Povo no poder: Azagaia, Venâncio and the Flames of Freedom in Mozambique

By Machel Nawenzake

“You can come with teargas; this protest is full of oxygen.” – Azagaia

Mozambique has been rocked by protests for almost two weeks following a disputed presidential election in which Daniel Chapo, candidate of the ruling Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (Frelimo) was declared winner by the National Commission for Elections (NCE) on October 24. His main opponent, Venâncio Mondlane, who ran on a ticket of the Optimistic Party for the Development of Mozambique (Podemos), says he won the election and has since then declared himself President of Mozambique. Venâncio’s supporters have also held protests since the announcement of these election results, paralysing operations across parts of the country.

 Mozambicans turned up in their millions on 9 October 2024  to vote for a new president and parliamentary representatives at the national and provincial levels. The 2024 elections were however marred by glaring irregularities including ballot box stuffing, intimidation of voters and lack of adequate materials for the electoral process. Voter rolls had also been tampered with, with some voters arriving at voting stations only to discover that their names were missing from the electoral rolls or that they had already ‘voted’. Opposition delegates and election observers were at the same time barred from accessing multiple polling stations.

 Venâncio subsequently called for a national shutdown that was to begin on the 21st of October, advising his supporters to stay at home and bring the country to a stand-still.

 This was not to be.

 Between the night of 18 October and the morning of 19 October, his lawyer, Elvino Dias, and an official party delegate, Paulo Guambe, were assassinated by a hail of bullets as they drove across the city of Maputo. Upon visiting the scene of the assassination, Venâncio rallied his supporters not to stay at home as earlier planned - and to instead come out on the streets for a peaceful demonstration. The Mozambican masses responded to his call in their numbers, and efforts by police to violently disperse them backfired as this increased public anger and helped mobilise even more people to join the protests in Maputo, Gaza, Sofala, Cabo Delgado, Pemba and other provinces.

Venâncio’s supporters again turned out in large numbers for the first phase of the protests that began on the 21st - and on the 22nd, he announced a drawn-out strike that would last 25 days to signify the 25 bullets that had ended the lives of Elvino Dias and Paulo Guambe.

 The second phase of these protests were held on 24 and 25 of October.

The electoral commission announced the election results on the afternoon of 24th October, declaring Frelimo’s Daniel Chapo the victor with 70.67% of the votes cast. Many Mozambicans again took to the streets, strengthening protests that had been ongoing in different provinces. The police responded with unprecedented force, killing at least 11 people and leaving over 70 others nursing gunshot injuries. In keeping up with what is becoming a familiar pattern across the African continent (and beyond), the regime switched off the internet for eighteen hours on the 25th so as to prevent mobilisation efforts.

 Venâncio Mondlane has since then announced a third wave of protests - a grand March into Maputo which he and his supporters will begin on the 31st of October – and which will culminate on November 7th when they intend to take over the capital city. In a historic move, the entire opposition came together on 30th October to announce that they would be joining the 1 week protests and would not stop the protests until their demands, including a forensic audit of the National Commission of Elections and prosecution of those responsible for the electoral fraud, are addressed.

 Portugal’s empire in Africa: Repression, Resistance & 1975.

 Mozambique declared her independence in 1975 following a brutal armed struggle against Portugal’s colonial machine. In the preceding decade, Portugal had faced simultaneous resistance from the gallant people in three of its colonial territories in Africa; in Angola where the MPLA led an armed struggle not just against Portugal but also against imperialism (read apartheid-era South African Defence Force); in Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde where the PAIGC was scoring victories and declaring liberated zones; and in Mozambique where FRELIMO engaged the Portuguese army in a fierce and protracted war for national liberation that lasted a decade.

 Portugal once controlled a massive empire before its decline. By the 16th Century, Portugal had established a firm foothold across the Eastern coast of Africa where it controlled trading ports and built many forts including Fort Jesus in Kenya, Fort Saint Sebastian (Forte de São Sebastião) and Fort Saint Cajetan (Forte de São Caetano de Sofala) in Mozambique, among others. These forts acted not only as defensive positions, but also as administrative centres and storage sites for Portuguese traders.

 The coast of Mozambique was a de-facto colony of Portugal from the 15th Century, though Portugal didn’t manage to establish administrative control over the hinterland until after the Berlin Conference of 1886. This conference was convened after the decline of Portugal as a great global power, and when it ended, Portugal had only four colonies in Africa – Angola, Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde, Mozambique, and Sao Tome and Principe. Portugal employed a barbaric form of colonisation – it dominated humans and extracted natural resources, invested the barest of minimums toward the development of its colonies, and maintained its rule through methodical brute force.

 By the early 1960’s, the colonised people in Mozambique had had enough. Realising that their previous efforts to dislodge the Portuguese had not borne fruit because of the fragmentation that existed amongst them, they consolidated the mass-based dimensions of their organising - uniting various movements and organisations into a formidable force against colonialism and imperialism. FRELIMO was thus birthed as the political instrument of their just and righteous struggle against Portuguese colonialism. Armed struggles were simultaneously launched in Mozambique, Angola and Guinea Bissau – leaving Portugal on the back foot across three fronts. Through brutal and unforgiving armed struggle, these brave Africans etched their names in the annals of history as part of a generation that once again affirmed the people as the motive force of history.

 Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde declared independence in 1973. Unhappy with the ideologies of the Estado Novo, and knowing that they couldn’t win the colonial wars that they were fighting in Africa, Portuguese Officers overthrew the government of General Salazar in Lisbon in 1974 in what came to be known as the carnation revolution. Angola and Mozambique, Portugal’s remaining African colonies became independent the next year, securing a major advancement for the African liberation struggle.

 Apart from fighting against Portuguese colonial domination and leading their countries to independence in 1975, the MPLA and FRELIMO have additionally remained in power ever since and grown in likeness over the decades. Faced with an unrelenting neoliberal assault, both parties abandoned Marxism-Leninism as an ideological guide and embraced free market economies that only worsened the material conditions of their people. Frelimo was especially hit hard during this neoliberal offensive by the assassination of Samora Machel, who had in many ways maintained the party discipline, in 1986.

 The discovery and exploitation of massive mineral resources in Angola and Mozambique have additionally served to fuel the extravagant lifestyles of the ruling class in both countries as the majority wallow in poverty. Electoral changes in both countries have effectively managed to replace one ruler with another every ten years or so, but have not managed to change the systems and exploitative economic relations that maintain a hegemony over the productive base. These once-beloved liberation movements are today pale shadows of themselves.

 Between 2007 and 2010, protests erupted in different parts of Mozambique resulting in several deaths as a result of state violence. The psychological impact of this violence left the people seemingly resigned to their fate - they stopped taking to the streets, stopped asking questions, and in many ways seemed to have ‘accepted’ poverty as a way of life. The regime had succeeded in creating and cultivating a sense of fear in people, effectively demobilising them. But only temporarily, for “Neo-colonial man”, as Walter Rodney reminds us, “is asking a different set of questions as colonial man”. There is a new generation that is today raising their voices in chants of, “Frelimo out! Revolution!”. Instead of responding to their concerns, the regime has only increased repression of dissent.

 In 2011, a new-school revolutionary movement was birthed in Angola. While many Africans might be aware of the ‘15 +2’ who were arrested following the March 11 street protests, it is instructive to note that there was a whole movement behind them. However, this movement is no longer as powerful today as a result of splits and schemes occasioned by forces that are both internal and external to it.

 The social movements in Angola played a huge role in pushing Dos Santos out of power but were largely unable to alter the system on which his rule had been anchored. João Lourenço (popularly referred to as J-Lo) thereafter took over the reins of power in 2017 and fired most of the individuals who had served in the Dos Santos regime, but did not institute any major systemic changes. J-Lo subsequently lost popular support during his first term as the material conditions of the people had not improved, and with three years to the 2022 elections, Angolans started mobilising at the grassroots to prevent his re-election.

 The star of the opposition leader, Adalberto Da Costa, shone brighter, and the MPLA, on sensing defeat, started kidnapping, torturing, and killing opposition activists. In a sudden escalation, the government declared a state of Prontidão Combativa(readiness for combat) - a period of heightened security that should only be raised against external threats, not against citizens preparing for elections. MPLA lost the hotly contested elections, but were announced winners.

 2023: Azagaia and ‘povo no poder’

 “Even in death, they attempted to arrest him. To arrest the ideas he represented. The great contradiction is that his lyrics carried some of the very ideas that Samora Machel had espoused.”

 On 09 March 2023, popular Mozambican rapper Azagaia passed away. His sharp lyrics had over the years morphed into a distinct sound of resistance. Azagaia had repeatedly used the slogan, povo no poder, which literally translates to ‘the people in power’, in his music. His music and activism had largely been inspired by Samora Machel, who in one of his speeches during the struggle for national liberation, had fiercely declared povo no poder. Azagaia’s death inspired people to listen more keenly to his music, and resuscitated the popular use of this slogan among the Mozambican masses. They understood his message, which was an echo of Samora’s message -  that ‘the power belongs to the people’.

 A huge crowd - a size that had only previously been witnessed after the death of Samora Machel - showed up for Azagaia’s funeral in Maputo on the 14th of March. Upon seeing the sense of unity that his death had created among the people of Mozambique, security agencies dispersed and assaulted thousands of mourners who had joined Azagaia’s funeral procession to the cemetery. Even in death, they attempted to arrest him. To arrest the ideas he represented. The great contradiction is that his lyrics carried some of the very ideas that Samora Machel had espoused. Azagaia soon-after became a symbol of unity between Lusophone Africa, inspiring resistance to systems of oppression in both Angola and Mozambique.

 There had not been such a connection and level of coordination between young Mozambicans and Angolans since the liberation movements. The death of Azagaia thus marked a new page in the history of both countries, a qualitative leap that rekindled sparks of freedom and resistance which the winds of oppression were incapable of putting out. These sparks would smoulder slowly at the start, only to morph into an inferno that would soon engulf the hills, valleys, savannah and tropical forests of Mozambique.

 It is instructive to note that though people in both countries were struggling for better conditions and resisting the excesses of the regime(s) at that time, there emerged no clear political alternative. The greatest fact of history, however, is that the people knew that change was coming. They had to organise.

 On March 18, one of the youth movements mobilised a march in honour of Azagaia, and even informed authorities about the march. The youth were however, unable to hold the march on the material day as heavily armed police were deployed on the streets where they intimidated and brutally assaulted defenceless civilians.

 After the events of March 14 and 18, Mozambicans waited patiently for another opportunity to speak truth to power. The upcoming municipal elections in October 2023 provided that opportunity for them, and they effectively voted out FRELIMO in many areas. It is in these elections that the highly-popular Venâncio Mondlane contested for the position of mayor in Maputo City, only to be rigged out in a highly-fraudulent process whose aftermath was protests that lasted for more than 20 days. Venâncio then announced that he would run for president in 2024, initiating a series of events that continue to reverberate to date.

 A few years earlier, in 2019, Venâncio had joined Renamo which had fought Frelimo in a sixteen-year armed struggle that ended in 1992, but the old-guard in Renamo had blocked him from contesting for leadership positions because of their comfort with the status quo that he sought to overhaul coupled with his soaring popularity. That is why he announced his intent to run for President as an independent candidate with the support of a group of small parties that had formed the Democratic Alliance Coalition (CAD). This coalition was in July 2024 barred from contesting the elections by the electoral commission. Venâncio thereafter joined forces with Podemos, an extra-parliamentary political party formed by dissidents who had broken away from Frelimo. This move transformed Podemos from a marginal political player to a powerful vehicle that backed his presidential bid in the October 9 elections.

Home of the brave.

 The history of humanity has been a constant struggle between the oppressed and their oppressors. The only logical conclusion of this clash between two diametrically opposed forces is the victory of the oppressed people. History teaches us that while the forces of oppression can dominate over certain periods of time, forces of resistance ultimately prevail.

 The people of Mozambique fought one of the most glorious struggles for national liberation on the African continent. They must, at this moment, do a clear and concise analysis of the internal and external forces at play, and the position(s) of these forces in relation to their forward march into history. They, and only they, can liberate themselves. They must dismantle glaring inequalities and improve their material conditions. They must create a newness that guarantees them justice, peace and dignity. In this scheme of things, organisation remains paramount.

 The people of Africa must, at this moment, extend their unwavering solidarity to our brothers and sisters in Mozambique.

 May Mozambique once-again reclaim its position as the home of the brave.

 Ameen.

Machel Nawenzake is an ecological justice activist currently based in Nairobi and a member of Mwamko.