A luta continua was the rallying cry of the FRELIMO movement during Mozambique

Mozambique

Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique , is a country in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west and Swaziland and South Africa to the southwest...

’s war for independence. The phrase is Portuguese but was used by FRELIMO leader Samora Machel

Samora Machel

Samora Moisés Machel was a Mozambican military commander, revolutionary socialist leader and eventual President of Mozambique...

 to cultivate popular support against the Portuguese colonial presence.

Machel became the first president of an independent Mozambique in 1975 and continued to use the phrase a luta continua as an unofficial national motto. Posters bearing the phrase can still be found on the walls of Maputo

Maputo

Maputo, also known as Lourenço Marques, is the capital and largest city of Mozambique. It is known as the City of Acacias in reference to acacia trees commonly found along its avenues and the Pearl of the Indian Ocean. It was famous for the inscription "This is Portugal" on the walkway of its...

, the nation’s capital.

It is now also used across the world in connection with other socio-political struggles.

Use in popular media

The phrase has also been used as the title of a 1971 film on the struggle for Mozambican independence and as the title of a Mozambique-inspired song popularized by South African singer Miriam Makeba

Miriam Makeba

Miriam Makeba , nicknamed Mama Africa, was a Grammy Award winning South African singer and civil rights activist....

 and written for her by her daughter Bongi

Bongi Makeba

Bongi Makeba was a singer/songwriter and the only child of South African singer Miriam Makeba.Makeba was born in South Africa. She recorded only one solo album: Bongi Makeba, Blow On Wind before she died of complications during childbirth in 1985, and is buried in Guinea...

 after she attended the independence ceremony of Mozambique in 1975 and then released on the album Welela in 1989.

In addition, the phrase appears at the end of the final credits of four films directed by Jonathan Demme:

• Philadelphia
  Philadelphia (film)
  Philadelphia is a 1993 American drama film that was one of the first mainstream Hollywood films to acknowledge HIV/AIDS, homosexuality and homophobia. It was written by Ron Nyswaner and directed by Jonathan Demme. The film stars Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington...
  
  (1993)
• The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
• Married to the Mob
  Married to the Mob
  Married to the Mob is a 1988 American comedy film directed by Jonathan Demme, starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Matthew Modine.Michelle Pfeiffer, in something of a departure from her previous roles, gave an acclaimed lead performance as a gangster's widow from Brooklyn, opposite Matthew Modine as the...
  
  (1988)
• Something Wild (1986)

The phrase appeared on T-shirts worn by LGBT rights activists at the funeral of David Kato

David Kato

David Kato Kisule was a Ugandan teacher and LGBT rights activist, considered a father of Uganda's gay rights movement. He served as advocacy officer for Sexual Minorities Uganda...

 in Uganda

Uganda

Uganda , officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. Uganda is also known as the "Pearl of Africa". It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by South Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by...

in 2011.