Domingos Arouca (1928-2009) and FUMO

Dossiers MZ-0377 and MZ-0736

Decoration

Domingos Arouca was born in Inhambane on 7 July 1928 into a land-owning family, and as a teenager, after completing his schooling, worked briefly as a clerk in a local law office. When he was 16 years old, he entered nursing school, and after completing the course worked as a nurse until he was 21. According to one source (his book Discursos Políticos), in 1949 he won a significant amount in the Rhodesian lottery, which he had been entering semi-legally. He used the funds to pay for a ticket to Portugal, where he worked and studied simultaneously, completing his secondary school education and then entering the law faculty at the University of Lisbon. Such educational opportunities were exceedingly rare for black Mozambicans at that time, and Arouca’s good fortune in winning the lottery and his wisdom in using the money to pursue his education clearly determined the course of his life. He graduated from law school in Portugal in 1960, at the age of 32, thus becoming Mozambique’s first qualified black advocate.

Arouca then returned to Mozambique and practiced law in Lourenço Marques. However, by this time he was also active in nationalist politics and journalism, and in 1965 he was elected to the presidency of the Centro Associativo dos Negros de Moçambique. A month later, on 29 May, he was arrested at his practice by PIDE and accused of belonging to and working for FRELIMO; the Centro Associativo was shut down. Altogether, Arouca spent eight years in prison from 1965 to 1973, four at Machava and the remainder in Portugal in the notoriously tough conditions of the Forte-prisão de Caxias in Lisbon and the Praça-forte de Peniche in Leiria.

Arouca was eventually released in June 1973 and deported back to Mozambique. He was exiled to the town of Inhambane, where he was, however, permitted to practice law. By this time, Arouca had become unhappy with Frelimo’s turn towards Marxism-Leninism, formalized at the III Congress in 1977, and soon after Mozambican independence he returned to Portugal to found his own party, the Frente Unida Democrática de Moçambique [FUMO], which represented itself in the late 1970s and early 1980s as the true heir of Mondlane. At this time Arouca attracted some fierce, even vitriolic criticism in the Mozambican press. FUMO flirted briefly with the idea of armed struggle against the Frelimo government, but was unable to obtain South African or other support. Until liberalisation in the early 1990s FUMO was notable mainly for its work on a hypothetical liberal constitution (see the documents below).

Below: The cover of Arouca’s volume of political speeches, Discursos políticos: acrescidos das peças fundamentais do processo de providência extraordinária «habeas corpus» (Lisbon: Edições Ática, 1974). Left above: Domingos Arouca in 1977. Left below: Arouca in old age.

Discursos Políticos

After the adoption of political pluralism, Arouca again returned to Mozambique in early 1992, but FUMO performed extremely poorly in the elections of 1994 – Arouca won less than one percent in the presidenciais – and eventually the party split over the issue of an electoral union with RENAMO, which Arouca opposed and eventually resigned over.

Arouca remained active as a lawyer until the end of his life. He died in Maputo in January 2009 at the age of 80, having earned some measure of respect, even from his former opponents, as a man who stuck to his political positions.

MHN Resources

This dossier contains relatively few actual news items about Arouca or about FUMO, but includes inter alia a draft ‘programmatic synthesis’ in English annotated by hand, two early issues of the Boletim Informativo, the party’s Programa e Estatutos of mid-1991, with a partial English translation, and a draft state constitution.

Articles by and Interviews with Domingos Arouca

◊ 27 October 1990
Domingos Arouca. Moçambique e a questão da nacionalidade. Expresso [Lisbon], 27 October 1990, p.B-18. Click here to view or download a PDF, size 312 kb.

◊ 24 November 1990
Domingos Arouca. As conversações de Roma e a Pax moçambicana. Expresso [Lisbon], 24 November 1990. Click here to view or download a PDF, size 422 kb.

◊ 12 January 1992
Daniel Cuambe. Arouca explica razões da sua saída no país: opositores que não abandonaram Moçambique desapareceram, sublinha o líder da FUMO. Domingo [Maputo], 12 January 1992. Part of an interview. Click here to view or download a PDF, size 174 kb.

◊ 12 January 1992
Daniel Cuambe. A demora em Roma: compreendemos que a Renamo levanta sérias questões. Domingo [Maputo], 12 January 1992. Part of an interview. Click here to view or download a PDF, size 145 kb.

◊ 12 January 1992
Daniel Cuambe. Direitos do homem: Frelimo viola declaração universal. Domingo [Maputo], 12 January 1992. Part of an interview. Click here to view or download a PDF, size 98 kb.

◊ 12 January 1992
Daniel Cuambe. Economia de mercado não é dumba-nengue. Domingo [Maputo], 12 January 1992. Part of an interview. Click here to view or download a PDF, size 104 kb.

◊ 12 January 1992
Daniel Cuambe. Porque partido equidistante da Frelimo e Renamo? Salvação do país está na vitória eleitoral da FUMO, advoga dr. Domingos Arouca, líder da Frente Unida de Moçambique (FUMO), que critica a Constituição por ter ‘laivos de racismo’ e acusa a Frelimo de violar direitos do homem. Domingo [Maputo], 12 January 1992. Click here to view or download a PDF, size 494 kb.

◊ 12 January 1992
Daniel Cuambe. Razões das mudanças no país: Rússia ficou sem dinheiro para alimentar satélites. Domingo [Maputo], 12 January 1992. Part of an interview. Click here to view or download a PDF, size 117 kb.

◊ 12 January 1992
Daniel Cuambe. Tal como em 25 de Abril, catadupa de partidos surgiram em Moçambique. Domingo [Maputo], 12 January 1992. Part of an interview. Click here to view or download a PDF, size 66 kb.

◊ May 1992
Domingos Arouca. Moçambique: guerra e paz. Informáfrica [Lisbon], May 1992, p.17. Click here to view or download a PDF, size 374 kb.

◊ 9 August 1993
Domingos Arouca. O papel da África do Sul. Século de Joanesburgo [Johannesburg], 9 August 1993, p.2. Click here to view or download a PDF, size 316 kb.

Newspaper Reports

◊ 21 August 1976
End immoral Frelimo call. Rhodesia Herald [Salisbury], 21 August 1976. FUMO, an organisation ‘supported by highly-trained ex-Flecha units’, says this report, is distributing pamphlets calling for the overthrow of the Frelimo regime. Click here to view or download a PDF, size 94 kb.

◊ 1 October 1976
S[outh] African paper: anti-Frelimo meeting in Europe. Agence France Presse [Paris], 1 October 1976. Click here to view or download a PDF, size 39 kb.

◊ 10 April 1977
Domingos Arouca. Tempo [Maputo], no.340, 10 April 1977, p.32-33. Click here to view or download a PDF, size 153 kb.

◊ 31 October 1980
Bomba destrói automóvel de Domingos Arouca. O Jornal [Lisbon], no.294, 31 October 1980. Arouca’s wife’s car blows up outside their house in Lisbon on 27 October at 21h30 in the evening. Click here to view or download a PDF, size 45 kb.

◊ 12 April 1990
Arouca convidado a visitar Maputo: Renamo pronta para negociar. Diário de Notícias [Lisbon], 12 April 1990. Click here to view or download a PDF, size 275 kb.

◊ 20 July 1990
Mozambique: exiled lawyer sends Chissano draft constitution. A Mozambican radio broadcast of 20 July 1990, reported in the Summary of World Broadcasts [London]. Click here to view or download a PDF, size 31 kb.

◊ 3 May 1991
Arouca candidato. Público [Lisbon], 3 May 1991. Click here to view or download a PDF, size 41 kb.

◊ 28 February 1992
Iain Christie. Exile back to challenge Frelimo. Natal Mercury [Durban], 28 February 1992. Click here to view or download a PDF, size 73 kb.

◊ 11 March 1992
Domingos Arouca apela para paz em Moçambique: dirigente do FUMO/PCDRN regressou a Lisboa. Notícias [Maputo], 11 March 1992. Click here to view or download a PDF, size 103 kb.

◊ 14 March 1992
Luís José Loforte. Comentário: acenos venenosos. Notícias [Maputo], 14 March 1992. Click here to view or download a PDF, size 182 kb.

◊ 17 March 1992
Machado da Graça. Comentário: mais veneno, menos veneno. Notícias [Maputo], 17 March 1992. Click here to view or download a PDF, size 185 kb.

◊ April 1992
Arouca returns to Mozambique. MozambiqueFile [Maputo], April 1992, p.18. Click here to view or download a PDF, size 181 kb.

◊ 9 August 1993
Dois partidos apresentam candidatos às presidenciais. Século de Joanesburgo [Johannesburg], 9 August 1993. One of the parties mentioned is FUMO. Click here to view or download a PDF, size 41 kb.

◊ 22 November 1993
Arouca acusa governo de Lisboa de não ter uma política africana. Século de Joanesburgo [Johannesburg], 22 November 1993. Click here to view or download a PDF, size 217 kb.

FUMO Documents

◊ 23 September 1976
Frente Unida Democrática de Moçambique (FUMO). Programa e estatutos. Lourenço Marques, 23 September 1976. 44 pages. Click here to view or download a PDF, size 3.5 Mb.

◊ 1977
Frente Unida Democrática de Moçambique (FUMO). Programmatic syntesis [sic] of FUMO (United Democratic Front of Mozambique). No place, 1977[?]. 3 pages, no cover. This document is divided into three parts, of which this is the first. The others have covers with a FUMO carimbo (stamp). All three parts are heavily annotated by hand. Click here to view or download a PDF, size 1.4 Mb.

◊ 1977
Frente Unida Democrática de Moçambique (FUMO). Programmatic syntesis [sic]. Part B. No place, 1977. 5 pages, including cover. This document is divided into three parts, of which this is the second. Parts B and C have covers with a FUMO carimbo (stamp). All three parts are heavily annotated by hand. Click here to view or download a PDF, size 3.7 kb.

◊ 1977
Frente Unida Democrática de Moçambique (FUMO). Programmatic syntesis [sic]. Part C. No place, 1977. 3 pages, including cover. This document is divided into three parts, of which this is the third. Parts B and C have covers with a FUMO carimbo (stamp). All three parts are heavily annotated by hand. Click here to view or download a PDF, size 2.7 Mb.

◊ 1979
Frente Unida Democrática de Moçambique (FUMO). Boletim Informativo. no.2. Lisbon, 1979. 20 pages. Click here to view or download a PDF, size 1.8 Mb.

 

FUMO flag

Above: The flag of FUMO/PCDRN [Frente Unida de Moçambique/Partido da Convergência Democrática e Reconstrução Nacional].

 

◊ March 1979
Frente Unida Democrática de Moçambique (FUMO). Constituição política de Moçambique. Lisbon[?], March 1979. 17 pages. A draft of an entirely hypothetical liberal constituition for the Mozambican republic. Interestingly, Arouca was invited to submit a draft constitution by President Chissano in July 1990, a decade later. Click here to view or download a PDF, size 817 kb. For an English translation [1.2 Mb.] click here.

◊ December 1980
Frente Unida Democrática de Moçambique (FUMO). Boletim Informativo. no.5. Lisbon, December 1980, 8 pages. Click here to view or download a PDF, size 2.4 Mb.

◊ 1991
Frente Unida Democrática de Moçambique (FUMO). Programa e estatutos da FUMO/PCDRN. Maputo, 1991. 66 pages. Click here to view or download a PDF, size 4 Mb. For a partial and selective English translation [659 kb.], click here.

◊ 5-8 December 1995
Simeão C. Cuamba. A autoridade tradicional, estado e democracia. Paper presented to a seminar on ‘A Autoridade Tradicional, Democracia e o Estado’, at ISRI [Instituto Superior de Relações Internacionais, Maputo], 5-8 de Dezembro de 1995. 7 pages. Click here to view or download a PDF, size 240 kb.