18 Apr 2022

Other than immortalising the spirit and figure of the late Mozambique founding father Mr Samora Machel, the recently-opened museum in Lobatse bearing his name will serve as a reminder of contributions made by compatriots of both nations.

 Speaking during the museum’s commissioning on Thursday, President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi said Botswana did not only host Mr Machel but also provided a humble abode to the late South African President Nelson Mandela as well as former Namibian leader Sam Nujoma as they fled brutal regimes in their respective countries.

  The museum was therefore a celebration of the memory of greatest freedom fighters and statesmen from the entire region who laid a foundation for liberation of Southern Africa, said Dr Masisi.

 In addition, he said it bore testimony to the long standing historical ties between Botswana and Mozambique premised on struggles against political and cultural bondage,  upholding of shared values and principles of democracy as well as familial ties.

  Relating Mr Machel’s story, the President said the account of  freedom fighters’ journey from Tanzania through northern Mozambique, determined to rid themselves of centuries-old  Portuguese colonial rule would prove incomplete without  reference to a stop over in Lobatse by the luminary and revolutionary icon.

In the Peleng, Lobatse homestead of the Kgaboesele family, the late Mr Machel, who would later become the first democratically elected president of Mozambique, found a home away from home some 59 years ago, stated Dr Masisi.

President Masisi said like other African liberation struggle champions, Mr Machel’s larger than life character embodied the spirit of selflessness and the thirst to bring about political and social reforms that would affirm equality and human dignity for Mozambique’s African majority.

The efforts of liberation struggle heroes such as Mr Machel, he said, entailed, but were not limited to defiance campaigns activism against the laws, policies and practices of domination and repression of African majorities by colonial state apparatuses.   

Dr Masisi said such activism was undertaken even in the face of brute force from the colonial and settler regimes’ machinery intent on maintaining the status quo of political and cultural domination, economic exploitation and exclusion, indifference to and neglect of African peoples’ welfare.

As the Portuguese colonial regime tenaciously and brutally perpetuated Mozambican  people’s subjugation, so was the resolve and audacity of revolutionaries, Mr Machel among them, to escalate their resistance by waging an armed struggle against the colonisers until victory was attained in June 1975, President Masisi said.

The securement of political independence through shedding of blood initiated the hard work of nation building under an indigenous leadership, he said adding that the journey continued to date with the baton having passed to the current president, Mr Filipe Nyusi.

President Masisi noted that Mr Nyusi responded swiftly to the invitation to be part of the historic event of commissioning the museum.

He expressed profound gratitude to Mr John Kgaboesele and his family for their immeasurable role and contribution to the liberation struggle.

“Their decision in 1963 to host the late Mr Machel was profound as it demonstrated what they stood for and what we stand for as Batswana such as peace, compassion, Pan Africanism, justice and self-determination,” Dr Masisi said.    

He noted it was that gesture by the Kgaboesele family to accommodate the late liberation icon and freedom fighter which accentuated relations between Botswana and Mozambique.

Pointing out that Mr Machel had been en-route to Tanzania to join Mozambique Liberation Front (FRELIMO) freedom fighters, Dr Masisi said between 1963 and 1966, over 100 Mozambicans passed through Botswana on a similar mission.

The freedom currently enjoyed by the people of Southern Africa was a product of their collective struggle and sacrifice against the forces of racism, fascism and imperialist repression, said Dr Masisi.

ends