Mozambique: Dynamizing the People

Author(s): Carole Collins

Source: Issue: A Journal of Opinion, Vol. 8, No. 1 (Spring, 1978), pp. 12-16
Published by: Cambridge University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1166578
Accessed: 27-06-2016 10:08 UTC

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
http://about.jstor.org/terms

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted
digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about
JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Cambridge University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Issue:
A Journal of Opinion

This content downloaded from 137.99.31.134 on Mon, 27 Jun 2016 10:08:20 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
 MOZAMBIQUE: DYNAMIZING THE PEOPLE
Carole Collins
On June 25, 1975, following ten years of armed struggle by
the Mozambican people against Portuguese colonialism, the
People's Republic of Mozambique was born. Led by the Front
for the Liberation of Mozambique (FRELIMO), which was
formed out of the merger of three nationalist organizations in
1962, the Mozambican people had seen many social, political,
and economic changes come to the liberated areas in northern
Mozambique long before the formal declaration of national
independence. FRELIMO, even during the struggle, had begun
to confront the legacy of over 400 years of Portuguese
colonialism and systematic exploitation and
underdevelopment of Mozambique's human and natural
resources. Under Portuguese rule, Mozambique's illiteracy rate
was well over 90%,1 rural health care virtually non-existent,
and the majority of African urban dwellers forced under
Portuguese colonial law to live in makeshift mud-and-stick
shanties without electricity or running water.2 By April 1974,
when the Caetano regime was overthrown by the Portuguese
Armed Forces Movement, FRELIMO had liberated one
quarter of Mozambique's territory and one eighth of its
population. Within these liberated areas, over 30,000 young
Mozambicans were attending FRELIMO primary schools, a
well-organized network of FRELIMO mobile health clinics
existed, and People's Stores and Cooperatives had been set up
to enable Mozambican peasants to exchange their small
agricultural surplus for other needed or wanted items.3 The
experience gained by FRELIMO in organizing and operating
these basic services and popular structures provided an initial
direction for the tasks of national reconstruction and
decolonization of social, political and economic relations now
taking place in Mozambique.
Key to the new tasks confronting FRELIMO in the
post-April 1974 period has been that of mobilizing all regions
and sectors of the population to support the newly
independent government and the policies and programs being
evolved under the political leadership of FRELIMO. Many
areas, particularly in southern Mozambique, had little contact
with FRELIMO during the struggle for national liberation.
Urban town-dwellers, in particular, had been isolated from the
many changes which FRELIMO had brought about in the
predominantly peasant northern rural areas. In addition, few
Mozambican Africans had any experience with democratic
participation in decision-making under Portuguese rule,
whether in economic or political spheres. Yet this
participation had played an essential role in mobilizing
FRELIMO's predominantly peasant base to fully support the
12
This content downloaded from 137.99.31.134 on Mon, 27 Jun 2016 10:08:20 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
national liberation struggle. Without such participation,
FRELIMO found, people did not fully understand the political
program of FRELIMO and were thus not mobilized to fully
defend, protect and supply FRELIMO's guerrilla forces.4
Thus, during the transitional period before independence,
FRELIMO was confronted with the urgent need to extend its
political presence and grassroots contact throughout central
and southern Mozambique as quickly as possible, particularly
in the urban areas; to create links between the Mozambican
masses and the new state structures as well as FRELIMO; to
educate the Mozambican masses on the political program of
FRELIMO and the reasons for that program; and to mobilize
the Mozambican masses to participate fully in the process of
reorganizing and restructuring Mozambican society. These
tasks have remained essential as FRELIMO and the People's
Republic of Mozambique have grappled with the legacy of
Portuguese colonialism, with attempted sabotage by departing
Portuguese settlers, and with the continuing attacks by lan
Smith's government in white-ruled Rhodesia (Zimbabwe)
against Mozambique.
The key institution or political structure in this process of
creating linkages between the people of Mozambique and the
structures of the party and newly-independent state has been
the grupo dynamizadore (literally 'dynamizing group;' or GD).
GDs were first set up during the transitional government period
(summer 1974-June 1975) and became one of the first vehicles
fordirect contact between FRELIMO organizers and the masses
of peasants and workers in central and southern Mozambique.
During this period, the GD had multiple functions: educating
about and discussing with people FRELIMO's political line;
involving people in democratic decision-making and selection
of local leaders; working to reorganize agricultural and
industrial production and distribution along collective and
communal lines; mobilizing workers to combat economic
sabotage and indiscipline which was lowering economic
production; and addressing the problems of groups which
suffered particular forms of oppression under Portuguese
colonialism, such as Mozambican women. The GD, to a great
extent, was an experimental structure through which
FRELIMO was able to test out various approaches to
reorganizing social and political structures. In addition, GDs
sought to give a national perspective to discussions among
workers of local problems, needs, priorities and directions.
Since independence, however, and particularly since the Third
Congress of FRELIMO in February 1977, many of the diverse
functions of GDs have been taken over by other structures
Volume VIII, Number 1, Spring 1978
within factories and communal villages. In the current period,
GDs are becoming the nascent, embryonic cell structure for
the new marxist-leninist political party which FRELIMO is
transforming itself into.
In the following sections, I would like to convey some of
the specific experiences of GDs in factories and communal
villages, their changing functions, and some of the key factors
affecting their functioning. This paper is based in large part on
a series of interviews with members of GDs in factories and
local neighborhoods carried out by the author during a
five-week visit to the People's Republic of Mozambique in
February-March 1977. Special thanks are due to the
Mozambican Information Agency for their indispensable
assistance in arranging most of these interviews. In addition,
the author has drawn extensively from a number of interviews
conducted by Professor Allen Isaacman in Mozambique during
the summer of 1977.
DYNAMIZING GROUPS IN RURAL AREAS:
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS
Dynamizing Groups (or GDs, as they are referred to in
Mozambique) are the basic political links between the
Mozambican people and the political party FRELIMO.
Organized in places of residence (like neighborhoods), places
of work (factories, communal villages and production
cooperatives), places of study (schools and at the university)
and in government bureaucracies, their function is to involve
all the people in discussion of national and local policy issues
and programs and of possible solutions to many of
Mozambique's social and economic problems. To give but one
example, last summer the Ministry of Health drafted a plan to
nationalize health care throughout the country. This was
discussed by dynamizing groups at the local level throughout
the country so that positive and negative criticisms could be
collected and sent back to the Ministry for use in improving
the second draft of the bill.5 During the transitional
government period, the GDs were often the first contact that
people had with FRELIMO. During the transitional period and
shortly after independence, the major function of the GDs was
to raise the political consciousness of the workers, diffuse the
political line of FRELIMO so that people could unite around
common goals, and to explain and discuss all documents
published by FRELIMO and the orientation of the party.
Rodrigues Mondlane, a responsavel of the GD at the Soveste
clothing factory in Maputo, noted that the GD also "explained
the significance of the section and the whole factory in the
economy of Mozambique and of all of Africa, from the
perspective of underdevelopment. Each week we have a
meeting to discuss these issues. Dynamizing groups have 8
persons in them. Each section of the factory meets and elects
the 8 people who it has greatest confidence in and whom it
feels are most advanced politically, to serve as members of the
dynamizing group."6 The GDs are seen as catalysts for
mobilizing and involving people in decision-making. Generally
they are made up of anywhere from 7 to 9 responsavels
(literally, responsible person) who have particular
responsibilities to carry out in their factory, neighborhood, or
school In Fabrico Counhos, a small clothing factory in
Maputo, the GD Secretary, Abiluzeta, listed the
responsibilities of responsavels including security (since
economic sabotage by PIDE agents is still a problem), literacy
This content downloaded from 137.99.31.134 on Mon, 27 Jun 2016 10:08:20 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
13
training, political mobilization of workers, production and
commerce (to deal with problems affecting production),
education and culture, social welfare (to deal with family
problems of workers) and relating women and men to the
activities and structures of the mass Mozambican Women's
Organization or OMM.7 Oftentimes the term Dynamizing
Group is used to refer both to the group of responsavels and to
the broader group of Mozambicans they are charged with
dynamizing and mobilizing (e.g., the 5,000 neighborhood
residents in an urban area which a group of responsavels works
with and engages in political discussions). GDs often have
responsavels for external relations (whose function is to liaison
with other GDs and state structures on any joint projects
involving the GD) as well as a Secretary who is the main liaison
with the higher structures of the political party FRELIMO.
In rural areas, the GD was often the principal agency to
explain the advantages of collective work. Over 90% of the
Mozambican population are small subsistence farmers or
peasants, ekeing out a living for the most part on small,
isolated plots of land in the poorest conditions. In some areas,
Mozambicans worked on plantations owned by Portuguese
settlers, often for as little as 30 cents a day. Others were
obliged by traditional practice to donate anywhere from one
to four weeks of work to work on the mashamba (farm or
garden) of the local chief (nduna or regulo). Manuel Armando
Machay, a responsavel for production at the District Level
within Gaza Province, described the formation of the GD and
its role in initiating the formation of the agricultural
cooperative as follows:8
Members of the GD were chosen in general assemblies of all the
people. Members of the party arrived to hold a meeting and
encourage people to organize and select GD members. They
explained what was necessary, what the role of the GD was,
what its fundamental characteristics would be, etc. They
indicated each GD cell should have a secretary, an adjunct and
should emphasize the mobilization of peasants. And that the
people themselves must choose these people.... Some of the
GD responsavels were chosen because they have good
comportment, know how to speak to the people, and how to
resolve problems. They distinguish themselves by understanding
and acting out the political line of FRELIMO.
Machay noted that primary resistance to the formation of
the GD came from the local ndunas, who feared loss of their
privilege and power. After the formation of the GD, people
often refused to work for the nduna. Francis Sumaili, an
administrator from Chibudu,9 talked of how the GD
functioned to explain the policies of the government and the
party and the need to form communal villages (so that the
government could afford to supply these more centralized
population centers in rural areas with schools, health outposts
and eventually water and electricity). Depending on the size of
a communal village, there might be one or several GDs whose
function was to explain the way of life in the communal
villages and to help in organizing a cooperative farm.
Communal villages vary greatly in their balance between
cultivation of private holdings and collective cultivation of a
communal mashamba. In some villages, private holdings still
predominated; in others, such as the 25 June Cooperative,
priority was put on collective cultivation to increase national
production. Often GDs functioned to help select sites for
construction projects and to organize the people for collective
work. As several members of the 25 September Communal
\llage noted,10
14
In order to begin organizing communal villages, you needed a
GD since the population was very disoriented. Such questions as
where do you choose land, where is good water, and what
assistance the government will provide need to be answered.
These are technical questions. In addition, there are questions
about the advantages of communal villages and how it fits within
FRELIMO's line. These questions were resolved by the GD. So
first we organized a GD and then organized communal villages.
For Mozambicans who used to work on Portuguese
plantations, the GDs played an important role in persuading
them to organize production cooperatives, either located on
the former plantation or organized among small landholders.
These can sell their produce either to the private sector or to
the state sector. Initially, some GDs helped peasants against
remaining Portuguese colonialists. As Vasco Cubai of the
Agricultural Cooperative Heroi Mozambicano noted 11
The GDs sought to resolve problems between the colonialists and
the workers-salary disputes, labor disputes. Sometimes the
colonialists tried to get away without paying. There were several
instances where colonialists did not want to pay women who
worked on their estates. The women went to the GD and the GD
officials returned with them and heard the dispute. They
resolved that the colonialist had to pay and they did.... The
GD also organized a mass mobilization to take over abandoned
land. It had numerous meetings where they discussed how this
was to be done. Ultimately 35 people agreed to organize a
cooperative.... A number who habitually worked individually
did not comprehend this process. After a lot of meetings, the GD
began to initiate work. Ultimately most were convinced by the
good success which the cooperative quickly achieved.
In the first year of operation of this cooperative,
membership increased from 35 to 120 and minimum wages are
now about 83 escudos per day, up from 10-20 escudos per day
under colonialism. Each week the GD has a political meeting
to discuss the political line of FRELIMO (before the Third
Congress of FRELIMO, many GDs studied the political theses
of the Congress for a period of ten weeks or more). There is
usually another weekly meeting to discuss work-related
problems.
Irene Tivane, Secretary of the Josina Machel Cooperative,
noted that many members of the cooperative who had worked
in mines or in cities tended to expect immediate profits and
salaries for their labor. Sometimes, they created dissatisfaction
and demobilized other workers. It was necessary for the GD to
raise the political consciousness of such workers so that the
cooperative could remain viable economically.12
NEIGHBORHOOD DYNAMIZING GROUPS
Dynamizing groups are also organized among urban
residents in their areas of residence. In Polana, formerly a
well-to-do Portuguese neighborhood of 30,000, GDs are
oganized among every 5000 residents. Each GD cellulo then
sends a representative to meetings of the Polana circulo, which
deals with problems affecting the entire neighborhood and
liaisons with higher levels of the party. While I was in
Mozambique, a problem of people lining up for hours outside
shops in Polana for food had developed. This was because of
the shortage of food outlets in the canisu slum areas and also
because many workers had more wages to spend on food than
before independence. To find solutions to this problem, GDs
in all the urban centers throughout Mozambique discussed this
problem for several weeks. In Polana, two solutions were
discussed and developed. It was decided to create a communal
mashamba in the neighborhood, on empty land, where
neighborhood residents could collectively grow produce and
This content downloaded from 137.99.31.134 on Mon, 27 Jun 2016 10:08:20 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
ISSUE: A Quarterly Journal of Africanist Opinion
supplement national food supplies. Perhaps even more
significant than the economic impact of such a mashamba was
its political impact in bringing together neighbors from a
diversity of class and ethnic backgrounds who ordinarily
would never meet in the course of neighborhood life. Through
working together collectively, they came to develop a more
united political consciousness. As a temporary resident of
Polana, I attended several of these work sessions, where
residents would engage in a diversity of political discussion
around national and international issues.13
In addition, the Polana GD decided to organize consumer
cooperatives, with food gotten from the state-run stores as
well as from the neighborhood mashamba. The GD carried out
a house-to-house survey of food preferences and needs and
household sizes, so that any rationed items distributed through
the consumer cooperative would be distributed proportionate
to household size. The setting up of consumer cooperatives
was aimed at taking the pressure off of the small, privately-run
shops in Polana. Although each member of the cooperative is
theoretically supposed to work at the cooperative,14 in
practice many families contributed little or nothing toward the
running of the cooperative. While I was in Mozambique, this
was being debated in the Polana GD, where it was a particular
problem among the more educated and petit bourgeois
residents of the neighborhood. At one meeting, several
residents began to raise the question of why some people
should get the benefits of the consumer cooperative if they
contributed nothing to its functioning and whether, in fact,
such non-participants in collective work weren't exploiting
other residents who actually ran the cooperative. This is but
one small example of a key role of the GD: heightening a
consciousness of class contradictions and of the need to find a
way to overcome or resolve them. (It should be noted that
consumer cooperatives, run by GDs themselves, are different
from loja do povo, or people's stores, which are operated by
the state.)
Another essential task of the neighborhood GDs is to deal
with the social isolation of Mozambican women who live in
the urban areas. In rural areas, Mozambican women often do
more than 50% of the agricultural labor. In GDs in the rural
areas, in fact, one of its responsibilities is to raise popular
consciousness as to the traditional oppression of women.
Sarifa Amati, responsavel of the OMM for Gaza Province,
described at length the double oppression of Mozambican
women under colonialism and under traditional local
practices.15 Many women whose husbands were working in
Maputo or in the South African mines had to pay local taxes
and maintain their children. The most common way to satisfy
these obligations, Amati notes, was to work in the fields of the
local chief, often subject to his sexual advances. Under the
traditional practice of bride price, marriages were often
arranged without respect to the feelings of the woman, and
polygamy is common in some areas. In many cases in rural
areas, the GDs organized meetings to discuss the issue of
women's liberation and to help organize local organs of the
OMM. As Amati described it,
Initially a meeting was held once a week with dynamizing
groups, to study the traditional role of women and FRELIMO's
position on how to liberate women. Study groups often developed
into heated debate since they touched basic issues. After several
meetings in each local GD, they encouraged women to organize
their own units. Opposition to the OMM came from two
sources-the wives of chiefs who saw the OMM threatening their
Volume VIII, Number 1, Spring 1978 15

privileged position vis-a-vis the masses of peasants, and a maximum salaries doubled. During the transitional government
substantial number of men. They often attempted to sabotage period, Counhos workers struggled to gain better wages and
OMM meetings by ordering their wives not to go to the meetings,
working conditions from their Portuguese managers. Workers,
pulling them out of meetings, beating them, locking them inside
or out of the house. Such men were brought before the GD for led by the factory GD, initiated a slowdown which eventually
disciplinary action and additional education. cut production by half in demanding raises in salary levels.
After the Portuguese management left, the GD then helped
Amati went on to note that the first activity of OMM
mobilize workers to increase production. As Portuguese
representatives in newly formed communal villages is to attack
factory owners began to abandon their factories, the
the traditional sex division of labor, often by having OMM
government instituted Administrative Commissions
representatives undertake the heaviest work to destroy the
(Commisaos Administrativos) to administer the factories.
image of women's frailty which men have and to give women
Administrative Commissions are composed of workers who are
in the community a sense of confidence that they can do these
tasks. elected by their fellow workers to run the factory. They are
approved by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry; in
In urban areas, many women have become isolated from
Counhos, three of the four members of the Administrative
social production, unless they have jobs as domestic servants
Commission (or AC) were women, as were half of the
or one of the few factory jobs. They tend to spend their days
responsavels in the GD. The AC is empowered to deal with all
looking after their children, shopping for and preparing food,
administrative problems and receives instructions from the
and become isolated from social and political discussions and
Ministry, whereas the GD receives its orientation from
activities. One of the functions of the neighborhood GD is to
FRELIMO. The AC at Counhos met twice a month with
enable these women to become less isolated, to get them
workers to share the results of production and to review
involved in social production at the neighborhood level (e.g. in
statistics on distribution and sale of goods produced. (In some
the collective mashamba or on projects for relief of flood
factories, GDs used to perform many of these tasks; the
victims). In Polana, the GDs set up literacy classes particularly
organization of ACs was part of an effort to separate
to teach basic literacy skills to Mozambican women, who were
administrative and political functions into separate
historically the mostLeducationally deprived under Portuguese
organizational bodies so that both could be better carried out.)
colonialism. One cellulo also set up sewing and carpentry
classes. In October 1976, a new worker organization, Production
Councils (Councils de Producao, or PCs) was established in 45
At the GD level and at higher levels of the party,
factories in Maputo. They are the embryonic structures for a
FRELIMO, social welfare is a particular responsibility, and it
new national labor organization which FRELIMO hopes to
often involved providing marital counselling to young urban
create, to replace the discredited Portuguese-controlled
couples, or counselling unwanted pregancies. This reflects
syndicats which existed before independence and were little
FRELIMO's awareness that many seemingly interpersonal
problems among married couples are in reality the outcome of
more than company unions. The tasks of the PCs are to
explain the whole production process to each worker (who
broad social problems, such as child marriages or polygamy,
often knows little more than the specific function of his or her
which existed in precolonial or colonial times. Many young
specific task or machine), to explore ways of increasing
couples who come to the city lose the traditional supports of
production, and to set production quotas for sections of the
family life in the rural areas and find their social relation with
factory and for the factory as a whole. Their main purpose is
one another disintegrating under the impact of industrial life,
to involve the workers more and more in the actual day to day
particularly during the colonial period. One of the
operations and decisions of the factory. PCs are charged with
responsibilities FRELIMO has taken on is to try to deal with
these as generic problems which demand social solutions and
spearheading the economic struggle and with all
not just readjustment of two individuals to each other.
production-related questions: setting quotas, quality control
of production, maintaining discipline and morale and
DYNAMIZING GROUPS eliminating indiscipline, resolving social problems affecting
AND NEW FACTORY STRUCTURES production, obtaining raw materials and necessary equipment
During the Third Congress of FRELIMO in February 1977,
or spare parts, etc.17 PCs have regular meetings with each
section of the factory to analyze the causes of workers'
FRELIMO set out as a key task the transformation of the
indiscipline and its implications for lowering production.
relations of production, in particular in factories where the
Workers are encouraged in weekly meetings of the PC and
small but strategic Mozambican working class is located. Since
of the GD to advance criticisms of production and concrete
independence, GDs have played a key role in mobilizing
proposals on how to improve production and labor questions.
workers in the 'battle of production' to keep productivity
At a monthly meeting of the entire factory, suggestions can be
high, as well as in forming a variety of other industrial
advanced which have come up in section meetings. At Soveste,
organizations to carry out the new tasks facing Mozambican
two worker proposals to change the tailoring of shirts and
workers. It is here that various functions have begun to be
pants had led to increased production, and there were plans to
more clearly separated organizationally. One factory I visited,
involve workers directly in planning the styles and numbers of
Fabrico Counhos, is a small clothing factory of about 300
shirts and pants to be produced.
workers, approximately half of them women. During March
In Mozambique, there is often a stress on the differences
1976, the Portuguese management left and the workers had to
between administrative problems (needing administrative
work four months without pay before production levels could
solutions) and political problems (which need political
be consolidated and back pay regained. Asked if conditions
solutions). The PC works closely with the AC to resolve any
had improved since independence, several workers noted that
administrative problems affecting production, and with the
minimum salaries had tripled since independence and
GD to resolve any political problems affecting production. The

This content downloaded from 137.99.31.134 on Mon, 27 Jun 2016 10:08:20 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
16
most common administrative problems mentioned were
shortages of spare parts and supplies (often as a result of
sabotage by departing Portuguese management), and of
transport. Asked to give examples of political problems that
affected production, Counhos workers mentioned elitist
attitudes of some workers towards others on a different line.
They also referred to the problem of lack of worker discipline
and of people sleeping on the job. At Counhos, they had
posted hand-made cartoons making the point that workers
sleeping on the job make more work for their fellow workers
and hence exploit their fellow workers.
Fabrico Investro, a model clothing factory in Maputo, had
been mobilized by its GD to find solutions to several
problems. They had established a day care center, especially
for the children of women workers who previously could not
attend political meetings; they also established their own
factory transport system and a factory-owned communal
mashamba where workers could work if factory production
had to be shut down because of lack of spare parts of raw
materials.
CONCLUSION
In establishing dynamizing groups in factories,
neighborhoods and communal villages, FRELIMO was able for
the first time to reach out to and mobilize broad masses across
the entire nation in a relatively short period of time to support
FRELIMO's political programs. The GDs have played a central
role in the "social transformation and grass-roots involvement
in development efforts" which have so frequently been com-
mented on by recent visitors to Mozambique.18 What has pro-
found implications not only for other underdeveloped African
countries but for industrialized countries as well is the speed
with which FRELIMO has managed to democratize the run-
ning of economic institutions and educational institutions to a
substantial extent-particularly within factories. Major con-
straints on current production, of course, remain-notably
shortages of spare parts and lack of adequate technical training
of workers-to blunt the full impact of such a process. On the
other hand, the degree of discipline and the strengthening of
the Mozambican capacity for self-help and creative self-
reliance which these changes have helped bring about have
increased the possibility of Mozambique's breaking out of its
traditional economic relations of dependency on western cor-
porate capital, established under colonial rule, and diversifying
its economic inputs from outside sources.
NOTES
1. For a description of the educational legacy of Portuguese
colonialism and the new educational directions being undertaken by
the People's Republic of Mozambique, see Carole Collins,
"Education for the People," in Southern Africa, June-July 1977,
pp. 21-23.
This content downloaded from 137.99.31.134 on Mon, 27 Jun 2016 10:08:20 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
ISSUE: A Quarterly Journal of Africanist Opinion
2. For a general description of Mozambican efforts at national
reconstruction in the first two years of independence, see Allen
Isaacman, "Mozambique's Two Years On Its Own," in In These
Times, January 4-10, 1978. For an explanation of FRELIMO's
differences from traditional nationalist movements, see John Saul's
article on Mozambique in the September 1973 issue of Monthly
Review.
3. For an excellent documentary film on these and other institutions
in the liberated areas of Mozambique, see Bob Van Leirop's A Luta
Continua (distributed and produced by Africa Information Service,
1974). Also, see Jennifer Davis, Building Independence: A Report
on a Recent Visit (4 pp.; Africa Fund, 1977), for a report on the
organization of health and other institutions in the liberated areas.
4. See Establishing People's Power to Serve the Masses by Samora
Machel (Toronto Committee for the Liberation of Southern Africa,
1976, 48 pp.) for a detailed discussion of FRELIMO's approach to
mobilizing the Mozambican population and on the necessity of
democratic participation and decision-making in the context of that
mobilization.
5. See Mozambican Information Agency (AIM) Information Bulletin
for September 1977. The AIM Information Bulletins (in English)
along with issues of the weekly Tempo (in Portuguese) are
invaluable sources of information on the current period of national
reconstruction in the People's Republic of Mozambique.
6. Interview with Rodrigues Mondlana, responsavel of the Soveste
clothing factory (Maputo), 15 August 1977, by Prof. Allen
Isaacman, University of Minnesota.
7. See Carole Collins, "FRELIMO Goes to Factories to Lay Socialist
Foundations," in Guardian (New York), July 13, 1977, p. 13.
8. Isaacman interview with Manuel Armando Machay, responsavel for
Production at the District Level (Gaza), 21 August 1977.
9. Isaacman interview with Francis Sumaili, administrator of Chibudu,
22 August 1977.
10. Group interview by Isaacman at Aldeia Communal 25 de Setembro
in Nampula, 27 August 1977.
11. Isaacman interview with Vasco and Elias Cubai of the Cooperativa
Agricola Heroi Mozambicana, 22 August 1977.
12. Isaacman interview with Irene Tivane on 22 August 1977.
13. See Carole Collins, "Mozambique's Revolution Advances," in
Guardian (New York), July 6, 1977, p. 14.
14. See Isaacman interview with members of the Consumer Cooperative
of Polana, 10 August 1977.
15. See Isaacman interview with Sarifa Amati on August 21, 1977.
16. Interview by Carole Collins with workers of Fabrico Counhos,
March 1977.
17. See Isaacman interview with Rodrigues Mondlana of Soveste
clothing factory (Maputo), 15 August 1977.
18. See Michael T. Kaufman, "Mozambique Seems to Have Gained
Discipline Without the Martial Air," in the New York Times,
Saturday, November 12, 1977, p. 1 ff.
Carole Collins did graduate work in political science at the University of
Chicago and is currently the national coordinator of the Coalition for
the Liberation of Southern Africa. For four years, she worked as a
research consultant and project director at the Loop College Center for
Continuing Education and Community Services, developing com-
munity-based adult education programs in local Chicago neighbor-
hoods. During a year-long trip to East and Southern Africa in 1976-77,
she wrote several articles for the Guardian (New York), Africa News,
Southern Africa, and MERIP Reports. She recently presented a paper at
the African Studies Association conference in November 1977 on
"SWAPO and Visions of a Future Society: Women in Namibia."