Paulo José Gumane

[4] Returning to Mozambique, Gumane attempted to set up a farmers' trade union: the Portuguese colonial authorities issued a warrant for his arrest, but after being alerted by a friend within the government he evaded capture and escaped by stowing away on a ship to Cape Town.

[5] Gumane was one of the founder members of the pro-independence National Democratic Union of Mozambique (UDENAMO) in 1960, and subsequently helped found its successor FRELIMO in 1962, becoming its Deputy Secretary-General.

[8] Gumane assumed the presidency of the COREMO and steered it in a new, populist political direction: to contrast the group with FRELIMO he specified no special treatment for its leaders' children, no white membership, and maintained only a few low-profile offices in Cairo, Nairobi and Dar es Salaam.

[8] He adopted a strategy based on setting small-scale goals, issuing realistic communiques and on leading the organisation from within Mozambique's borders, all of which drew praise from external observers and supporters.

[10] However, after some initial military successes within Tete Province, COREMO began to lose impetus and was disrupted by internal disputes: Gumane nevertheless retained the backing of the Zambian president Kenneth Kaunda, who held him in high personal regard.

After the 1974 Portuguese coup rendered Mozambican independence inevitable, Gumane along with other opposition leaders was one of the founders of the National Coalition Party (PCN), which called for free elections following the transfer of power.