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Essay by Vuyo T. Dunjwa |
The revolutionary/liberal/activist culture of Oberlin is often quoted without any concrete knowledge of how this institution has gained such a reputation. We are quick to mention, very vaguely, that Oberlin College was the first school to admit white women, black men, and black women to an institution of higher education. Most of us are unaware that there were black schools which accepted African Americans years before Oberlin opened its doors. Many of us are unaware of the adverse racial tensions that existed within the student body and with faculty and staff during the time of the admission of many of these colored students. The stories of how Edmonia Lewis was treated in Oberlin during the racially tense period of the American civil war (mid-1860s) are largely left unheard and seldom told. Despite the glitches of Oberlinian history, herstory and culture, this institution has rightfully acquired a respectable reputation amongst people in the know.
Oberlin has graduated such African American giants within the African-American and American communities as Mary Church Turrell, Anna Julia Cooper, Virginia Proctor Powell, Brownie Celeste Pierce, Octavia Beatrice Wynbush, syndicated columnist Carl Rowan and attorney John Mercer Langston. Yet due to our generation's lack of information concerning such individuals of significance, we are often confronted with such events as an OC student running for a class presidency (or some other office which requires close liaison with students and their needs) on such issues as "John Mercer Langston Hall? It's called North Hall." Well, John Mercer Langston is probably the most prominent 19th century graduate of Oberlin College. He is the attorney who took on the racially motivated case filed against Edmonia Lewis in the 1860s. Had he not taken that responsibility upon himself, the violence that would have most certainly been perpetrated against Black people throughout the state would have been ghastly in proportions. Read the history books. It is a shame when we (including myself) have such little recognition of the ground breaking achievements of so many of our own (Oberlinians, fellow human beings).
The Coalition Against Apartheid and White Supremacy (CLAWS) is trying to erect an Oberlin College monument in honor of another Oberlinian of world-wide importance - Eduardo Mondlane. Dr. Eduardo Chivambo Mondlane was born in 1920 in the southern African locale of Lourenco Marques, Mozambique. He received his primary education in the missionary schools of the region. He then emigrated to South Africa where he matriculated from high school. He entered the predominately White Witswatersrand University and within a year, in 1950, he was expelled from the country due to his involvement with the liberation struggle of Black people in South Africa. He spent a year at the University of Lisbon, and in the fall of 1951, he came to study sociology and anthropology at Oberlin College. After receiving his B.A from Oberlin, he proceeded to obtain a Masters and a Doctorate in sociology and anthropology at Northwestern. He did research at Harvard, worked with the Trusteeship Council of the United Nations (on African projects), and taught at Syracuse University. Yet, in his own words, "Even though I love university life more than anything else in the world, I have decided to dedicate the rest of my life to the liberation struggle until the independence of my country." In 1962, he left Syracuse and founded the Mozambique Liberation Front (FRELIMO) in neighboring Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. He became the first president of FRELIMO, a commander of its guerrilla armed forces, and the hope of Mozambique. As a guerrilla leader, an intellectual, and a patriot of Mozambique, FRELIMO, under his leadership, sought not only to end Portuguese colonial rule in Mozambique, but also to rebuild the country. The liberation struggles of South Africa, and Angola found a friend in FRELIMO. The esteemed statesman and incorrigible humanist, former President of Tanzania, Julius Nyerere, opened his doors to Eduardo Mondlane and FRELIMO even before the movement was started. On the morning of February 3, 1969, after numerous threats on his life, Eduardo Mondlane was killed with a letter bomb in Dar es Salaam. Over 5,000 mourners and supporters of the struggle attended his funeral. The level of FRELIMO's structural organization, the commitment of its leadership, the will, and the sacrifice of the Mozambican people saw to it that the struggle that Mondlane propelled, continued. In 1975, Mozambique gained its independence from Portugal.
As an Oberlinian and a Southern African (from South Africa), I am proud to have the Oberlin connection with a man whose life exemplified the virtues of revolutionary struggle. When he was in South Africa, he fought along side South Africans. He was at odds with those who are "not truly interested in the masses and the masses of human beings who suffer political, economic and social oppression in many parts of the world." While fighting against the Portuguese, FRELIMO fought its own internal struggles against sexism. Comrades in arms were not only men, but women too - from the party's propaganda, it's political posters, to the reality in the bush. I believe that it is only fitting that Oberlin College officially recognize the vast contributions of Eduardo Mondlane - a man who, according to one of his Oberlin College professors, was "in every sense a citizen of the world." He understood the connectedness of oppressions and as Peters Hall assumes the air of internationalism and incorporation, the Coalition Against Apartheid and White Supremacy is in the process of following through with a proposal to the College to commemorate Dr. Mondlane with a bust of his likeness in Peters.
I hope his story is as inspiring to you as it is to me and so many more.
Copyright © 1997, The Oberlin Review.
Volume 125, Number 23, May 2, 1997
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