Oberlin Conference to Focus on Slain Father of Mozambique Independence and Country's Future By Betty Gabrielli
			OCTOBER 2, 1998--Oberlin College alumnus Eduardo C. Mondlane, the father of Mozambique independence who was assassinated in Tangyanika in 1969, will be 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, will give the keynote address at 8:00 tonight at First Church. Some of the nation's leading experts on Mozambique will take part in the conference, which begins today with a private reception and banquet. The conference, titled The Independence Struggle and Rebuilding Mozambique: Honoring Eduardo Chivambo Mondlane '53, will focus not only on Mondlane but also on the future of the East African country, which held its first multiparty election in 1994. 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 will bring 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 will moderate the sessions that begin at 9:30 A.M. 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 will moderate the sessions that begin tomorrow 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. 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.