Samora Machel: The People Will Triumph

Samora Machel: The People Will Triumph

(Extracts of a Speech Delivered by President Samora Machel on 14 February 1981, following the racist aggressive incursion into the People’s Republic of Mozambique where exiled South African patriots living in three separate residences in Matola, were butchered by the fascist cut-throats).

“They say they attacked us because of our support for the African National Congress (ANC). They want to divide us, to weaken us. They want to stop solidarity with each other. It is unthinkable that this solidarity between our people and the South African people be severed.

“The ANC is the oldest liberation movement in Africa. The ANC is the vanguard that has been leading the liberation struggle of the South African people for 70 years. The ANC is the vanguard that bears its tradition of centuries-long resistance to foreign occupation; the vanguard of the whole South African people in their fight against apartheid.

“What is apartheid? Why is this system condemned by all humanity? Apartheid is the system that maintains 23-million oppressed, humiliated, segregated, denied their very status as human beings … South Africa is the country where the blacks live in the backyard of the towns. South Africa is the country of suburbs for whites only, and, separated areas, locations and ghettoes for Indians, Coloureds and Africans.

“This is the country where love between people of different races is a crime, where there are jobs reserved for one race, where the blacks need a pass to walk down the street. We have all seen this. We have all suffered this humiliation. Apartheid is a form of colonialism. For this reason, we understand profoundly the just struggle of the South African people, we stand in firm solidarity with the South African people, in firm solidarity with the ANC.

AFRICAN BEACON

“The ANC is one of the beacons in Africa that has inspired the national liberation struggle against racism and colonial domination, true fertile ground in which our own liberation struggle took root. It is the patrimony and pride of our continent, the embodiment of the indestructible will of the people for their liberation.

“The ANC is recognised by the international community as the true and legitimate representative of the South African people. It is represented in all parts of the world, in all the big international organisations. It is represented in the People’s Republic of Mozambique. Throughout the world, the ANC has representatives, offices, residences, exiled citizens and refugees from segregation and repression.

“It has representations in England, France, Italy, the United States, the Nordic countries, throughout Africa, in the socialist countries. In these countries their militants live in houses. It was residences like these that were the target of destruction and massacre in the early hours of January 30. Residences that the South African regime classified as ANC military bases.

WHAT WE WANT

“We were here about a year ago. We met to make the first evaluation of the organisational offensive. We said that the conditions had been created for peace in the region. We said that the conditions had been created for us to concentrate our efforts on the tasks of our country’s reconstruction and development.

“We said that this was the decisive battle for our total liberation, and liberation from underdevelopment. We said that this was the decisive battle to neutralise and annihilate all enemy manifestations among us, to consolidate peace in the region, to develop our country and build socialism.

“Peace is a fundamental principle of our life; a principle of the FRELIMO Party, a constitutional principle. From the time of our Mozambican Liberation Front we have defined Peace as our objective. For the peoples, peace means: enjoying full freedom; respect for personality and dignity; the full exercise of the right to development and progress; the firm refusal to be humiliated, dominated, exploited.

“Peace means: to be able to cultivate our fields without the danger of bombing raids, to be able to work in our factories with the threat of sabotage, to be able to travel throughout the country in towns and communal villages in complete security; to be able to bring up and educate our children in the tranquility of our homes; to be able to live calmly in our houses. Peace means a deep love of freedom. This is the real content of peace.

“We are a peace-loving people. A people never tires of freedom, never tires of peace. A people is always ready to make the greatest sacrifice for its freedom and to defend peace. We do not want war. We are builders of peace because we are socialists. Socialism produces peace because it destroys exploitation, humiliation, oppression, domination, ignorance, misery. It is socialism that always takes the initiative in the creation of an atmosphere of peace and fraternity between peoples. The SALT II agreement, instrument o f peace and détente, is the result of the initiative of the Soviet Union and the Socialist countries.

“Imperialism feeds on exploitation, humiliation, oppression, domination, ignorance, poverty. Imperialism produces war. Imperialism is always the aggressor. We want peace because it is peace that enables us to work to improve our life. To put an end to hunger, misery and disease.

THE OPPRESSED WILL WIN

“We do not want to go to South Africa, but if they come here what are we going to do? South Africa must decide. They want to come here. They want to come and murder. Let them come. Let all the racists come, even all four million of them. We have room for them here. And then the oppressed majority there, the 23 million will take power. Let them come, so that the end of apartheid will be closer. They will stay here as refugees. Let them come. And we shall put an end to war once and for all. There will be true peace in our zone, not the false peace that we are living now.

“An attack against Mozambique, an invasion, are not just simple aggression. They are an act of war. How do wars start? They start with actions of this kind. The First and Second World Wars began with aggression and occupations. But each time the invader was defeated … Ian Smith started the aggression from Salisbury. Result: the war ended in Salisbury. Consequence: Ian Smith was thrown into the rubbish bin of history.

“When somebody takes a can of petrol to set fire to his neighbour’s house, he always leaves a trail of petrol which will carry the fire back to his own house. When a snake abandons its hole, no matter how poisonous, strong, and feared it may be, it becomes vulnerable. Even a child can kill it with a stick. He does not even need a weapon. Let the South Africans come. But let them be sure that the war will end in Pretoria, and that the majority will take power in Pretoria.

COURAGEOUS PEOPLE

“We are a courageous people and tempered by war. We know how to bear sacrifices. The white South African racists live in comfort, luxury, and corruption. They enjoy privileges. They do not accept sacrifices. They want others to fight for them: they recruit mercenaries, delinquents, renegades, traitors, to die for them. But the renegades, the traitors have no motivation, no convictions. When we turn our weapons against them they surrender. How many have already died? How many have we captured?

“And now they want to recruit blacks. But the blacks, Coloureds, Indians, the discriminated, exploited and oppressed of South Africa will not fight against us. They will turn their weapons against their bosses.

WE ARE MILLIONS

“Let this minority come. And the people of South Africa – the millions of South African patriots will arise and set fire to apartheid. But we know that the 4-million whites will not come. A clique will come. Among the South African whites there are men of good sense who want peace and prosperity, who love peace, who know the value of life.

“We are all the peoples of the world! We are millions and millions. In South Africa we are 23-million blacks. We are millions of Coloureds, Indians, Whites who do not identify with apartheid. The South African racists are an arrogant minority, but they will be beaten by the immense force of the people. We are the people and the people never die. No oppressor ever managed to liquidate a people. The people always emerged victorious.

“Let us organise ourselves. We all have tasks. We are clear about the objectives we are defending. We defend peace, freedom, security. Let each one arm himself with stones, sticks, hoes, pickaxes, arrows and spears. Let them sharpen the blades of the hoes and the pickaxes to make a hole in the head of the Boers. Let us prepare ourselves with every kind of weapon, so that not one aggressor, leaves our country alive.

“The Mozambican people are a heroic people. They proved it in the struggle against colonialism, they proved it during the events of the 7th of September and the 21st of October, they proved it during the Zimbabwean liberation war. The Mozambican people will not allow themselves to be dominated. Watch out! Whoever want to violate our country we will destroy them without pity. We will smash them one by one. Let them come. There will be nothing left of them …”

– Samora Machel –
(14 February 1981)

Source:
Samora Machel, “The People Will Triumph”, Dawn – Monthly Journal of Umkhonto we Sizwe, Vol. 5, No. 4, April 1981.

Castro Khwela
Good day fellow Compatriots!