African Activist Archive

A cover letter reports that the Committee for a Free Mozambique (CFM) sent to FRELIMO nearly a ton of clothing collected from New York CFM members and other groups, especially students at Lincoln University, responding to Bob Van Lierop's speaking tour. Van Lierop and Bob Fletcher, two Afro-American photojournalists who spent six weeks in liberated Mozambique, are available for speaking engagements. Along with some Columbia University groups, CFM participated in demonstrations protesting university and U.S. corporate involvement in Namibia and commemorating the Sharpeville massacre. CFM has acquired Margaret Dickerson's 30-minute color film, "Behind the Lines," about Mozambique’s struggle against Portuguese colonial rule and the development of the new society in liberated Mozambique. Th newsletter contains one article, TETE: NOW THE MAIN FRONT. Intensified activities by FRELIMO in Tete province, especially since August, 1971, have made it more difficult for the Portuguese to complete the Cabora Bassa hydroelectric scheme along the Zambezi River. If completed, this would be the largest dam and hydroelectric project in Africa and would furnish most of its power to South Africa. The dam also would provide irrigation for hundreds of thousands of acres of land; Portugal has announced its intention to settle 1,000,000 whites in this area. By December 1969, two months after the contract for construction of the dam had been awarded to ZAMCO (a consortium of South African, French, Swiss, German, and Portuguese companies), Portugal reported that guerrillas were "intimidating" the population. FRELIMO's own communique in September, 1970 said military operations had been expanded to affect all of Tete province north of the Zambezi. The newsletter includes a quotation by Samora Machel. The mailing also mentions the Rhodesian government, various military actions, General Kaulza de Arriaga, aldeamentos ("protective villages"), the Governor General of Mozambique Eduardo Arrantes de Oliveira, South African military officials, and refugees.

African Activist Archive

CFM News and Notes

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