NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE SURVEY 58; MOZAMBIQUE; COUNTRY PROFILE
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The National Intelligence Survey.
Subsections and graphics are indoviduolly classified
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GENERAL SURVEY CHAPTERS
COUNTRY PROFILE Integrated perspective of
the subject country 0 Chronology Area brief
Summary Map
THE SOCIETY Social structure Population 4
Labor Health Laving conditions Religion a
Education Artistic expression 0 Public Information
GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS Summary and
background o Structure and function *political
dynamics Nutioaal policies Thre; -ts to stability
0 The police 0 Intelligence and security a Counter
subversion and counterir�,surgency capabilities
THE ECONOMY Appraisal of the economy 0 Its
structure agriculture, fisheries, forestry, fuels and
power, metals and minerals, manufacturing and con-
struction 0 DornWic trade Economic policy and
development International ecvm.rrnic relations
TRANSPORTATION AND
TELECOMMUNICATIONS Appraisal of systems
Strategic mobility Railroads 0 Highways
Inland waterways a Ports Civil air Ai *fields
0 The telecom system
MILITARY GEOGRAPHY Topography and climate
0 Military geographic regions Strategic areas
Internal routes Approaches: land, sea, air
ARMED FORCES The defense establishment 9
Joint activities 0 Ground forces s Naval forces
Airforces Paramilitary 0 Cuerrilla forces
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Mozambique is a focal point of the struggle to es-
tablish majority rule throughout Africa. To the Por-
tuguese. Mozambique is an overseas state, an integral
part of their nation. To black Africa, however, the Por-
tuguese presence in Mozambique is a rank evil, one of
the last vestiges of European colonialism, and since
1964 several thousand insurgents have been conduct-
ing guerrilla warfare against the well- entrenched Por-
tuguese in the name of African independence. (U /OU)
By almost any standard, Mozambique seems a poor
prize for either side. it is a backward land, handi-
capped by African primitivism and Portuguese
penury. Located on the southeast coast of Africa, it
is� despite recent progress anything but a tropical
paradise, with its slender agricultural economy, a
sparse, largely illiterate, and unskilled population, and
primitive standards of health and social welfare. About
975, African, it is ruled paternalistically by an almost
wholly white elite controlled by Lisbon. For the Por-
tuguese it is an economic drain and yet they prize it as
an outpost of Portuguese civilization and consider it a
symbol of Portugal's continuing world importance.
(U /OU)
The Portuguese have a strong emotional attachment
to their overseas territories. Mozambique included.
Beginning with their explorations of the late 13th and
early 16th centuries, the Portuguese have had an un-
interrupted presence in Africa for nearly 500 years. En-
durance alone, they argue, is sufficient reason for their
being there. Yet, they also see themselves �in a
Kiplingesque vision �as the anointed bearers of Euro-
pean civilization, chosen to uplift a primitive society
through the application of the modes of a rich culture
and the infusion of Christianity, particularly
Catholicism, the Portuguese state religion. According
to their mystique, they are specially qualified for these
tasks by reason of a singular capacity to mix racially
and thus produce a peaceful society at a time when
conflict based on color is rife. In support of their case,
they cite the general mood of calm in Mozambique
and contrast it with the periodic political upheavals
elsewhere in Africa. Moreover, they claim that
Mozambique, unlike most of its black -ruled neighbors,
is making economic and social progress, encouraged by
a series of Portuguese sponsored reforms. (U /OU)
Critics of Portugal in general and Mozambique in
particular maintain that Lisbon's ideals are not put
into practice. In Mozambique they see an overwhelm-
ing black majority that is ill fed, ill housed, ill
educated, and ill treated. They see a white elite
mouthing platitudes while profiting immensely from
entrenched privilege, and they see the Portuguese
Government making changes largely cosmetic �only
when forced to. "Africa for the Africans" and
"self- determination" are the slogans they invoke to
convey their desire to put an end to Portuguese rule.
(U /OU)
The point remains that the Portuguese in Mozam-
bique are a determined lot, convinced of their own
cause and unswayed by what they regard as the pass-
ing fancies of the present day. In recent years, the
United Nations has repeatedly condemned Portugal's
colonialist" policy. The Third World countries have
chimed in, as have the Soviet Union and the Chinese
People's Republic. Even most of Portugal's NATO
allies have sided with the Africans against Portugal.
or at least abstained from supporting Lisbon. Only
white -ruled South Africa and Rhodesia somewhat
suspect because of their" racist� policies- --have rallied
consistently behind Portuguese rule in Mozam-
bique. (U /OU)
In response the Portuguese have raised up the twin
menaces of Communist and Western imperialism.
They have warned of a Communist conspiracy to
create turmoil and thereby subvert Mozambique, and
they have wondered aloud why the West does not con-
sider Mozambique part of the Free World. Conversely,
they have accused the United States of seeking to
assert economic dominance over their potentially rich
African territories, which they say are now about to
pay off. Above all, Portuguese spokesmen aver that the
"greatness of their nation" depends on the retention of
Mozambique, Angola, and Portuguese Guinea, and
that therefore Portugal intends to fight to eternity for
its cause. (U /OU)
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Half A Millennium in the j'ro ics (10
When the Portuguese first landed nit the southeast
coast of Africa around A.Q. I5110, the found
themselves in an area Imig dominated by Arabian
traders and merchuots, who had built fortified
settlements and taught ehc religion mud culture of
Islam to those Africans with whom then haul untie ill
contact. The region had two main attractions: that it
could serve as a tease for it commercial empire em-
brae ing the Indian Ocean and that it was thought to
be rich in gold deposits. During the 17th century gold
fever seized the Portuguese, but their efforts were
largely defeated by art impenetrahie land, raging dis-
ease, and im- rsonal rivairies �not to mention mines
hardly worth erplolling. Of greater significance- was
the fact that Portuguese control was constantly
threatened by its failure to establish more than a fechle
population base. On into the 18th century, the Por-
tuguese population of the territory seldom aunibertil
over 1,M), these were chiefly the semidespertdo es-
tatcholders (luncros) to whom the goverunrent had
given crown grants in the Zambezi valley or the ctioi-
rnercially minded inhabitants of tilt- cx;asta# fortress
towns, such as ,Mo a mhique,` the first capitol, from
which the entire- area ultimately took its name.
For thm-filicN nu p1md. amity Wh tilt Im oil mart� +4111 tilt- =iprun al
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Mozambique was initially important to the
Portuguese as a hose from which to control the rich
trade routes hehveen Europe and the spiceiartds of in-
dia and the East lndie After the Dutch gairu�cl oxo-
lrol of the spice trade iu the� 17th certtur y. t_ishun
authoritivs accorded MmAmhicimat- leers intpwrtanct aad
concentrated their erurgics on the more acm.,814e
Angola as it link to the prized possession of Brazil. The
Portuguese were able to maitiluut a lcuuous grip (in tht
Iamtul Daly by a divide- and- crompier strategy against time
natives. who, watlered and demoralized. brc�arne vic-
tims of the thriving slave trade of the fiat half of the
19th centeiry. Moreover, Christian missionaries prac-
ticed their professinu over tale %ears in sornee%hat
desultory fashion, gaining relatively few converts.
The major European powers, stalemated in their ef-
forts to dominale Africa, met at Bedin in ISScs to carve
It;) the continent. Portugal's claim to Mozambique
and Angola Was eYOfirtuetl. but as it turned out its
dream of a trans African empire comrccting time two
Imritories was shattered by the inter�enton of the far
str iger and more aggressive liritisb. Coewerned over
the covetous Rritish :rnd Cvrmuos, the Pnrtuguese in
the late 19th CPIIInry decided Drier and for all to es-
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tablish their control over Mozambique, accomplishing
this partly by force of arms and partly by the establish
rient of large concessionary companies charged with
exploiting the agricultural lands and mineral resources
of the interior.
It was not until around 1920, however, that Por-
tuguese administrators at last acquired almost com-
plete maste7y over Mozambique, only to find that
political- economic chaos in Portugal itself was under
mining their position. With the arrival of strong man
Antonio Salazar on the scene in 1928, the long -lost
dream of a great multiracial Portuguese nation spread
across three continents was revived. The dream turned
nightmare, however, when indigenous rebellions broke
out in Angola and Portuguese Cuinea in 1961 and in
Mozambique in 1964. Salazar respond.d with strong
military action, coupled with token acknowledgment
of the pressures for self determination. The franchise
was offered to the indigenous peoples, and representa-
tion in Portugal's legislative councils was increased.
Marcello Cactano, who succeeded the dying Salazar in
1968, seemed momentarily to consider the possibility
of eventual independence for the African provinces.
However, under strong pressure from rightists in his en-
tourage, he compromised with a promise of
semiautonomy for what were now to be designated
overseas states of the Portuguese nation.
The centuries -long struggle of the Portuguese for
Mozambique probably accounts more for their attach-
ment to the land than the nature of Mozambique
Itself. Mozambique consists mainly of flat to rolling
Plains which rise gradually inland from the coast and
culminate in rugged ranges of hills and scattered
mountains in the north and west, the highest of which
Monte Binga (7,992 ft.). Much of the country is
forested, although there are large savanna areas, main-
ly in the south and northeast. Several large streams
flow cross country to the coast �most notably the
Zambezi, the historic avenue of entry to the African in-
terior, taken by David Livingstone, among others.
Largely tropical, Mozambique has two principal
seasons: a warm, dry winter from June through
September and a hot, wet summer from December
through March, when temperatures over 120 degrees
can turn a river valley into a steaming green hell.
A Y- shaped land of some 3W,000 square miles,
Mozambique is bordered on the north by Tanzania,
on the north an'd west by Malawi and Zambia, on the
west by Rhodesia, and on the west and south by South
Africa and Swaziland. Adjacent to the busy shipping
lanes of the Mozambique Channel, it has strategic im-
portance as a surveillance station for the western In-
dian Ocean. Eight and one -half times the size of Por-
tugal itself, Mozambique �if superimposed on the
eastern United States -would stretch from the Cana-
dian border to northern Florida and from western In-
diana to the Atlantic Ocean. Mozambique's popula-
tion as of June 1973 was estimated at 8,698,000 (about
the same as Portugal's), or a sparse 28 persons per
square mile. Population figures are suspect, however,
given the migratory habits of the African tribes, the
vagaries of the census takers, and the secretiveness of
Portuguese officials.
Both primitive and modern, Mozambique is a study
in contrasts. Along the coast there are great port cities,
principally Lourenco Marques and Beira. The for-
mer �the capital, major metropolis, and principal
industrial- transport center �has a sophisticated,
almost continental atmosphere, with sleek office
buildings, shady avenues, sidewalk cafes, first -class
hotels, and Riviera -like beaches attractive to vacation-
ing Rhodesians and South Africans. The cities, largely
bastiUns of the white population, are now being ringed
by slums inhabited by a flood of Africans in search of
jobs. In quest of a better life, they have abandoned the
misery and boredom of the small towns, native
villages, plantations, and mining communities that
make up the back country. They have also left behind
the tsetse fly, wild animals, poisonous plants, and
other hazards of the bush.
Until recently Mozarbique s development as a uni-
fied nation was hampered by a transportation
network that, because of geograpic and economic
necessity, ran mainly cast -west. In part to foster the
economy and also as an aid in combating the native
insurgency, the government has sought to upgrade and
expand the rail, road, and air systems. Travel is still a
hazardous proposition over single -track rail lin^s and
one -lane dirt roads that not only are subject to
washouts but may also contain landmines planted by
guerrillas. Destinations frequently are more safely and
expeditiously reached via small commercial aircraft,
which fly from one remote grassy strip to anotlior.
0
3
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Blacks, Whites, and Others (u /0u)
Friends and foes of N- lozambiciue tend to agree that
its greatest virtue is an absence of strong conscious
racial antagonisms. The Portugat,se art colorblind by
comparison with most other Europeans. Ili fact, by law
racial tiscriminatioo is botb illegal and immoral. aucl
as a practical lnatter Wgregatirnl dcxs 1101 exist ill
Mozambique. however, after 300 years, ill tilt iracism,
the cornerstone of Portuguese social policy. still
remains more myth tlum reality. The absence of avert
discrimination in no way indicates that the African is
considered the equal Elf the European. While the Por-
1119"ese seem to have a genuine fo idness for blacks,
they uiso tesid ttt treat them paternalistically as
primitive 1H ople. As the representatives of all old and
rigidly stratified society, the Portuguese in Aiozcetn-
bique base social status oil family backgramid. wealth,
and education criteria that in the eruct generally
separate blacks from whites 'thus, tilt- two may mix
unaffectedly in public life --in schools, government,
business, athletics, and the military �bat in private go
their separate ways.
Perhaps as justification for tilt emionued rule of
Xlozarnbique from Lisbon, the Portuguese like t., tell
themselves and a somewhat skeptical world that they
arcs building a racially mixed society along the fines of
that found ill Brazil. Ire fact, while miscegenatio11 is of-
ficially approved, it is little practiced in "viozartthkpic.
,uud most mixing of the races has taken place es-
trarrtaritally. Must of the approximately 40,0(X) "Itilat-
tcxw ill Mor illbique toclay are desc idecl frmin white
men and black wotne11. By and large. the mulatto
bears no stigma, bot only rarely does lie attain high
slandiag ill lice cYrnnuuiity.
13y comparison with the mulattoes and especially
the whites, the blacks are just beginning to gain status
in Nlozatnbiquc s modern society. All Africans in-
digenous to Nioi unbique are considered to be Rama,
a major linguistic grouping also characterize([ to some
degree by physical similarities. Tribal distinctions are
difficuit to make, however, because of a continuing
pax -ess of amalgamation and separation among the
various grout's and the fact that their geogrlphic luea-
Con hequerltly transcends rtloderit -clay national houn-
darim. As a gVeleral rule, the people of the north tend
to be agriculturalists. Muslims, and practitioners of the
nilcs of matrilineal descent. whereas those of the south
are more often involved in cattle raising as well as
agriculture, are animists. tilt(] trace tfieir descent from
males. There are in Mozambique no truly dominant
tribes to ulosel the social balance. At dic same tithe.
However, ancient rivalries do persist �such as that
between the fiercely indelkrodent and generally :rriti-
Portuguese Makontle and the more passive N- iaetta.
who tend to be pro Portuguese. On the whole, it is clif-
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i
ficult to assess the attitutes of the blacks, but few
appear to have any special sense of being "black
African," and even fewer identify themselves as "black
Portuguese."
Africans were kept in inferior status for years by their
own backward ways and by Portuguese administrative
statutes. Under terms of the Native Law (Estatuto In-
digena) an African could enjoy the full privileges of
modern society �that is, could become an assimilado
with full rights of Portuguese citizenship �only by
proving that he spoke Portuguese, did not live in
native style, and was economically self sustaining.
With some logic the Portuguese stated that the law was
meant to encourage the African to, aspire to greater
heights, but the fact that only a few thousand ever at-
tained the status of assimilado seemed to negate this
argument. The law was repealed in 1961, but many of
the barriers of black advancement remain. Lack of
education, for example, still keeps blacks from most of
the better paying jobs. Even when the black can com-
pete successfully, he may be paid half or less of what
the white earns. The Portuguese can cite the histories
of an increasing number of Africans who have applied
themselves, striven upward, and been accepted into
the establishment although usually at its lower and
middle echelons.
At present, Mozambique remains predominantly
the domain of the white Portuguese. Many, -like their
explorer forefathers, have gone to Africa on a
short -term basis to promote ;their fortunes. Others were
born there, claim descent from the crew of Vasco da
Cama, bonsider themselves more Mozambican than
Portuguese, and at times resent "interference" from
Lisbon. The "better" white's live in fine homes, are
walted,on by an array of servants, and have their own
clubs. Another side of Portuguese life in Mozambique
is represented by the laborers and peasants, who are
constantly being enticed by Lisbon to try their luck
overseas (arid- thus reinforce Portugal's presence in
Africa). What at least a few discover, however, is that
Mozambique by nature and climate is inhospitable to
the working -level white European immigrant. These
people frequently are failures,at home, and therefore
do not constitute good pioneer stock. Here they com-
pete with the educated Africans, in the process produc-
ing incipient racial ill will. Typically, they comp ?ain of
food shortages, bad roads, high prices, and insensitive
officials. Ultimately some develop feelings of aliena-
tion from the homeland �a circumstance that could
bode ill for long -range stability in the overseas state.
Also resident in Mozambique are pockets of "old
school" German and English colonialists, remnants of
the days when their nations were powers in the region,
plus small numbers of Asians, principally Chinese and
Indians, whose commercial prowes, frequently irritates
white shopkeepers and whose -wealth and influence
tend to antagonize aspiring blacks.
DO- 11
A certain number of black Mozambicans, outraged
by "EufflPmn colonialism" and despairing of its end
by peaceful means, have been conducting guerrilla
warfare against the regime since September 1964, As of
1973, the native Insurgency movement had become
more active and widespread but was still restricted to
the largely underdeveloped northern sector of Mozam-
bique. There, neither side can be said to have control.
Rather, areas of 'influence exist, with the situation
otherwise deadlocked.
The insurgency has been led principally by the
Mozambique Liberation Front (FRELIMO),
operating out of sanctuary in Tanzania (and
sometimes Zambia), and to a small extent by the rival
and much smaller Mozambique Revolutionary "Com-
mittee (COREMO), based in Zambia. FRELIMO is
estimated to have 7,000 to 8, trained guerrilla
fighters, plus the verbal and sometime materiel sup-
port of the Organi�ation of African Unity, the
U.S.$ the Chinese People's Republic, the Fast
V
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Rebellion and Reform
I_1 �:16IT M M161:a:01 if: wo]F ileN11111QrI4Lrl//:1tItI11P4111 G111111111M
European nations, militant Arab states, and private
Western sources. In recent �cars it also has received
"humanitarian" support from specialized agencies of
the United Nations and several Scandinavian states,
including three of Portugal's NATO allies. Glorified by
admirers as an army of hard bitten young patriots who
would single mindedly undergo almost any hardship
to liberate their homeland, MELD-10 has been
plagued by the rivalries of a member of would-be
leaders, including sonic with Communist tics.
Originally directed by the American educated Dr.
Eduardo Mondlarne, who was assassinated in 1969,
FRELM-10 P� now led by Moises Sanuora `lachel, a
skilled military tactician whose holder, more aggressive
moves hav- kept the Portuguese somewhat off
balance.
In brief, the fighting in 4o7ambique arouses
memories of Vietnam, fca:trrirng as it does rough jungle
terrain, hit- and -run thrusts, no true battlefront, heavy
use of propaganda, a grubby existence for all par-
ticipants, and no promise of an early end. By most ac-
counts, the 50,000 to 60.000 P Witguese troops in
Mozambique�a surprisingly large number of them
black --have acquitted themselves well under the cir-
cumstances. Tough and well conditioned. they have
become increasingly skilled in counterinsurgency
methods. They have established several hundred for-
tified villages (afdearrmentos) in the north and ex-
ploited the hatred of other local tribes toward the
Makonde, the principal insurgent element. Mozam-
bique has received considerable encouragement, but
minimal direct support, from South Africa and
Rhodesia. It is unlikely to ask soon for much greater
assistance, for in this as in other regional events
Mozambique prefers to "go it alone,' out of fear of
eventual economic domination by its white neighbors,
distaste for their racial policies, and resentment of their
6
inclination to look down on tlue dark skinned "lazy
Latins" of Mozambique.
Within Mozambique, the vast majority of the
African population has not been involved in the In-
surgency and seems largely indifferent to it. In fact, an
increasing number of blacks appear to be participating
more fully in Portuguese- directed affairs, if only to
profit from the social reforms that the Insurgency and
adverse world comment evidently have forc -d the Por-
tuguese to undertake. In a larger sense, their participa-
tion probably derives more from an acquiescence in
Portuguese domination than all �pting for Portuguese
run, but in any case the reforms, incomplete as they
are, arc at last beginning to give the Africans a
semblance of the civilized status long promised them.
For centuries, one of the chief anomalies of the Por-
tuguese "mission" in Mozambique was the promise of
enlightenment and the reality of illiteracy. still- es-
timated to be between Sff and 905. Until the 1960's
basic education consisted of "adaptation"
schools �run principally by Catholic mis-
sionaries �which offered African children little uwre
than an indoctrination in Christian principles and a
brief introduction to the Portuguese. language. In 196-1,
the "adaptation" schools were abolished by law. and
regular primary education became available ----at least
in theory �to all childre =i without racial distinct ;nn
An increasing number of Africans are going on to
secondary level training, .which offers some hope of
economic and social attainment in skill -short Mozam-
bique. Still, much of the indigenous population is
handicapped by the simple fact that tribal existence is
poor preparation for a Port a gu ese -style education. And
since Lisbon is interested in turning out black Por-
tuguese-- not black Africans�progress necessarily %will
b slow.
Lacking education, Africans over the years have
been relegated to the most menial jobs such as planta-
tion hands, roadbuilders, and miners. The slave trade
was officially abolished in the Portuguese overseas
territories in 1875, but a system warier which "all
natives of Portuguese overseas provinces" who were
unemployed �i.c., virtually all black men who lived
on the tribal economy �eould legally be forced to
work continued until 1962, wken the Rural Labor
Code was enacted. The Rural Labor G=ale banned this
new form of slavery but did not entirely deter some
Portuguese from coercing the African to work. The
justi fie' rti011, as the Portuguese state it, is that work is
personally ennobling and helps the African build the
advanced civilization he needs to insure his greater
happiness. Overall, progress has been made in teens of
greater job opportunities, higher ages, and improved
work statudards, but reform has not gone in far as to
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y
6?
C5
allow free trade unions, collective bargaining, or
strikes.
Risk, however, may not be a compelling factor for
an African, who more often than not exists from day to
day and who has an average life expectancy of only
about 40. Until recently, health, welfare, and even
basic sanitation facilities were far scarcer in Mozam-
bique than schools, and the Afrir.,ao by and large relied
on ancient tribal remedies in the event of dis.
ease including such major afflictions as malaria,
schistosomiasis, inf ^thous hepatitis, enteric infee-
tions �and other health problems. Since the
mid- 1960's sundry clinics have been opened in the
towns and villages, while "psychoso&J service teams'
have been dispatched, Peace Corps fashion, to remote
areas where they attempt to combat illness and up-
grade African work habits and skill in Portuguese. Asa
result, the quality of life in Mozambique has im-
proved, though only commensurate with the slim
C
Mozambique leads a humble political existence as a
child of mother Portugal. Most important decisions are
made in Lisbon by the government of Marcello
Caetano, and those made in Lourenco Marques are
subject to Lisbon's approval. This arrangement; accord-
ing w the Portuguese, is justified because Mozam-
bique, as an oversew state of the sovereign Portuguese
nation, is part of a single national community which is
Juridically one despite geographic separation.
Portugal and its overseas states are administered in
accordance with the authoritarian philosophy of the
New State (Estado Novo), originally propounded by
Antonio Salazar. The thrust of this concept is to place
the state in the hands of a small number of corporate
bodies pledged to the primacy of its interests, The in-
dividual Is represented in government primarily
through his affiliation with a corporate body, possibly
a labor syndicate, industrial organization, or church
group. In practice, a strong executive is required 'to
lead the "corporate state," which he proceeds to do
with the broad advice and consent of an upperstratum
resources of metropolitan Portugal, itself mired in
poverty and drained by persistent colonial wars.
Such funds as the Portuguese have available for
development in Mozambique are frequently channel-
ed into public works projects and new agricultural
settlements, State officials have enthusiastically por-
traycd these settlements as thriving biracial com.
munities that allow Africans to learn advuneed farm-
ing techniques and absorh Portuguese values from
their white cosettlers. However, the settlement
schemes --such as that begun in the Limpopo valley in
1953 --have yet to fulfill their promise for several
reasons: a paucity of Africans capable of undertaking
such a venture, an unwillingness on the part of most
Portuguese farmers to emigrate to Mozambique, and a
propensity on the part of some responsible offia +als to
implement their somewhat visionary plans either
lethargically or hardly at ail.
7
4
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The Rulers and Their Institutions (c)
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of business, church, and military men. Political activi-
ty that falls to refleef the consensus of the establish-
ment is generally regarded as tantamount to treason.
Political nertirs are throttled, the.media are censored,
and the electorate is held down to a small minority.
Elections are held chiefly to confirm government
policy.
Supreme authority within Mozambique is wielded
by the Governor General, who is appointed by and
answerable to the Lisbon cabinet. He serves as the
chief local administrator, appoints,most lesser state ad-
ministrators, prepares `the state budget, supervises ex-
penditures looks after the indigenous population, and
interprets Portuguese directives to the general pop-
ulace. He is assisted by a cabinet of state secretaries
and backed up by a partially elected but mostly
powerle