Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano said in Baton Rouge, at the USA state of Louisiana, on Friday, that the struggle of the slave descendants in various countries, particularly in the United States, Canada, brasil, and others for their political and civic rights inspired many nationalists in Africa who, between the 1950s and 1990s, who were fighting to decolonise their countries and eradicate racial discrimination.
Speaking during a welcome ceremony offered to him by the Southern University management body, he stressed that African freedom fighters were inspired by Afro-American leaders such as Martin Luther King.
Chissano was invited to that university to be awarded the degree of "Doctor Honoris Causa", in aknowldegement of his role in the fight against colonialism and racism.
In his speech, he explained that this is the reason why he views the struggle of the slave descendants and the African peoples is one and the same, since both aim at regaining freedom and political and civic rights being denied to them.
"That is why we are here, celebrating together our common victory", he said.
Chissano said that 1960 was a historic year also for Africa, since it was then that a number of African countries gained their political independence, which gave more determination to other peoples in the liberation process, including Mozambique, that started organizing, and launched its armed struggle four years later, under the leadership of the Mozambique Liberation Front (FRELIMO) from Dar-es-Salaam, in Tanzania.
Chissano recalled his own ordeal to enrol at the then Liceu Salazar (now Josina Machel Secondary School), where he was the first and only black student that year, in a school with more than 1,000 students, when he was admitted, in the 1950s.
He said that, although he produced a certificate showing that he had high enough level to enrol with that school, he was obliged to write an admission examination, where he should prove that he had enough knowledge, while his white coleagues had been exampted.
"Fortunately I managed to be admitted", he said.
He added that, even so, he endured humiliations, but he resisted until he completed his secondary school, after which he went to Lisbon, during the 1960s, to further his studies. It was from there that he went to France, and then to Dar-es-Salaam, where he joined Frelimo, to fight for his country's independence.
To ilustrate how black people were being barred from school, Chissano said that when Mozambique became independent, in 1975, there were only eight Mozambican medical doctors, including those trained by Frelimo during the struggle against the Portuguese colonialism.
Chissano was awarded the distinction of "Doctor Honoris Causa" by the Southern University, formerly only for blacks, that counts now more than 9,000 students.
This ceremony coincides with the celebration of the 44th anniversary of one of the most successful revolutions of the Afro-American students community to fight for their political and civic rights, in March 1960, that dictated the official abolition of racial discrimination in the United States.
A note in the introducing of Chissano's graduation ceremony says that "in 1960, overwhelming changes occurred in the country's political and social structures, that brought about justice, freedom and equality in employment, government and education for Afro-Amricans".
"One of the most powerful political revolutions in the United States was the 'Sit-In', that changed the social order and echoed voices of protest that had been gagged for many years and could not be heard", adds the note.
The first group of members of the "Sit-In" movement to appear before the country's Supreme Court were students from this University, on 28 March 1960.
"This movement had a tremendous impact on the lives and the future of many students and the university's staff, who became later respected activists, educators, business people, lawyers, and took up leadership positions country wide", adds the document, stressing that the same students continued their struggle for justice and equality in 1969.
Then, "the students rebelled against a segregated launch in down town Baton Rouge, and demanded a service that was being denied to the Afro-Americans.
By siting as a sign of protest, they were determined to fight to the bitter end and to serve as spokespersons of the uncountable other voiceless Afro-Americans", reads the note.
Also to honour the heroic deeds of these students who, with their courage helped the blacks in this country to finally enjoy the same rights as their white brothers - at least in terms of the law - during the Chissano graduation ceremony will also be graduated to the degree of Bachelor, 13 of the 16 students who completed their students then, and outstood in the "Sit-In" movement.
The other three, who did not complete their studies then, will receive, in a separate ceremony, on a date yet to be fixed, the titles of "Doctors Honoris Causa", awarded by that university's Studies Centre.
Chissano is accompanied by the Mozambican Higher Education, Science and Technology Minister Lidia Brito, deputy Foreign Minister Frances Rodrigues, deputy Trade and Industry Minister Salvador Namburete, and Mozambican Ambassador to Washington Armando Panguene.
Fonte: AIM
