Janet, and the couple’s three children, Eduardo Jr, Chude and Nyeleti.
At the end of the visit, Eduardo Jr, speaking for the Mondlane family, said 3 February remains a tragic day in the family history, but it was also an occasion to renew their determination to continue the work begun by Eduardo Mondlane.
Janet Rae Mondlane was born in 1935 in the United States, where she met and fell in love with Mondlane, who was studying at Northwestern University, Illinois. She accompanied her husband when he returned to Africa to found Frelimo and to lead the liberation struggle.
Janet became director of the Mozambique Institute, the Frelimo secondary school in Dar es Salaam. After independence she worked in the Health Ministry and later in the Mozambique Red Cross, and in the National AIDS Council (CNCS). In recent years she has dedicated much of her time to documenting the life of her husband. – AIM.
Online Reporter