Acceptance Address by Mrs. Graça Simbine Machel

1992 Laureate of the Africa Prize for Leadership

At first sight it seems contradictory that the 1992 Africa Prize for Leadership should be awarded to a citizen of Mozambique, a country whose most enduring image in the international press is that of war, misery, refugees, displaced people, human tragedy.

And it is true that the cold language of numbers confirms the image as reality: according to the indicators of institutions such as the World Bank and the UNDP, my country is today the poorest in the world.

Mozambique has a population of approximately 16 million, of whom 51 percent are women, 47 percent are under 15, with 26 percent under seven. Average life expectancy is 43.6 years, 45 for women and 42.1 for men. Annual GNP is estimated at 80 US dollars per capita. The infant mortality rate (under-5 deaths) reaches 325-375 per thousands, probably the highest in the world.

The image you see on your television screens does indeed reflect a truth: 2.5-3.5 million people are displaced within the country, of whom 1.8 million are dependent on emergency food aid. A further 1.5 million people are refugees in neighboring countries. Over half the rural population is considered to be seriously affected by the war.

So it is an irrefutable truth that Mozambique's human tragedy is of genocidal proportions. It is estimated that one million people, including more than six hundred thousand children, have been killed and another million have died of directly war-related hunger and disease.

The war that was forced on us has left an indelible imprint on Mozambican society: it is difficult to find a family anywhere in the country that has not had a relative killed, mutilated or captured.

We are a people who have been physically and psychologically traumatized. The reality of this war has no parallel in contemporary history. It was never a Mozambican war, we never wanted it and we never deserved it.

This is the country I represent.

As I said in the beginning, it seems contradictory for me, a Mozambican, to be here to receive this prize, my heart filled with pride and happiness.

When John Coonrod phoned me at my home in Maputo to tell me that I had been awarded the prize my first question was "Why me?"

Late on, when I calmed down, I understood why it was legitimate for the prize to come to Mozambique in 1992.

It is because the prize is not just in recognition of one individual's efforts.

When those who proposed the prize turned their gaze to Mozambique, they saw and are now demonstrating to the world that image of Mozambicans that perhaps most of the international community has not had the chance to know: our true face as a peaceful, hardworking, friendly, generous and creative people.

Through this award, a message will ring out and be stamped on the collective memory of Africa and the world: that the vast majority of the Mozambican people never bowed down before the human holocaust, the horror and the brutality of which they were victims; that Mozambique always resisted and tried to find their won way to restore the conditions for a decent life.

The award of this prize signifies the recognition of a collective labour of love to which thousands of teachers and education technicians, in town and countryside, from primary school to the university, gave themselves heart and soul. They built the vast edifice of an educational system that would benefit our people, whether young or old, men or women. Families, community leaders, indeed the whole of society, joined in this labour, and the country was transformed into a school in which everyone learned and everyone taught.

Today this collective effort is lauded and proffered to Africa and the world as a reference point and source of inspiration for other peoples who, like us, are battling for victory over poverty, and who know that victory necessarily requires freeing the people from illiteracy and ignorance, and turning science and technology into basic development tools for every African woman and man.

The war did not destroy our capacity to love and to rebuild.

Our children are our future, and the best place for a child to live and grow up is in a caring home. Our simple and achievable strategies are based around the integration of the children into families and the community with the assistance of teachers, health workers and social action.

The prize is thus also a recognition of the broad solidarity movement made up of the thousands of Mozambican families which, though extremely poor, offered to share their homes, their affection and their privations alike with thousands of war orphaned children.

Inspired by the highest values of African tradition, this movement shows that despite the wounds inflicted by the war on the body of the nation, the fundamentals of our personality and dignity remain intact, and have a vitality that will generate new energies and enable us to resume our chosen journey with calm and confidence.

With the end of the armed conflict, consubstantiated in the peace agreement signed on 4 October this year, the true scale and dimension of the tasks we face are becoming increasingly quantifiable.

Estimates suggest that 3 million children are affected by the war, of whom 500,000 are orphans or have lost their families and an unknown number have been transformed by RENAMO into boy soldiers. The task of Mozambican society in overcoming this heritage is arduous, complex and vast. Governmental institutions, religious faiths, national and foreign NGOs already comprise an impressive network, the main motivation of which is to mitigate insofar as is possible the impact of the war on the bodies and minds of the new generations.

The enterprise is still in its beginnings.

It is within this framework that a group of Mozambicans from various sectors of activity are engaged in creating a Community Development Foundation. We believe that people and families in isolation will not be able to make the vast leap that is required to change the face of the country. But it can be done through the joint effort of communities.

We believe in development based on the community, and we want to work to contribute towards a better future for Mozambicans and for Mozambique, supporting individual and community initiatives, mobilizing the collective will and building or bringing together networks that can multiply capacities and results.

From all that I have said, it is clear that the prize is not being awarded to me, but is deserved by so many admirable citizens who remain in anonymity. And I accept and receive the prize on their behalf.

I accept with a mixture of, I repeat, pride, redoubled responsibility and a renewed sense of commitment. Pride, because I can feel nothing less to be daughter and part of this Mozambican people. Redoubled responsibility because this ceremony above all attributes responsibility: if before my work sprang from a mere sense of what was right, from now onwards it will also be in order to honour the gesture of those who have singled me out. Renewed commitment because the only thing we can do now is get ready to do more.

I am grateful to Dr. Chester Crocker, who I associate with years of fruitful interaction with Mozambique and in particular with my husband, for his kind words.

For the Board, and the whole executive team of The Hunger Project, I have no words to express my feelings.

Thank you.