Herbert Shore Collection in Honor of Eduardo C. Mondlane

The Herbert Shore Collection in Honor of Eduardo Mondlane is comprised of two subgroups. Subgroup I is Historical Files Relating to Herbert Shore’s Interests in the Arts and Culture. The bulk of this subgroup consists of files relating to the Council on The Arts, Culture, and Technology (TACT) of which Shore was the director from 1974 to 1988. Additional material in this subgroup concerns the performing arts, and includes playscripts, photographs, and audio and video recordings.

Subgroup II is Historical Files Collected by Shore on Eduardo Mondlane, Mozambique, and Africa. The materials in this subgroup include biographical material on Eduardo and Janet Mondlane, writings by Eduardo Mondlane and others, subject files, and microfilm of original documents relating to the Mondlanes and Mozambique. This subgroup also contains non-textual material in the form of photographs, audio recordings, artwork, and museum items.

Although Herbert Shore as a writer and educator worked in the performing arts, he was also interested and involved in cultural issues. The files in Subgroup I reflect both of these areas of Shore’s work, though they emphasize his involvement with cultural issues. The materials in Subgroup I illustrate the connections between these two areas, as is seen in the files on theatrical plays that focus on cultural issues.

Herbert Shore’s involvement in the performing arts is illustrated by Subgroup I, Series 2. Theatrical Files. There are a number of playscripts, some of which include staging notes. Among these is one play by Shore titled Not with Our Fathers: a Fable for Our Time, Out of History, but Not an Historical Play. Also documented here is a 1964 production of William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar performed at St. Francis’ College in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. In 1981, Shore took part in a symposium on Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s plays, which was held at the University of Southern California; a program from the symposium is the only documentation of his participation. Series 3 contains reel to reel recordings of music, including several pieces from Alvin Ailey dances. This series also includes cassette recordings of excerpts from Brecht and a memorial of composer Ernst Toch.

From 1974 to 1988 Shore served as director of the Council on The Arts, Culture, and Technology (TACT), a consortium of institutions, organizations, and programs involved in interdisciplinary research and related activities. Shore's TACT files document both its early period as an activity of the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO and its later activities as an independent non-governmental organization. The files include reports and correspondence on various projects with which TACT was involved, as well as correspondence with the U.S. National Commission and its delegates to UNESCO. The projects documented here include a 1980 conference on “Art in a Technological Society” and a proposed Regional Resource Center on Southern Africa.

Additional material on culture and the arts is found in Series 3. Recordings and in Series 4. Photographs. Among the photographs are pictures of traditional crafts in New Mexico and of a Haussa village in Africa. The recordings include audiotapes about Nicaraguan culture as well as recordings of traditional music of the United States.

Although Shore’s activities as director of TACT were primarily U.S.-based, he had a longtime interest in African culture. His most extensive work in this area was concerned with Eduardo Mondlane and the Mozambican liberation movement. Shore's TACT files include material on an extensive project (1978-1981) concerning Mondlane. This project had two key components. The first was to research Mondlane’s life and write a biography. Following Mondlane’s death, Shore was asked by Janet Mondlane and FRELIMO leaders to collect materials about the slain freedom fighter. With a grant from the Ford Foundation, Shore planned to put together a biography of Mondlane, basing his research on this collection. By the end of the grant period, Shore had completed a draft of the biography. Although this draft is not in these files, the project report includes an outline of the proposed biography. Shore’s biography of Eduardo Mondlane does not appear to have been completed.

The biographical research project brought to light the need to preserve the valuable material that Shore had collected. The second part of the project developed into a project to microfilm Shore’s collection on Eduardo Mondlane. The Cooperative Africana Microform Project (CAMP) at Northwestern University microfilmed some 2000 pieces of correspondence, primarily between Eduardo and Janet Mondlane from 1952-1962. This microfilm is not included in this collection, and the original documents were returned to Janet Mondlane once the microfilm was completed. The project files found here include correspondence and an inventory of the material microfilmed by CAMP. Although it was originally intended for CAMP to microfilm all of the Shore Collection, only these letters were done. The remainder of the collection was microfilmed at the University of Southern California in 1996. This microfilm and related files are in Subgroup II.

Subgroup II consists of the material collected by Herbert Shore relating to Eduardo Mondlane, Mozambique, and Africa. The most significant resource on Eduardo Mondlane in this subgroup is the microfilm in Series 6. This set of microfilm, done in 1996, contains correspondence (primarily post 1962) and writings of Janet and Eduardo Mondlane. Also included is material (1950-1989) including correspondence, publications, and interviews concerning the Mondlanes, FRELIMO, and the Mozambique Institute. Correspondents include George Houser, Herbert Shore, Africa Today editor Edward A. Hawley (who studied at the Oberlin Graduate School of Theology), Oberlin Professor George Simpson, and FRELIMO leaders Uria Simango and Marcellino Dos Santos. Each of the seven microfilm reels includes an inventory of its contents, and paper copies of the inventory are also in this series. Administrative files for this project are found in Series 3. Subject Files, under Mondlane/Mozambique Archive Project.

The originals of the documents that are found on the microfilm in Series 6 were deposited in the Archivo Historico in Maputo, Mozambique. The documents in Subgroup II include materials that were not part of the collection when it was microfilmed as well as duplicate copies of some documents (primarily articles) which were microfilmed. The typescript copies of selected correspondence related to Eduardo and Janet Mondlane which comprise Series 2 appear to be transcriptions of correspondence included on the microfilm, although it has not been ascertained that all of these letters are indeed found on the microfilm. With this correspondence is a typescript copy of a daily journal kept by the Mondlanes during a visit to Dar es Salaam, c. 1962.

Biographical information about the Mondlanes is found in Series 1, as well as on the microfilm in Series 6. Most of the biographical files in Series 1 concern Eduardo Mondlane. These include a brief autobiographical account written by Mondlane in 1966 as well as correspondence and newspaper clippings about Mondlane, 1953, 1963-1969. These files also contain newspaper clippings about his 1969 assassination and written accounts of the funeral service in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and the United Nations memorial service in New York, as well as programs from the memorial service. The biographical files also contain selected quotations of Eduardo Mondlane, 1967-1968. The biographical information on Janet Mondlane includes a transcript of an interview with her and newspaper clippings.

Material on Mozambique, including the Mozambican liberation movement’s political and educational organizations and Portugal’s relationship with Mozambique, is located in Series 3. Subject Files. These subject files contain some material that is duplicated by the microfilm in Series 6, as well as additional material that was not microfilmed. The subject files also contain administrative files about the 1996 microfilm project, including an index card inventory of the microfilmed collection.

The subject files on FRELIMO the Mozambique Liberation Front include general materials (including some in Portuguese), 1969 newsletters, other FRELIMO publications, and a 1970 profile of FRELIMO. Of note is a report on FRELIMO’s Second Congress held in 1968; this report includes a summary of FRELIMO’s activities during its first six years as well as resolutions outlining the liberation movement’s goals. The Mozambique Institute was founded in 1963 to carry out FRELIMO’s educational mission. The subject file on the Institute includes reports, newspaper clippings, and an informational pamphlet describing its history and work.

The files on Mozambique and Portugal are not as extensive. The Mozambique subject files include issues of the newspaper Noticias (in Portuguese) from July 25, 1975 (the day of Mozambican independence), and July 27, 1975. The material on Portugal focuses on Portugal’s colonial relationship with Mozambique and includes a 1976 report “Portugal in Mozambique” as well as newspaper clippings (1963-1976).

A significant portion of Subgroup II is made up of writings by Eduardo Mondlane and by others. Eduardo Mondlane’s writings (1952-1969 and undated) focus on race and cultural issues, primarily in Africa. Many of these articles discuss Mozambique and the liberation movement, and they include typescript copies and photocopies as well as a few typescript drafts. Among these drafts is an introduction to Andre Clerc’s Chitlangou, Son of a Chief. This book is a fictionalized account based on Mondlane’s childhood experiences. There is no material here on Mondlane’s work The Struggle for Mozambique (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1969).

Many of the articles in Subseries 2. Writings by Others are about Eduardo Mondlane. Other writings focus on Mozambique as well as other parts of Africa (including Malawi and Ethiopia). This subseries also includes “Africa in the Modern World,” a transcript of a 1952 radio discussion in which Mondlane participated. These writings also include interviews with Mondlane (1965 and undated). The article “A Long War Ahead” by Mondlane and William Minter is included in Southern Africa: a Time for Change, edited by G. Daniels. (A photocopy of the same article when it was published in Report of the Special Study Mission to Southern Africa, edited by Charles Diggs, Jr., is found with Mondlane’s writings in Subseries 1.)

Subgroup II is focused primarily on Eduardo Mondlane and Mozambique, but some of the material in this subgroup is related to other parts of Southern Africa, including Tanzania and South Africa. Writings such as the pamphlet “Armed Struggle in Southern Africa” from the Africa Research Group discuss the political situation throughout Southern Africa as a whole during the period in which Mozambicans were fighting for independence. Additional material related to other areas of Africa are in the audio recordings in Series 7, which includes recordings of African music and theater, and in Series 9. Artwork and museum items. The Artwork and museum items include drawings and paintings by Africans, as well as museum items such as a ballot from the 1994 South African Elections and a horsehair fly whisk from an unidentified African tribe.