- Although the Frelimo Party constantly proclaims the idea of National Unity, the truth - clearly revealed in its last XII Congress held in the city of Matola - is that the Frelimo Party circumscribes National Unity, expressly, in the internal cohesion of its members. The unity of all Mozambicans, beyond its own militants, does not seem to concern, to say the least, the party of the drumbeat and the corncob, judging by the way that the party appropriates the history that belongs to all Mozambicans. Now, the philosophy behind this modus faciendi is the expropriation of the symbols of the Mozambican homeland and nation from its history - which the Frelimo Party claims for itself - to all other members of the Mozambican family who do not militate in the Frelimo Party. For there is no doubt that both the foundation of the nation and the driving force that makes Mozambicans coalesce into a single yet diverse entity is rooted in “the legacy and patriotic values of the founders of FRELIMO and the intrepid fighters of the national liberation struggle.” Thus, when the Frelimo Party calls upon these symbols, it portends an act of sectarianism with the potential to crumble rather than cement the idea of National Unity.
However, any careful observer of the country’s political dynamics of the last four decades will have noticed the gradual and natural aging of the hard core of the Frelimo Party leadership, largely derived from the fighters of the national liberation struggle. Moreover, obviously, the perspective was that with the “natural departure” of the former fighters from the Frelimo Party leadership, this party would become just another party in the national political-pluralistic scenario. Yesterday; Party of Machel, Chissano, Guebuza, Pachinuapa, Chipande; today, it could be Party of Matangala, Amide, Commissário, Jequissene, Kassotche, etc. We would thus have a change of paradigm; even if the ideals, the political-ideological values, were the same, at least the names and the symbolic evocation that they translate would be different!