Mozambique Turns to the West

Fresh from overseeing the settlement of Zimbabwe's independence, Lord Soames flew off to Mozambique late last month. There, in the capital of Maputo, he indicated that Britain would help President Samora Machel rebuild the war-shattered rail line from the Rhodesian border to the Mozambican port of Beira. Someone asked Machel: How did aid from capitalist Britain square with his Marxist principles? "Our Marxist principles stand," he replied, hoisting a glass of French champagne. "Don't you like drinking champagne in a Marxist country?"

No one was more relieved to see an end to the hostilities than Machel, whose country paid dearly for its support of Robert Mugabe and his guerrilla army. Now, in what seemed a surprising turnabout for an avowed socialist, Machel has launched an all-out effort to get aid from the capitalist West for his wretchedly poor people.

Mozambique is still committed to socialism in such important areas as health, education and housing, Machel told a crowd of 50,000 in Maputo last month. But, he added significantly, "the state should not be selling matches." He denounced "ultra-leftism" and the inefficiency, incompetence and petty corruption that have plagued various ministries. Next day he sacked three Cabinet ministers and, in a subsequent shuffle, appointed five whites to the Cabinet. He delivered an impassioned plea for former Portuguese settlers, now living elsewhere in Africa, to return to Mozambique and promised special business incentives for them if they did so. Even before that, Machel had been host to a delegation representing 23 multinational companies. Said he: "There is a place in our country for private external investment."

Getting the country back into shape will not be easy. Machel, 46, a onetime medical orderly, came to power as the leader of the liberation movement that led Mozambique to independence from Portugal in 1975. Despite his pleas for whites to stay, most of them fled, leaving the country bereft of technical, administrative and professional workers.

The Soviets helped arm and finance Machel's guerrilla army. After independence, an estimated 1,600 Soviet, Cuban and East German technicians and advisers arrived to take up residence. But Mozambican officials insist that their country is not a Soviet satellite. Asked what Moscow would think of Machel's overtures to the West, a young government aide exploded: "What the hell does it matter what Moscow thinks? This is our business, not Moscow's." In fact, Mozambique's largest single source of economic aid ($33 million this year) is Sweden.

For its day-to-day economic survival, Mozambique depends primarily on South Africa. Pretoria runs the railroad that links many South African inland cities to the Indian Ocean port facilities at Maputo. It also buys most of the hydroelectric power produced by Mozambique's Cabora Bassa Dam on the Zambezi River. About 35,000 Mozambican workers are employed in South Africa's gold and coal mines. Although Machel opposes South Africa's apartheid policies, he also recognizes that the two countries share a long common border. "This is a reality that can be neither ignored nor altered," he says. "Peaceful co-existence between neighboring states does not hamper the cause of peoples' liberation."

One change that has taken place since Zimbabwe's independence is in the so-called Journal of the People--blackboards situated at city street corners using cartoons to instruct Mozambicans on the government's latest concerns, strictures or admonishments, such as guarding against subversives and working hard. In the past, two of the archvillains have been former Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith and Uncle Sam. In these changing times, however, Mozambicans may have seen the last of both characters.

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