An Old Pattern of Intolerance Flares Up Again
OVER a period of three years, from 1972 to 1975, Mozambique was a haven of refuge for more than thirty thousand of Jehovah’s witnesses from neighboring Malawi. Forced by violent persecution to flee their homeland, these Malawian men, women and children found a measure of peace in ten refugee camps in Mozambique. Recent reports reveal that, at this writing, a considerable number still find refuge here. For all of this Jehovah’s witnesses earth wide are grateful to the people of Mozambique.
The intensity of the attack now being made by some elements upon native Mozambican Jehovah’s witnesses, however, threatens to convert a haven of refuge into a crucible of brutal oppression.
In Mozambique, radios and newspapers have poured out a flood of propaganda against Jehovah’s witnesses. They are depicted as “agents left behind by Portuguese Colonialism,” “former ‘Pides’ [Portuguese secret police],” whose aim is to “upset the Social Order.” (Noticias, October 9, 1975) They were said to “cling fiercely to a religious fanaticism . . . as a means not to pay taxes, not to show respect for the Social Order and to annihilate the mobilization and organization of the People,” to achieve “anarchy,” according to A Tribuna of October 22, 1975.
Compare this with another account from a different source of information. It deals with a time when a mob had whipped up a city into an uproar and a crowd of people gathered before the city officials shouting, ‘The men who have made trouble all over the world have now come here and they all flout the law.’
This latter report is of an occasion that took place nineteen hundred years ago. And the accusations then were leveled against the Christian apostle Paul and his companion Silas. (Acts 17:6, 7, New English Bible) Those words then spoken were lies, totally false.
Such words are totally false when spoken today about Jehovah’s witnesses, who are well known as law-abiding Christians in some 200 lands of the earth. The charges they face today in Mozambique are basically the same charges made against early Christians in the first century. And it is the same intolerance that brings suffering upon true Christians now.
That pattern of intolerance in Mozambique did not begin with the changeover of government in 1975. And this exposes the falsity of the claims made that Jehovah’s witnesses there in some way serve the interests of Portuguese colonialism. The facts show that nothing could be farther from the truth.
Over the past forty years Jehovah’s witnesses in Mozambique have felt the lash of dictatorial intolerance. They suffered much brutal treatment at the hands of the PIDE (Portuguese secret police). See now what the facts of history reveal:
The Record of History Testifies
It was back in 1925 that some Mozambican men working in South African gold mines received some publications of Jehovah’s witnesses that explained Bible teachings. Some of the men, on returning that year to their homes in Vila Luisa (north of Lourenço Marques, the capital of Mozambique), began to talk to their neighbors about the things they had learned.
Thus, native Mozambicans, not foreign missionaries or Portuguese agents, introduced into the country the message about God’s kingdom that Jehovah’s witnesses bring earth wide.
During the regime of Portuguese dictator Antonio Salazar, in 1935, two Witnesses from South Africa, Fred Ludick and David Norman, entered the country to cooperate with the Mozambican Witnesses in their activity. What happened? They were soon arrested by the Portuguese police and deported. Similar efforts in 1938 and 1939 brought the same results: immediate deportation.
Now, however, the Portuguese authorities went farther. They began arresting Mozambicans who received the Watchtower magazine. Some spent as much as two years in jail before receiving a trial. Some were deported to the penal colony of São Tomé for twelve years! Others were given a ten-year sentence in work camps in the northern part of Mozambique.
This severe opposition under the dictatorial Salazar regime tested the courage and endurance of Jehovah’s witnesses in Mozambique. When they met to study the Bible together, it was always in danger of arrest. Over the years, many were arrested, beaten, held in prison or sent to the penal islands.
Efforts to get relief were rejected. In 1955 one of Jehovah’s witnesses from England, John Cooke, was sent to Mozambique to apply for official recognition of the work of Jehovah’s witnesses. In time he was brought before an inspector of the secret police (PIDE) and subjected to lengthy interrogation. He was accused of being a Communist and holding secret meetings. Though the interview convinced the official that Jehovah’s witnesses are not Communists, he told Cooke: “Nevertheless, you people are against the Catholic Church and the Catholic Church is our church. She helped us to build up the Portuguese Empire!” Cooke was given forty-eight hours to leave the country.
Mozambique daily paper Noticias of October 9, 1975, quotes Frelimo leader and Mozambique President Samora Machel as asking the question (at Massingir, Mozambique): “When we were tied and beaten by Portuguese colonialists, where were these Witnesses of Jehovah?” Where were they? The answer of many of Jehovah’s witnesses is that they were then imprisoned by those same Portuguese authorities!
Francisco Zunguza, for example. He was put in prison in Lourenço Marques in 1956 for six months; in 1964 for three months; in 1965 for one year; and in 1969 he was put in Machava prison for over two years. His wife and ten other Witnesses were also arrested at that time. All of this simply because they were Jehovah’s witnesses, but not for any overt or seditious act against the Portuguese government.
From 1969 onward the Portuguese secret police (PIDE) intensified their activity against Jehovah’s witnesses. Time and time again these were brought in and questioned. And what was the main criticism that the Portuguese authorities and the secret police leveled against the Witnesses? That they refused to take part in fighting against Frelimo, the revolutionary party that by then had become active and which now forms the government of Mozambique!
Jehovah’s witnesses made clear their neutrality as regards all politics and warfare of the nations. Their position was in full harmony with the words of Christ Jesus, spoken to the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate: “My kingdom is no part of this world. If my kingdom were part of this world, my attendants would have fought that I should not be delivered up.” John 18:36.
During that same year, 1969, the elders of the congregations of Jehovah’s witnesses in southern Mozambique were called into the offices of the police. These elders were told that the activities and meetings of Jehovah’s witnesses were banned. Though severely hampered, they managed to keep going ahead, acting in harmony with the position that Christ Jesus’ apostles took when authorities in Jerusalem tried to force them to comply with a ban on their activity. The apostles were faced with a choice of obeying the Jewish authorities or obeying God’s command. Though law-abiding persons, they said with boldness that, in such case of conflicting commands, “We must obey God as ruler rather than men.”—Acts 5:29.
In 1969 the complaint was that Jehovah’s witnesses did not fight against Frelimo. But in 1973 the secret police (PIDE) arrested a number of Witnesses, and this time the accusation was that they were supporters of Frelimo! Under such charge, on March 5, 1974, a Witness, the father of three children, was put in a small cell in Machava prison. He was kept in solitary confinement for two months, with nothing but the floor to sleep on. His is but one of many similar cases of unjust treatment during the final years of the Portuguese regime in Mozambique.
With Colonialism Out—Greater Light of Freedom or Continued Darkness of Intolerance?
Came April 25, 1974. Almost overnight the political situation in Portugal and its overseas possessions changed dramatically. A coup in Lisbon ended forty-eight years of dictatorial rule and shook the Portuguese empire.
Prospects of greater freedom in Portugal and its overseas territories seemed great. People in Mozambique rejoiced. Jehovah’s witnesses themselves wondered if they might be coming out of a long, dark tunnel of some forty years of persecution.
An interim government was established in Mozambique preparatory to a complete turnover of power to the Frelimo forces by June 1975. During this period of relative freedom Jehovah’s witnesses were able to hold their Bible studies openly. They even held large assemblies to which all the public were invited.
In April 1975, for the first time, they were able to have a mixed assembly of Africans and whites in Lourenço Marques. That would have been impossible under the Portuguese dictatorship. The Witnesses were happy to be able to share Christian fellowship free from any racial separation.
But now political forces began placing great emphasis upon outward displays of political support. Activist groups went around calling on all to attend political meetings where attenders were to shout “Viva Frelimo” (“Long Live Frelimo”) and raise their right fist (as in the Communist salute).
What position did Jehovah’s witnesses take? They remained nonpolitical. They took the same position that Jehovah’s witnesses had taken in Italy during the Mussolini regime when people were expected to cry out “Viva il Duce” and give the Fascist salute. They did as had Jehovah’s witnesses in Germany when all were expected to shout “Heil Hitler” and give the Nazi salute. They did the same as had their brothers in Japanese-occupied lands during the second world war when people were ordered to bow down in worship of the Japanese emperor.
Yes, and their position was the same as that taken in Britain, the United States, Portugal, Spain and in every other country on the face of the earth. They maintained Christian neutrality in political affairs no matter what hardship their refusal to shout political slogans or give political salutes might bring upon them. Thousands spent years in German concentration camps or in harsh Siberian work camps.
But, as in all other countries around the world, Jehovah’s witnesses in Mozambique continued to show full respect for the State authorities, in harmony with the Bible’s command at Romans 13:1. And they showed this by continuing to pay their taxes faithfully without attempt at evasion, by continuing to be industrious and reliable workers, and by continuing to be law-abiding citizens. They took no exception to any laws unless these were in evident opposition to God’s own laws set forth in his Word, the Bible. What resulted?
In the Constitution of the People’s Republic of Mozambique, which went into effect on June 25, 1975, article 33 reads:
“The individual liberties are guaranteed by the State to all the citizens of the People’s Republic of Mozambique. These liberties include the inviolability of the home and privacy of correspondence and cannot be limited, unless in special cases provided by the law.
“In the People’s Republic of Mozambique the State guarantees to its citizens the freedom of practicing or of not practicing their religion.”
Article 25 of the Constitution states:
“In the People’s Republic of Mozambique no one can be arrested and submitted to judgment except in the terms of the law. The State guarantees the accused the right of defense.”
Do these words have real meaning? What happened to Jehovah’s witnesses in Mozambique makes that a serious question.
About a month previous to the proclamation of full independence, in a place called Chonguene, a few miles from the town of João Belo, the local congregation of Jehovah’s witnesses met on Sunday for their regular Bible study. A group of people, Roman Catholics and Protestants, on their way to a political meeting, came into the Bible study meeting, interrupting it and questioning those present as to why they were not attending the political meeting. Threatening the Witnesses, they left.
A few days later, on May 23, police vans carrying Frelimo soldiers arrived and rounded up six of those who had attended the Witnesses’ Bible meeting. The commander ordered his men to beat and kick these six men and then take them off to prison.
In prison these men were beaten daily in an effort to force them to say “Viva Frelimo.” Three of them were only newly interested persons and not baptized Witnesses. These three broke under the beatings. The three who were baptized Witnesses steadfastly refused to violate their Christian consciences. They were then taken out and ordered to dig a hole deep enough to stand in. Forced to stand in the hole with just their heads showing, they were told that if they still refused to say the political slogan they would be shot and buried right there. But they remained firm in their determination not to violate their consciences. Finally they were taken back into the prison.
Happily, when this treatment was reported to the Minister of Defense in Lourenço Marques, he expressed surprise and phoned the Frelimo commander in that area. Before long the Witnesses were set free. This, however, was but one bright spot in an otherwise dark picture.
Then, on Independence Day, June 25, 1975, the new Constitution took on full force. Would brutal attacks on freedom of religion like the one just described now become a thing of the past? Would a progressive, enlightened attitude prevail over narrow intolerance?
A Violent Campaign Launched
The answer came quickly, almost within days. A campaign to vilify Jehovah’s witnesses was launched throughout the country. Many of the attacks were in the form of radio talks by district governors and other politicians.
At the instigation of activist groups, Jehovah’s witnesses in various places were arrested and taken to Frelimo headquarters for questioning. They were often beaten. As one example, consider what happened with the congregation of Jehovah’s witnesses in Choupal in the district of Lourenço Marques on September 13, 1975:
A visiting elder of Jehovah’s witnesses, Elias Mahenye, was giving a Bible talk to some 300 persons in the congregation’s Kingdom Hall. Toward the close of his talk, members of the local activist group came into the hall and tried to interrupt the meeting. Firmly but politely they were informed that the meeting had not yet ended, and they were asked to wait.
Hardly had the congregation said “Amen” to the final prayer when these activists mounted the platform and demanded that the whole congregation shout “Viva Frelimo.” Three times the demand was made but without response. Then they ordered the congregation to stay in the hall while they sent for Frelimo soldiers.
When the commander of the soldiers arrived, he asked who the padre (priest) in charge was. It was explained that the Witnesses have no padre; however, Mahenye identified himself as the one giving the talk. He and four others were then put on the platform, stripped from the waist up and ordered to shout “Viva Frelimo.” When they did not, they were severely beaten and then tied with electric wire. Mahenye’s arms still bear scars where the wires cut deeply into his arms.
The five were taken to the nearby army barracks, and Mahenye was accused of telling the people to say “Down with Frelimo”—a deliberate and malicious lie. The soldiers then beat him with fists and rifle butts. Then all five were beaten with the soldiers’ belts. They were locked into a filthy lavatory for the night. At 4 a.m. they were taken out and beaten again. Mahenye was lyingly accused of having trained soldiers to fight Frelimo and given yet another beating. Later it was admitted that this accusation was groundless.
When day came, a Frelimo sergeant arrived and interrogated the group. He told them: “If you do not say ‘Viva Frelimo’ Frelimo will not keep you in the country. Because they fought for ten years, not for Jehovah, and they did not get help from Jehovah. Everybody should say ‘Viva Frelimo,’ because Frelimo is the god of Mozambique and the second god of Mozambique is the gun. We do not want to hear anything about Jehovah.”
And what of the rest of the congregation, including women, aged persons and children, who had been at the Kingdom Hall? They had been forced to remain there all night and into the next day. Many were beaten and tied up with wire. Along with this the soldiers shouted: “Who is this Jehovah of yours? Why doesn’t he come and help you?”
During the twenty-four-hour period no one, not even the women or children, were allowed to sleep, drink water, have food or use the toilet facilities. Bibles and Bible literature used at the meetings were burned. It was as if Mozambique had become medieval Europe, as if the Dark Ages and the Catholic Inquisition had returned. Finally the Witnesses were allowed to leave, under the threat that unless they learned to say “Viva Frelimo” they would be in for worse trouble.
Among other barbarities, in Magude, north of Lourenço Marques, thirteen Witnesses were arrested, beaten and forced to dig up trees with their fingers. Then their legs and arms were tied and they were rolled around like drums. As in ancient Rome, the local residents were invited to come and see the spectacle of Christians being tortured.
Near Manjacaze, a number of members of two small congregations of Jehovah’s witnesses were imprisoned. Then the governor of Gaza district came to the area and the remaining Witnesses were requested to be present for a public meeting. They complied with the request. After discoursing about local farming activities, the governor suddenly asked all Witnesses present to come forward. They did so. The governor then ordered that they be arrested, both men and women. They were severely beaten, some so badly that blood flowed from an ear or an eye. They were then taken to prison.
In that same district of Gaza, a group of Witnesses were beaten day after day, every day, over a two-month period in an effort to break their integrity!
But all these incidents were just the prelude to the major blow to come. Within a few weeks came an official order: All of Jehovah’s witnesses in the entire country should be arrested.
This order was carried out systematically and heartlessly. Frelimo followers went from house to house demanding that residents say “Viva Frelimo.” Those who would not were assumed to be Jehovah’s witnesses and were taken to prison. Whole families, children included, were mercilessly dragged off.
This means that the number of Jehovah’s witnesses now imprisoned in Mozambique runs into the thousands. Direct contact with them has become nearly impossible. Some Witnesses, however, managed to escape into neighboring countries. They report that jails in the area of the capital, Lourenço Marques, are now “filled to capacity.” With prisons filled, a special camp has been set up near St. Jose’s Cemetery for hundreds of Witnesses. Shelter being insufficient for so many persons, a large number have to sleep in the open without blankets. No food is supplied them. Officials allow relatives to bring food on Thursdays and Sundays only. Such compassionate visitors themselves run the risk of arrest if they refuse to say “Viva Frelimo.”
Official plans evidently are to send many of the male Witnesses to northern towns like Nampula and Quelimane. There they are to be used, in effect, as slave labor in building projects. Children are to be sent to political schools for Frelimo indoctrination. Radio announcements state that those Witnesses having bank accounts will have their money confiscated. Homes and cars will be taken by the government.
Yes, it is a dreary repetition of the old pattern of totalitarianism. The idolizing of the State through total regimentation, total thought control, with no allowance for free exercise of individual conscience, the repetition of the Nazi slave labor practices and the Siberian labor camps; the forced separation of children from their parents to indoctrinate them in party politics.
Press and radio dispatches carry such statements as “Mozambique is not Jehovah’s country” and “these fanatical ‘Jehovahs’ must be reeducated.” One sample of the type of ‘reeducation’ some favor: After giving brutal treatment to the Witnesses, some party followers not only demanded that the Witnesses shout “Viva Frelimo” with an upward thrust of the fist, but even tried to force them to curse God! They demanded that the Witnesses also say “Down with Jehovah” while giving a downward thrust of the fist.
Before the mass arrests began, some thirty members of the Xinavane congregation of Jehovah’s witnesses were called in and lectured to for several hours. When the Witnesses explained from the Bible their reason for refusing to become involved in politics and shout political slogans, the Frelimo commander mocked them, saying: “I give your Jehovah five minutes to break down this house.” Letting five minutes pass, he then said: “I am willing to meet your Jehovah with a gun. The Portuguese soldiers prayed for victory but were defeated. Frelimo fought without Jehovah and won. We will defeat Jehovah. We do not want his name in Mozambique.”
How like the pharaoh of ancient Egypt who boastfully said: “Who is Jehovah, so that I should obey his voice to send Israel away? I do not know Jehovah at all and, what is more, I am not going to send Israel away.”—Ex. 5:2.
What, then, is the real issue in Mozambique?
Questions That Urgently Call for an Answer
Can any possible good to the country come from such a denial of the new republic’s constitutional provisions? Can the people of Mozambique in any way be benefited by such a malicious assault upon freedom of worship? Does the refusal to engage in political activity on the part of Jehovah’s witnesses actually hinder the new government’s efforts to rule the country effectively? The facts are all to the contrary.
The new government of Mozambique has declared itself as favoring many fine ideals. This includes better education for the people (Portuguese colonialism left 90 percent of the population illiterate), the abolition of prostitution and drunkenness, the bringing of relief from oppression to the people. In reality, Jehovah’s witnesses contribute greatly toward such ideals.
Ask yourself: In a land that must overcome massive illiteracy, is it the shouting of a slogan or the giving of a salute that will accomplish improvement? Is it realistic or practical to claim so?
What, on the other hand, of the example and activity of Jehovah’s witnesses? Their entire way of worship calls for a positive attitude toward education and gaining the ability to read. In their Bible educational work, in country after country, they have conducted literacy courses.
In Mexico alone they have aided 48,000 persons to learn to read and write during the past twenty-eight years. In Nigeria more than 5,000 were helped in this way during the last four years. And within Mozambique itself 3,930 persons were taught to read and write by Jehovah’s witnesses just in the past two years! So in this regard, there are no people more education-minded than Jehovah’s witnesses.
As to elevating the people’s moral standards, will the repeating of slogans and gestures accomplish this? Did it in Nazi Germany or Fascist Italy or in any other part of the earth in any period of human history? The facts show it has not, and reason tells us it could not.
But, because of holding to Bible principles, Jehovah’s witnesses over a period of ninety or more years have established a reputation earth wide for high living standards, moral decency and clean living. They have helped hundreds of thousands of persons in all lands to overcome sexual immorality, alcoholism, drug addiction and similar degrading habits.
Commenting on one of their assemblies, the Nigerian newspaper The Daily Times said: “It is a credit to them that over 5,000 people made up of men, women and children could come to pray, sing, eat and sleep together for four days and record no incidents of stealing or fighting. And yet there was no policeman to keep order.” Surely people like that are of benefit to any nation. They are not among those causing governments to be burdened with the heavy cost of fighting crime and corruption.
Colonialism left the new government of Mozambique saddled with large external debts, totaling hundreds of millions of dollars. Will slogans and gestures make the difference in overcoming such economic problems? Or is it work, work done by people who are industrious, reliable and honest, that can contribute toward a higher standard of living?
Can the paying of taxes be assured by slogans or gestures? Are those who shout the loudest sure to be those who are most honest in their tax paying? Cases of tax evasion in country after country show that outward displays of patriotism are no reliable index as to freedom from tax evasion. But, again, Jehovah’s witnesses have earned solid respect in all lands for their conscientious compliance with tax requirements, their honesty and reliability in business dealings.
In newspaper propaganda, such as in A Tribuna of October 22, 1975, and in Tempo of October 26, 1975, writers have tried to accuse Jehovah’s witnesses of “obscurantism.” This is defined in dictionaries as “opposition to progress and the spread of knowledge, especially through great complexity of language, ritual, etc.” But what do facts reveal?
People all over Africa know that Jehovah’s witnesses, more than any other religious group, have helped Africans of all tribes to become free from all kinds of superstitious beliefs. This includes the practice of witchcraft, enslaving rituals, traditional fears and tribal taboos. The Witnesses have helped the people to gain a progressive, practical approach to life and its problems, contributing to the forming of united families, responsible workers and considerate, peaceful neighbors. Surely this is the kind of progress and enlightenment that not only Mozambique but the whole world is in great need of today.
By contrast, what of those who try to twist matters and make them appear other than they really are, beclouding issues with hate-stimulating propaganda against a small minority? They are surely themselves deserving of the title of “obscurantists.” Those who resort to brutal suppression of basic freedoms use methods that are as old as is the history of intolerance and inhumanity itself.
Those who try to promote the idolizing of the State at the expense of human freedoms are following an ancient pattern that goes back thousands of years into the past, to the times of the ancient Assyrian and Babylonian empires. Surely such a course leads backward, not forward toward true progress and the spread of knowledge. Truth is strong enough that it has no need to resort to such tactics.
Do you believe that the political State should have the right to exercise total thought-control of all its subjects? Or do you believe that people should have the right to worship according to the dictates of their conscience?
If you decry totalitarian efforts to force people to conform to a political ideology, and if you feel compassion for those who suffer because of holding to their conscientious beliefs, you may wish to send a telegram or letter of appeal to one or more of the officials of the Frelimo government in the People’s Republic of Mozambique whose names are listed with this article.
[Box on page 25]
OFFICIALS TO WHOM TO WRITE
Presidente de República Popular de Moçambique
Samora Moises Machel
Lourenço Marques, Moçambique
Comissário Político Nacional
Armando Emilio Guebuza
Lourenço Marques, Moçambique
Vice-Presidente da República Popular de Moçambique
Marcelino dos Santos
Lourenço Marques, Moçambique
Primeiro Ministro da Republica Popular de Moçambique
Joaquim Chissano
Lourenço Marques, Moçambique
Ministro do Interior
P.O. Box 614 (Caixa Postal 614)
Lourenço Marques, Moçambique
Ministério dos Negócios Estrangeiros
Ac. Antonio Enes
No. 4
Lourenço Marques, Moçambique
Ministro da Defesa
Alberto Chipande
Lourenço Marques, Moçambique
Ministro da Informaçao
Jorge Rebelo
Lourenço Marques, Moçambique
Ministro do Trabalho
Mariano Matsinha
Lourenço Marques, Moçambique
Ministro da Agricultura
Joaquim de Carvalho
Lourenço Marques, Moçambique
Ministro das Obras Públicas e Habitacão
Julio Carrilho
Lourenço Marques, Moçambique
Vice-Director do Cabinete da Presidência
Luis Bernardo Honwana
Lourenço Marques, Moçambique
Members of the “Comite Central da Frelimo” (Central Committee of Frelimo)
Lourenço Marques, Moçambique
Mariano Matsinha
Deolinda Guesimane
Jonas Namashlua
Olimpio Vaz
Armando Panguene
Members of the “Comite Executivo da Frelimo” (Executive Committee of Frelimo)
Lourenço Marques, Moçambique
José Oscar Monteiro
Daniel Mbanze
Gideon Ndobe