Monuments of the Exiles and Memorialisation of Shared Heritage Between Mozambique and Tanzania

Abstract

The Tanzanian landscape has a long history with exiled nationalist organisations from South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique. The case of Mozambique is unique. It was in Dar es Salaam that FRELIMO (Front for the Liberation of Mozambique) was born in 1962; but the great Mozambican nationalist Edward Mondlane was assassinated in the same city in 1969. This paper presents the ruins of the FRELIMO camp in Nachingwea, Tanzania, to elaborate the state of preservation of the monuments and how such preservation may contribute to sustainable peace between these two neighbouring countries. There are recognisable photographs and written historical documents concerning FRELIMO in both Mozambican and Tanzanian libraries, museums, and archives. Adding the landscape as another layer of evidence juxtaposes the limitations unveiled in other sources; enhances our understanding of the activities that took place during exile including those of the subalterns (residential houses, food carriers, couriers, recruiting sergeants and foot soldiers); and underlines the process of how sites of African liberation struggles are remembered and memorialised.

Keywords:

• memory
• memorial
• monument
• liberation
• gender
• colonialism
• heritage