President Guebuza Inaugurates New Nachingwea University

Mozambican President Armando Guebuza on Wednesday declared that the values learnt during Mozambique's national liberation struggle, at the Frelimo rear base at Nachingwea, in southern Tanzania, should serve as a basis for the technical and scientific training of all those who fight against poverty.

At the centre of those values, he said, are national unity, the culture of peace, the sense of citizenship and solidarity, and respect for the dignity of the human person and for the democratic rule of law.

Speaking in the southern city of Matola, at the inauguration of the Nachingwea University (UNA), which is owned by the ruling Frelimo Party, Guebuza declared that the new university “now has the task of taking inspiration from these noble values to train Mozambican patriots who believe that honourable mission of fighting and defeating poverty falls only on the shoulders of Mozambicans”.

Nachingwea was a politico-military training centre for guerrillas of the Mozambique Liberation Front (FRELIMO), which opened in1965. It played a key role in training Frelimo's army, and thus in ensuring victory in the war for independence.

“Yesterday”, said Guebuza, “the Nachingwea politico-military centre had the mission of inculcating Mozambican nationalists with the noble values which made them believe that it must be them, and nobody else, who would free Mozambique from foreign rule”.

The values inherited by the university, he added, were in themselves sufficient to convince the Mozambican people, including the teachers and the students, that the institution would be a success”.

For his part, the UNA Vice-Chancellor, Luis Covane, who is a former deputy minister of culture, said he is committed to developing partnerships, at national and international level, to raise the quality of the services that UNA can provide to Mozambican society.

While the capacity for scientific, educational and administrative management is being strengthened, Covane added, the university will seek to expand its activities to other parts of the country.

“We want to turn the UNA into a university that is a reference point in the country, the region and the world”, declared Covane. The constant search to improve the quality of teachers and researchers, as well as creating all the necessary human, material and financial conditions, would be “fundamental aspects for the growth and development of this university”.

The UNA began its activities this year, and so far it has 140 students (69 of them women) studying in four faculties: these are the Faculties of Political Science and Administration; Economics and Informatics; Legal Sciences; and Agricultural Sciences