Brother from the West

A poetic appeal by Frelimo (Mozambique Liberation Front) for support in its liberation struggle, 1973.

Brother from the West
(How can we explain that you are our brother?)
the world does not end at the threshold of your house
nor at the stream which marks the border of your country
nor in the sea
in whose vastness you sometimes think that you have
discovered the meaning of the infinite.
Beyond your threshold, beyond the sea
the great struggle continues.
Men with warm eyes and hands as hard as the earth
at night embrace their children and depart before the dawn.
Many will not return.
What does it matter?
We are men tired of shackles.
For us freedom is worth more than life.
From you, brother, we expect
and to you we offer not the hand of charity
which misleads and humiliates
but the hand of comradeship
committed, conscious.
How can you refuse, brother from the West?

By Jorge Rebelo.