Administrative/biographical history

The UK Committee for Freedom in Mozambique was formed in 1968 at the request of the Mozambique Liberation Front (FRELIMO), which had launched an armed national liberation struggle against Portuguese colonial rule in 1964. It expanded a year later to cover Angola and Guine-Bissau, where armed struggle was also under way, renaming itself as the Committee for Freedom in Mozambique, Angola and Guine (CFMAG). CFMAG operated as a campaigning pressure group, aiming to build broad based political support for FRELIMO, the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) and the African Independence Party of Guine-Bissau and Cape Verde (PAIGC). It worked with all political parties, the labour and student movements, churches, NGOs and many others. It had close relations with the Anti-Apartheid Movement, and encouraged a regional perspective for the future of Southern Africa. It organised visits by liberation movement representatives and various specific political and material aid campaigns, culminating in the End the Alliance Campaign of 1972/3. Following the 25 April coup in Portugal in 1974 and the subsequent negotiations between the new Portuguese government and the liberation movements, the right of the colonies to full and immediate independence was acknowledged. CFMAG organised a victory party at St Pancras Town Hall on 25 June 1975, Mozambique's Independence Day, and closed down, its objectives achieved.

During the following phase the Mozambique, Angola & Guine Information Centre (MAGIC) was established with support from the independent governments to carry out educational and information work. Political solidarity work continued through first the Angola Solidarity Committee and then the Mozambique-Angola Committee, with particular emphasis on supporting MPLA during its second war of liberation against the South African army.

Scope and content

• Papers and correspondence regarding various international solidarity conferences held in Holland, Oxford and elsewhere, 1970-1974
• Minutes, papers, correspondence, newsletters and publicity material created by the Committee for Freedom in Mozambique, Angola and Guine, 1968-1975
• Papers, correspondence, campaign material and press releases of the End the Alliance campaign, 1972-1973
• Publications and other material produced by the Mozambique Institute and FRELIMO (1965-1971).

Quantity

6 boxes.