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“Precondition for Victory”: Women’s Liberation in Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 August 2021

Stephanie Urdang
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Extract

A striking aspect of the on-going revolution in Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau is the insistence on the need for the liberation of women to be an explicit and integral part of that process. “Liberation of women,” reads an oft-quoted statement of Samora Machel, FRELIMO president, “is a fundamental necessity for our revolution; a guarantee of its continuity and a precondition for victory.” In a similar vein, Amilcar Cabral, assassinated leader of PAIGC, used to state firmly that their revolution could not be successful unless it ensured the full participation of women, or, “In Guinea-Bissau we say that women are fighting two colonialisms; one against the Portuguese and the other against men.”

Type
Research Article
Information
African Issues , Volume 8 , Issue 1 , Spring 1978 , pp. 25 - 31
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1978 

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References

Notes

1. MPLA in Angola has similarly stressed the need for the liberation of women.

2. African Party for the Independence of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde, led by Amilcar Cabrai until his assassination in 1973.

3. PAIGC, Report on the Politico-Socio-Economic Role of Women in Guine and Cape Verde Islands.

4. Samora Machet, The Liberation of Women is a Fundamental Necessity for the Revolution, in Sowing the Seeds of Revolution, Committee for Freedom in Mozambique, Angola and Guine, London. Page 26-27

5. Ibid, p. 27. Polygamy and polygyny tend to be used interchangeably, although the term polygyny refers to taking more than one wife, while polygamy refers to taking more than one wife or husband. I use polygyny, unless quoting from a source.

6. Ibid, p. 28.

7. Josina Machel, The Role of Women in the Revolution in Dia da Mulher Mocambicana, OMM, Maputo. Unofficial translation. Josina Machel was the wife of Samora Machel until her untimely death due to illness at 25.

8. The Mozambican Woman in the Revolution, edited by Liberation Support Movement, Canada, p. 11.

9. Cornwall, Barbara, The Bush Rebels, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York, p. 50.Google Scholar

10. Chaliand, Gerard, Armed Struggle in Africa, Monthly Review, New York, 1971.Google Scholar

11. Cornwall, p. 51.

12. Chaliand, p. 95.

13. Full Text of Resolution from the OMM Conference, Maputo, November 1976, in People’s Power, Number 6. Mozambique, Angola and Guine Information Centre, London, p. 26.

14. Samora Machel, Speech to the Second Conference of the Organization of Mozambican Women, 1976. Unofficial translation.

15. Ibid.

16. Interview by Allen Isaacman.

17. Samora Machel, Speech to Second Conference.

18. Ibid.