Eduardo Mondlane

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Eduardo Mondlane

Eduardo Chivambo Mondlane (born June 20, 1920 in Manjacaze , Gaza Province , Portuguese East Africa, † February 3, 1969 in Dar es Salaam ) was an ethnologist and sociologist and from 1962 until his assassination in 1969 he was president of the Mozambican liberation movement FRELIMO .

Life

Mondlane was born the fourth of sixteen sons to a chief of the Bantu- speaking Tsonga in Portuguese East Africa . He was a shepherd until he was 12 years old. After several elementary schools, he attended a Swiss Presbyterian school. Since he was denied access to higher education in Mozambique, he attended a church school in Lemana in the Transvaal . He then spent a year at the Jan H. Hofmeyr School of Social Work , and then went to the Witwatersrand University in Johannesburgenrolling for a degree in social sciences, however, was expelled from South Africa in August 1949 after just one year under the South African Citizenship Act of the apartheid government .

With the help of Protestant missionaries in Mozambique, he received a grant from the Phelps-Stokes Fund , which is why he could have started studying in the United States immediately . Mondlane decided to go to Portugal first , where he was enrolled at the University of Lisbon . He promised himself a deeper understanding of the Portuguese politics of the time and an improvement in his language skills. After negative experiences in dealing with him as a student of African origin, he accepted the grant and left Portugal for the USA.

In 1951 Mondlane attended Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio , and in 1953 he earned a bachelor's degree in ethnology and sociology. He continued his studies at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois , where he earned a master's degree . He received his Ph.D. degree in anthropology from Harvard .

Mondlane married Janet Rae Johnson of Indiana and lived in Chicago . Both had met five years earlier at a Christian summer camp. Since 1963 they both lived in Dar es Salaam with their three children Eduardo Jr., Chude and Nyeleti.

In 1957, Mondlane became a research fellow in the Trusteeship Department of the United Nations . During this time he traveled frequently to Africa to document economic, political and social developments in several countries. During his visit to Mozambique in 1961, he was supposed to take on a leading role in the political transformation of his country, but this was prohibited by the UN regulations. In the same year after his return to the United States, Mondlane accepted a call to Syracuse University as assistant professor of anthropology. His work at this university was associated with the development of an East African Studies Program (German: "Research Program East Africa").

In 1962, Mondlane was elected President of the newly founded Mozambican Liberation Front Frente da Libertação de Moçambique (FRELIMO). For this reason, he ended his university career in Syracuse at the beginning of 1963. Under his leadership, the headquarters of FRELIMO was established outside Mozambique in Dar es Salaam , Tanzania in 1963 . Supported by both the West and the USSR , FRELIMO began a guerrilla war in 1964 with the aim of Mozambique's independence from Portugal. In 1969 Mondlane died in a letter bomb explosion.

In 1969 Mondlane was given a state funeral designed by his former Oberlin fellow students. His friend Reverend Edward Hawley emphasized during the festivities that Mondlane "gave his life for the truth that man is made for dignity and self-determination".

In the early 1970s, the 7,000-strong FRELIMO army controlled a considerable part of central and northern Mozambique and faced a Portuguese army of 60,000. In 1975, Portugal and FRELIMO agreed the independence of Mozambique, which came into force in June. When a Marxist one-party state was then proclaimed in the capital Maputo , a coup followed . The situation deteriorated noticeably and the country sank into a civil war between FRELIMO and RENAMO , which only ended in 1992.

Honor

Individual evidence

  1. ^ South African History Online: Eduardo Mondlane, president of FRELIMO, dies . on www.sahistory.org.za (English)
  2. ^ South African History Online: Eduardo Mondlane . on www.sahistory.org.za (English)
  3. ^ SAIRR : A Survey of Race Relations 1948-1949 . [Johannesburg] [1949], p. 65
  4. ↑ a b c d Albert J. McQueen: In memory of Eduardo Chivambo Mondlane '53 . on www2.oberlin.edu (English)
  5. ^ Secret Warfare: Operation Gladio and NATO's Stay-Behind Armies. In: Parallel History Project . Retrieved May 25, 2017 .
  6. ↑ Oberlin College: Eduardo Chivambo Mondlane Scholarship  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . on www.new.oberlin.edu (English)@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / new.oberlin.edu  

literature

  • José Manuel Duarte de Jesus: Edoardo Mondlane - To homem a abater . Ediçoes Almedina, 2010. ISBN 978-972-40-4025-7
personal data
SURNAME Mondlane, Eduardo
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mondlane, Eduardo Chivambo (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Mozambican politician, President of the Mozambican Liberation Front
DATE OF BIRTH June 20, 1920
PLACE OF BIRTH Manjacaze
DATE OF DEATH 3rd February 1969
Place of death Dar es Salaam