Oberlin Conference to Focus on Slain Father of Mozambique Independence and Country's Future By Betty Gabrielli
			OCTOBER 3, 1998--Oberlin College alumnus Eduardo C. Mondlane, the father of Mozambique independence who was assassinated in Tangyanika in 1969, is honored this weekend at a two-day conference coordinated by Albert McQueen, emeritus professor of sociology. Leonardo Simao, minister of foreign affairs and cooperation for the Republic of Mozambique, gave the keynote address at 8:00 last night at First Church. Some of the nation's leading experts on Mozambique will take part in the conference, which began yesterday with a private reception and banquet. The conference, titled The Independence Struggle and Rebuilding Mozambique: Honoring Eduardo Chivambo Mondlane '53, focuses not only on Mondlane but also on the future of the East African country, which held its first multiparty election in 1994. The devastation of a 17-year civil war that ended in 1992 and an El Niño-related drought during the war's last year left five million of 16 million inhabitants in need of food and medicine. Mozambique is said to have had the highest "misery index" in the world. The impetus for the Oberlin conference was the wish of many friends and classmates to commemorate the life and work of Mondlane, a scholar, educator, and diplomat as well as the founder and first president of the Mozambique Liberation Front (FRELIMO). Mondlane was the author of The Struggle for Mozambique (Zed Press, 1983). "Eduardo was dedicated to the cause of freedom for his own country, and he was, in every sense, a citizen of the world," George Simpson, Mondlane's Oberlin mentor and anthropology professor, has written of him. "In his death, men everywhere who believe in and who fight for political and intellectual freedom suffered a grievous loss." The Oberlin gathering brings Janet Mondlane, the honoree's wife, and the three Mondlane children to Oberlin as well as such distinguished scholars as the discussion moderators Prexy Nesbitt of Chicago's Francis W. Parker School and Sonia Kruks, Oberlin's Danforth Professor of Politics. Nesbitt is moderating the sessions that begin at 9:30 A.M. today, Saturday, in King 306 under the umbrella title of "Eduardo C. Mondlane: His Visions and Actions for an Independent Mozambique." Nesbitt has worked with the Mozambique Institute and was awarded the Order of Friendship and Peace by the Mozambique parliament. Kruks moderates the sessions that begin today at 2:00 P.M., collectively called "Rebuilding Post-Colonial Mozambique." Kruks has served on the faculty of the Eduardo Mondlane University in Maputo, Mozambique, and now teaches courses on political theory, feminist political thought, and theories of social power at Oberlin. The titles of the sessions include "What Is to Be Learned? The Rise and Fall of Mozambican Socialism"; "Can Mozambique Reinvent Itself? Challenges of National Development in the 1990s"; and "On Strengthening Moral and Community Values and Being a Beacon of Hope for Mozambique's Living in Dire Poverty." A wrap-up session in Wilder 101 at 8:00 P.M. this evening will offer opportunity for attendees and presenters to pose questions and express opinions related to the conference. Sponsors of the conference are Oberlin College's Office of the President, Office of the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Alumni Association, Library, and departments of African-American studies, anthropology, history, politics, religion, and sociology.