Samora Moises Machel
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(b. Xilimbene, Mozambique, 29 Sept. 1933; d. 19 Oct. 1986) Mozambican; President 1975 – 86
Born into a poor peasant family Machel never completed his secondary
education. In 1963 he joined the main anti-Portuguese nationalist
movement, the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (FRELIMO) and
rapidly became one of its main guerrilla commanders after receiving
military training in Algeria. Following the death of Eduardo Mondlane he
led FRELIMO in bringing an end to Portuguese colonialism. At
independence in 1975 he became Mozambique's first state President.
Initially he declared Mozambique to be a Marxist state aligned to the Soviet Union but this position was subsequently substantially modified. The country remained extremely vulnerable to the military and economic strength of South Africa and in 1984 Machel signed the Nkomati Accord with the Pretoria regime and agreed to deny the ANC bases in return for a cessation of South African support for Mozambican dissidents.
In 1986 he was killed when his plane crashed in the eastern Transvaal in circumstances which have never been adequately explained.
Initially he declared Mozambique to be a Marxist state aligned to the Soviet Union but this position was subsequently substantially modified. The country remained extremely vulnerable to the military and economic strength of South Africa and in 1984 Machel signed the Nkomati Accord with the Pretoria regime and agreed to deny the ANC bases in return for a cessation of South African support for Mozambican dissidents.
In 1986 he was killed when his plane crashed in the eastern Transvaal in circumstances which have never been adequately explained.
Education: Attended nursing school, Miguel Bombarda Hospital, Lourenco Marques, Mozambique, 1954-1959.
Born September 29, 1933, in the town of Chilembene in the Chokwe District of Gaza Province, Machel witnessed racial injustice as a young boy. Under Portuguese rule, his father, an indigenous farmer, was forced to accept lower prices for his crops than white farmers; compelled to grow labor-intensive cotton, which took time away from the food crops needed for his family; and forbidden to make an identifying brand on his cattle to prevent thievery. Despite these biased laws, Machel's father was a successful farmer: he owned four plows and 400 head of cattle by 1940.
In 1942, Machel was sent to school in the town of Souguene in Gaza Province. The school, like all those for black children, was run by Catholic missionaries who educated the children in Portuguese language and culture. Despite Machel's strong Protestant background, he was given mandatory lessons on Catholic doctrine. Machel even submitted to compulsory baptism in order to move on to secondary school. But once told that secondary education would mean automatic entry into the priesthood, Machel balked. Instead of going to high school, he studied nursing in the capital city of Lourenco Marques, beginning in 1954.
After becoming a nurse, Machel found it difficult to accept the differences in treatment between wealthy patrons and the masses of poor, indigent people. At Miguel Bombarda Hospital, where Machel worked, he noticed that indigent patients were used to test new medications and white patients received superior medical attention. Outside the hospital, Machel noted the damaging effects of colonialism in the lives of black Mozambicans.
To help remedy his and other blacks' social situation, in 1961, Machel joined a students' organization called the Nucleus of Mozambican Students (NESAM). NESAM had been formed by Eduardo Chivambo Mondlane, a Northwestern University-trained Mozambican, who returned to Mozambique determined to unite a small number of educated Mozambicans against colonialism so that they could pass on their knowledge to their less intellectual neighbors. Machel became an active NESAM participant despite pressure from the Portuguese government's secret police (PIDE). After PIDE began to arrest nationalists, Machel received notice that he was high on PIDE's list and fled the country for Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania, in 1963. There he found a burgeoning Mozambican nationalist movement that received encouragement from Tanzanian president Nyerere and Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana. He joined the Mozambique Liberation Front (FRELIMO) in 1963, but left Tanzania shortly thereafter to gain military training in Algeria.
Upon Machel's return to Tanzania in 1964, he took charge of FRELIMO's embryonic Kongwa Training Camp, where he united his recruits, which included tribal youths, urban sophisticates, and a sprinkling of deserters from the Portuguese army, against colonialism. He also supervised the construction of barracks and instituted a system of troop drills with "rifles" made of sticks, to keep his Algerian-trained soldiers in peak condition. His method of discipline was unique in that he taught his soldiers not to obey orders blindly on threat of punishment but to obey willingly. According to a speech of Machel's in Samora Machel: An African Revolutionary, discipline was a means of integration, of "making the individual love our way of life so that he can consciously follow the principles and rules that guide it."
Machel moved up quickly within the FRELIMO organization and was appointed commander of FRELIMO's Defense Department after his predecessor's death in a 1966 battle with the Portuguese. His new title put him on the policy-setting central committee of FRELIMO, which he used within weeks to restructure his department according to his own strategic objectives. He divided the department into 11 defense sections, which made the department efficient and allowed FRELIMO to offer social services to its increasing membership. FRELIMO ran agricultural cooperatives, literacy classes, and People's Shops, where necessities such as candles, sugar, and tea were sold.
As the membership of FRELIMO grew, so did the ideological rifts between its rival factions. Machel belonged to a faction that preferred governance by the working class and membership based on a commitment to nationalism. This faction insisted that all FRELIMO high school graduates spend a year working inside Mozambique before continuing with their education overseas. The opposing faction wanted the movement run by an educated elite, based on racial and tribal lines that would eliminate the membership of whites. Machel's faction triumphed over the other in a brief battle. When a letter bomb killed FRELIMO leader Mondlane in 1970, Machel assumed the organization's presidency.
Machel became FRELIMO's president just as 35,000 troops from the Portuguese army attacked FRELIMO in what was called Operation Gordian Knot. FRELIMO was victorious over Portugal, and by 1974 the War of Liberation had ended. On September 8, 1974, Machel and Portuguese representatives signed the Lusaka Agreement, which awarded six out of ten ministerial posts, including the prime minister's position to FRELIMO; allowed for joint coordination of military activities by FRELIMO and Portugal to protect the ex-colony against aggression; and named June 25, 1975, as Independence Day.
Machel's administration followed a one-party Marxist line. Machel nationalized all Mozambican land, including abandoned houses and businesses, assured legal representation whether or not the defendant could afford it, made education free, and nationalized health care. Even though the social programs helped Mozambicans, by 1976 the country was burdened with a sinking economy.
Machel tried to rescue the economy by limiting imports and instituting rationing. His efforts were not enough, however. In the early 1980s, during the worst drought ever to hit southern Africa, Machel made unannounced visits to factories, warehouses, and agricultural projects throughout the country. He found that inefficient management and unreliable transportation were keeping tons of food rotting in warehouses. He also noted that some government officials abused their power and their access to scarce commodities.
While Machel grappled with Mozambique's state of disrepair, he also dealt with a guerilla group known as Resistencia Nacional Mocambicana (RENAMO). RENAMO terrorized Mozambicans, destroying 1,800 schools, 720 health posts, 900 shops, 1,300 vehicles, and leaving countless lives in ruins. To combat RENAMO's continual destruction, Machel instituted the death penalty and publicly executed ten men by firing squad in March of 1979. The death penalty, however, did not deter the guerrillas, and the war escalated until 1984.
RENAMO had moved its training bases to South Africa after the fall of the Rhodesian government. In 1984 Machel signed a non-aggression pact called the Nkomati Accord with South African president P. W. Botha. Under the Accord, Botha agreed to stop supporting RENAMO if Mozambique would expel the military wing of South Africa's nemesis, the African National Congress. Though Machel honored the Accord, Botha did not, and the fighting continued. By 1986 Machel was spending 42 percent of his national income to protect his people from RENAMO.
Mozambique's first president was never able to resolve the conflict, for his life ended suddenly on October 19, 1986, when the Tupolev TV-134 jet in which he was returning home from Zambia crashed in the Lebombo Mountains in South Africa. Explanations for the crash have included stormy weather, antiquated navigation equipment, and the possibility that South Africa had somehow lured the plane off course by a false high-frequency radio beam.
Career
Miguel Bombarda Hospital, Lourenco Marques,
Mozambique, nurse, 1954-63. Joined Mozambique Liberation Front
(FRELIMO), 1963, serving as secretary of defense, 1966-69, president,
1970-75. President of Mozambique, 1975-86.
Life's Work
Samora Moises Machel became
Mozambique's first president after the African country won independence
from 470 years of Portuguese colonial rule. Following a Marxist
ideology, Machel struggled to establish a country free of racial or
tribal bias. He made medical services, legal representation, and
education equally available to all citizens.Born September 29, 1933, in the town of Chilembene in the Chokwe District of Gaza Province, Machel witnessed racial injustice as a young boy. Under Portuguese rule, his father, an indigenous farmer, was forced to accept lower prices for his crops than white farmers; compelled to grow labor-intensive cotton, which took time away from the food crops needed for his family; and forbidden to make an identifying brand on his cattle to prevent thievery. Despite these biased laws, Machel's father was a successful farmer: he owned four plows and 400 head of cattle by 1940.
In 1942, Machel was sent to school in the town of Souguene in Gaza Province. The school, like all those for black children, was run by Catholic missionaries who educated the children in Portuguese language and culture. Despite Machel's strong Protestant background, he was given mandatory lessons on Catholic doctrine. Machel even submitted to compulsory baptism in order to move on to secondary school. But once told that secondary education would mean automatic entry into the priesthood, Machel balked. Instead of going to high school, he studied nursing in the capital city of Lourenco Marques, beginning in 1954.
After becoming a nurse, Machel found it difficult to accept the differences in treatment between wealthy patrons and the masses of poor, indigent people. At Miguel Bombarda Hospital, where Machel worked, he noticed that indigent patients were used to test new medications and white patients received superior medical attention. Outside the hospital, Machel noted the damaging effects of colonialism in the lives of black Mozambicans.
To help remedy his and other blacks' social situation, in 1961, Machel joined a students' organization called the Nucleus of Mozambican Students (NESAM). NESAM had been formed by Eduardo Chivambo Mondlane, a Northwestern University-trained Mozambican, who returned to Mozambique determined to unite a small number of educated Mozambicans against colonialism so that they could pass on their knowledge to their less intellectual neighbors. Machel became an active NESAM participant despite pressure from the Portuguese government's secret police (PIDE). After PIDE began to arrest nationalists, Machel received notice that he was high on PIDE's list and fled the country for Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania, in 1963. There he found a burgeoning Mozambican nationalist movement that received encouragement from Tanzanian president Nyerere and Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana. He joined the Mozambique Liberation Front (FRELIMO) in 1963, but left Tanzania shortly thereafter to gain military training in Algeria.
Upon Machel's return to Tanzania in 1964, he took charge of FRELIMO's embryonic Kongwa Training Camp, where he united his recruits, which included tribal youths, urban sophisticates, and a sprinkling of deserters from the Portuguese army, against colonialism. He also supervised the construction of barracks and instituted a system of troop drills with "rifles" made of sticks, to keep his Algerian-trained soldiers in peak condition. His method of discipline was unique in that he taught his soldiers not to obey orders blindly on threat of punishment but to obey willingly. According to a speech of Machel's in Samora Machel: An African Revolutionary, discipline was a means of integration, of "making the individual love our way of life so that he can consciously follow the principles and rules that guide it."
Machel moved up quickly within the FRELIMO organization and was appointed commander of FRELIMO's Defense Department after his predecessor's death in a 1966 battle with the Portuguese. His new title put him on the policy-setting central committee of FRELIMO, which he used within weeks to restructure his department according to his own strategic objectives. He divided the department into 11 defense sections, which made the department efficient and allowed FRELIMO to offer social services to its increasing membership. FRELIMO ran agricultural cooperatives, literacy classes, and People's Shops, where necessities such as candles, sugar, and tea were sold.
As the membership of FRELIMO grew, so did the ideological rifts between its rival factions. Machel belonged to a faction that preferred governance by the working class and membership based on a commitment to nationalism. This faction insisted that all FRELIMO high school graduates spend a year working inside Mozambique before continuing with their education overseas. The opposing faction wanted the movement run by an educated elite, based on racial and tribal lines that would eliminate the membership of whites. Machel's faction triumphed over the other in a brief battle. When a letter bomb killed FRELIMO leader Mondlane in 1970, Machel assumed the organization's presidency.
Machel became FRELIMO's president just as 35,000 troops from the Portuguese army attacked FRELIMO in what was called Operation Gordian Knot. FRELIMO was victorious over Portugal, and by 1974 the War of Liberation had ended. On September 8, 1974, Machel and Portuguese representatives signed the Lusaka Agreement, which awarded six out of ten ministerial posts, including the prime minister's position to FRELIMO; allowed for joint coordination of military activities by FRELIMO and Portugal to protect the ex-colony against aggression; and named June 25, 1975, as Independence Day.
Machel's administration followed a one-party Marxist line. Machel nationalized all Mozambican land, including abandoned houses and businesses, assured legal representation whether or not the defendant could afford it, made education free, and nationalized health care. Even though the social programs helped Mozambicans, by 1976 the country was burdened with a sinking economy.
Machel tried to rescue the economy by limiting imports and instituting rationing. His efforts were not enough, however. In the early 1980s, during the worst drought ever to hit southern Africa, Machel made unannounced visits to factories, warehouses, and agricultural projects throughout the country. He found that inefficient management and unreliable transportation were keeping tons of food rotting in warehouses. He also noted that some government officials abused their power and their access to scarce commodities.
While Machel grappled with Mozambique's state of disrepair, he also dealt with a guerilla group known as Resistencia Nacional Mocambicana (RENAMO). RENAMO terrorized Mozambicans, destroying 1,800 schools, 720 health posts, 900 shops, 1,300 vehicles, and leaving countless lives in ruins. To combat RENAMO's continual destruction, Machel instituted the death penalty and publicly executed ten men by firing squad in March of 1979. The death penalty, however, did not deter the guerrillas, and the war escalated until 1984.
RENAMO had moved its training bases to South Africa after the fall of the Rhodesian government. In 1984 Machel signed a non-aggression pact called the Nkomati Accord with South African president P. W. Botha. Under the Accord, Botha agreed to stop supporting RENAMO if Mozambique would expel the military wing of South Africa's nemesis, the African National Congress. Though Machel honored the Accord, Botha did not, and the fighting continued. By 1986 Machel was spending 42 percent of his national income to protect his people from RENAMO.
Mozambique's first president was never able to resolve the conflict, for his life ended suddenly on October 19, 1986, when the Tupolev TV-134 jet in which he was returning home from Zambia crashed in the Lebombo Mountains in South Africa. Explanations for the crash have included stormy weather, antiquated navigation equipment, and the possibility that South Africa had somehow lured the plane off course by a false high-frequency radio beam.
Further Reading
Books- Africa Today, Africa Books Ltd., 1991.
- Azevedo, Mario, Historical Dictionary of Mozambique, African Historical Dictionaries, No. 47., Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1991.
- Christie, Iain, Machel of Mozambique, Zimbabwe Publishing House, 1988.
- Henriksen, Thomas H., Revolution and Counterrevolution: Mozambique's War of Independence, 1964-1974, Greenwood Press, 1983.
- Samora Machel: An African Revolutionary, edited by Barry Munslow, Zed Books, 1985.
- Mozambique: A Country Study, edited by Harold D. Nelson, Foreign Area Studies, American University, U.S. Government, Research Completed 1984.
- Swift, Kerry, Mozambique and the Future, Nelson, 1974.
- Africa Report, May-June 1984, p. 19.
- National Geographic, August 1964, p. 197.
- New York Times, June 29, 1975, section IV, p. 3.
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Machel, Samora Moïsès (səmôr'ə moizĕsh' məshĕl),
1933-86, president of Mozambique (1975-86). Machel joined the
Mozambican Liberation Front (Frelimo) in 1962, led its guerrilla forces
by 1968, and in 1969 became president of the organization. In 1975,
Frelimo gained power in independent Mozambique without elections, and
Machel became president. Committed to creating a Marxist state, Machel
was faced with extreme economic difficulties, including dependence on a
hostile South Africa, unreliable Soviet aid, civil war in neighboring
Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), and a South African supported guerrilla
resistance. Popular throughout his rule, he died in a plane crash.
Top
| Samora Moisés Machel | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| 1st President of Mozambique | |
| In office June 25, 1975 – October 19, 1986 |
|
| Succeeded by | Joaquim Chissano |
| Personal details | |
| Born | September 29, 1933 Madragoa, Gaza Province, Portuguese East Africa |
| Died | October 19, 1986 (aged 53) Mbuzini, Lebombo Mountains, South Africa |
| Political party | FRELIMO |
| Spouse(s) | Sorita Tchaicomo, Josina Mutemba, Graça Machel (née Simbine) |
| Religion | Atheist |
Early life
Samora Machel was born in the village of Madragoa (today's Chilembene), Gaza Province, Portuguese East Africa (Mozambique), to a family of farmers. He was a member of the Shangana ethnic group and his grandfather had been an active collaborator of Gungunhana. Under Portuguese rule, his father, a native, was forced to accept lower prices for his crops than white farmers; compelled to grow labor-intensive cotton, which took time away from the food crops needed for his family; and forbidden to brand his mark on his cattle to prevent thievery. However, Machel's father was a successful farmer: he owned four plows and 400 head of cattle by 1940. Machel grew up in this farming village and attended mission elementary school. In 1942, he was sent to school in the town of Zonguene in Gaza Province. The school was run by Catholic missionaries who educated the children in Portuguese language and culture. Although having completed the fourth grade, Machel never completed his secondary education. However, he had the prerequisite certificate to train as a nurse anywhere in Portugal at the time, since the nursing schools were not degree-conferring institutions. Machel started to study nursing in the capital city of Lourenço Marques (today Maputo), beginning in 1954. In the 1950s, he saw some of the fertile lands around his farming community on the Limpopo river appropriated by the provincial government and worked by white settlers who developed a wide range of new infrastructure for the region. Like many other Mozambicans near the southern border of Mozambique, some of his relatives went to work in the South African mines where additional job opportunities were found. Shortly afterwards, one of his brothers was killed in a mining accident.[1][2][3][4][5][6] Unable to complete formal training at the Miguel Bombarda Hospital in Lourenço Marques, he got a job working as an aide in the same hospital and earned enough to continue his education at night school. He worked at the hospital until he left the country to join the Mozambican nationalist struggle in neighbouring Tanzania.Liberation struggle
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Main article: Mozambican War of Independence
Machel was attracted to Marxist-Leninist
ideals and began his political activities in the Lourenço Marques
hospital where he protested against the fact that black nurses were paid
less than whites doing the same job. He later told a reporter how bad
medical treatment was for Mozambique's poor: "The rich man's dog gets
more in the way of vaccination, medicine and medical care than do the
workers upon whom the rich man's wealth is built." His grandparents and
great grandparents had fought against Portuguese colonial rule in the 19th century, so it was not surprising that in 1962 Machel joined the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (FRELIMO)
which was dedicated to creating an independent Mozambique. He left his
first wife and four children behind. He received military training in
1963 elsewhere in Africa, and returned in 1964 to lead FRELIMO's first guerilla attack against the Portuguese in northern Mozambique. Machel married his second wife, Josina
(née Mutemba), in 1969, who gave him a child later that same year. By
1969, Machel had become commander-in-chief of the FRELIMO army which had
already established itself among Mozambique's peasantry. His most
important goal, he said, was to get the people "to understand how to
turn the armed struggle into a revolution" and to realize how essential
it was "to create a new mentality to build a new society". Two months
after the assassination of FRELIMO's president, Eduardo Mondlane, in February 1969, a ruling triumvirate comprising Samora Machel, Marcelino dos Santos and Frelimo's vice-president Uria Simango assumed the leadership. Simango was expelled from the party in 1970, and Machel assumed the presidency of the movement.[7]Independence
In fact, as early as during the transitional government it shared with Portugal, FRELIMO shattered all opposition to its rule. Former militants Lázaro Kavandame, Uria Simango, Paulo Unhai, Kambeu and Father Mateus Gwengere were arrested, under the pretext that they had allied themselves with elements of the white community during the 7 September 1974 upheaval against the transfer of power to FRELIMO (Mateus Gwengere was kidnapped in Kenya, where he had sought refuge, and brought secretly to Mozambique). The same wave of arrests caught Joana Simeão, who, in opposition to FRELIMO's one-party system, had created a political party, GUMO (Grupo Unido de Moçambique – United Group for Mozambique), proposing a model based on pluralism and free market (which FRELIMO would ironically adopt years later, when it eventually renounced Marxism).
They were all accused of "treason" (even though Joana Simeão herself had never been a member of FRELIMO) and subject to a trial in the so-called "revolutionary" and "popular" style, presided by Samora Machel himself. According to the journalists José Pinto de Sá and Nélson Saúte in the Portuguese daily Público, Joana Simeão, the Reverend Uria Simango, Lázaro Nkavandame, Raul Casal Ribeiro, Arcanjo Kambeu, Júlio Nihia, Paulo Gumane and Father Mateus Gwengere were interned in the campo de reeducação (re-education camp) of M’telela, in the Northeastern province of Niassa, when, on 25 June 1977 (the second anniversary of Mozambique's independence), they were told that they would be taken to the capital, Maputo, where President Machel himself would discuss their liberation. At a given moment, the jeep convoy stopped on the dirt road between M'telela and Niassa's capital city, Lichinga. By means of a mechanical excavator, the soldiers had opened a ditch on the road shoulder and had partially filled it with wood. The prisoners were tied, thrown to the ditch and showered with gasoline. Then fire was set to the wood. Frelimo's political prisoners were burnt alive, while the soldiers chanted revolutionary anthems around the ditch. The macabre details of this massacre would only be revealed eighteen years later, in 1995. Frelimo, whose successive governments had up to then consistently refused to release information on the whereabouts of those members of the so-called «reactionary group», resorted to silence.[9]
Domingos Arouca, Pereira Leite (who had nevertheless had some political activity against the colonial regime), Máximo Dias (GUMO's # 2) and another FRELIMO dissident, Miguel Murupa, managed to escape to Portugal. Dr Willem Gerard Pott, a lawyer whose resistance to the colonial regime was well-known, was abhorred for not showing unconditional allegiance to FRELIMO. Following a period of detention during which he was subject to humiliating treatment (such as being displayed half-naked in public), he died in prison.
SNASP (Serviço Nacional de Segurança Popular – National Service for People's Security) and PIC (Polícia de Investigação Criminal – Criminal Investigation Police) began a wave of arrests, using both traditional prisons and the so-called campos de reeducação located randomly in northern and central sparsely populated areas. Even Machel's first wife, whom he had deserted in 1963, was detained, despite her total abstention from political activity. Citizens were under permanent watch by the grupos dinamizadores (movement teams), of control cells set up at neighborhood and workplace level.
Machel quickly put his Marxist principles into practice by calling for the nationalization of Portuguese plantations and property, and proposing the FRELIMO government establish schools and health clinics for the peasants. A land reform was imposed, gathering peasants in aldeias comunais (communal villages) in accordance with the kolkhoz and sovkhoz model. For this purpose, the new Mozambican regime did not hesitate to use the old aldeamentos, or strategic hamlets, in which the Portuguese Army had tried to confine the rural population in order to remove it from FRELIMO's influence in the war-ridden areas of the North (paradoxically, FRELIMO itself then denounced such aldeamentos as "concentration camps"). Deeply contrary to the traditional way of life in the Mozambican countryside, which was characterised by single-family units scattered in the bush, the land reform based on the aldeias comunais concept soon proved to be a monumental fiasco.
As an internationalist, Machel allowed revolutionaries fighting white minority regimes in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) and South Africa to train and operate within Mozambique. The regimes retaliated by supporting the rebel group called RENAMO. Some sources contend that the group was created by the Rhodesian secrete services, before gaining genuine support later[10]. The Mozambique Civil War would start between FRELIMO and RENAMO. RENAMO would attempt to destroy the infrastructures built by FRELIMO, and to sabotage railway lines and hydroelectric facilities. The Mozambique economy suffered greatly due to war, and began to depend on overseas aid – in particular from the Soviet Union.
Samora Machel was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize (1975–76).
Machel's change of attitude towards the Portuguese
Indeed, the transitional government that ruled the country from the cease-fire agreement (signed in Lusaka on 7 September 1974) to independence (set for 25 June of the following year) acted in a very conciliatory fashion. Prime-Minister Joaquim Chissano (who would become President of the Republic after Machel's death twelve years later) managed to convince the majority of the white population that only those bearing heavy responsibility for the darkest pages of the colonial era should fear FRELIMO's rule.
However, one month before independence, i.e., in mid-May 1975, Samora Machel crossed over into Mozambique from Tanzania, in the far North, and started a tour heading for the capital city of Lourenço Marques, in the far South, where he would arrive on the eve of Independence Day. Along this tour, he galvanised the masses with bitter speeches, recalling incessantly the most abhorrent and humiliating aspects of colonialism from the standpoint of colonised Mozambicans. Unease gradually got the upper hand in the Portuguese community, many of whose members then decided to rebuild their lives elsewhere.
Several explanations have been proposed for this change of attitude. In his memoirs, Dr António de Almeida Santos, a renowned lawyer from Lourenço Marques who, after the fall of Caetano's regime, became Minister for the Coordination of Portuguese-Administered Territories and who was a close friend of Machel's, sustains that FRELIMO's President was strongly affected by two outbursts of violence involving the white population.[11] The first of such episodes was caused by an upheaval in the capital city on 7 September 1974, with the seizing of offices and transmitters of the Rádio Clube de Moçambique, in protest against the Lusaka Agreement signed by the Portuguese Provisional Government and FRELIMO, which provided for the handover of power exclusively to the nationalist movement. This upheaval was led by FICO (Frente Integracionista de Continuidade Ocidental – Integrationist Front for Western Continuity), a movement mostly composed by whites with which FRELIMO dissidents and other members of the black community unwilling to accept a one-party system had allied themselves. FRELIMO supporters retaliated with bloody riots in the black shantytowns surrounding the city and, during several days, thousands of people, mostly Portuguese, were barbarously slaughtered, along with blacks who had allegedly remained loyal to their employers.The second episode of violence happened a few weeks later, on 21 October 1974, when a quarrel between Portuguese commandos and FRELIMO guerrillas in downtown Lourenço Marques gave rise to another wave of bloody riots in the black shantytown areas, with the murder of dozens of whites. According to Almeida Santos, Machel possibly became convinced that the presence of a numerous Portuguese community in Mozambique would always be a source of instability and a potential threat to FRELIMO's rule. To that was allegedly added pressure from the Soviet Union, to which FRELIMO had contracted a heavy debt, namely of a political nature, and which desired to be rid of the Portuguese in order to better exercise its influence at all levels.
The fatal aircrash and investigations
Main article: 1986 Mozambican Tupolev Tu-134 crash
On October 19, 1986 Samora Machel was on his way back from an international meeting in Lusaka, Zambia, in the presidential Tupolev Tu-134 aircraft, when the plane crashed in the Lebombo Mountains, near Mbuzini, South-Africa. There were ten survivors,[12] but President Machel and thirty-three others died, including ministers and officials of the Mozambique government.The Margo Commission, set up by the South African government, but which included high-level international representation,[citation needed] investigated the incident and concluded that the accident was caused by pilot error.[12] Despite the acceptance of its findings by the International Civil Aviation Organization, the report was rejected by the Mozambican and Soviet governments. The latter submitted a minority report suggesting that the aircraft was intentionally lured off course by a decoy radio navigation beacon set up specifically for this purpose by the South Africans. Speculation about the accident has therefore continued to the present day, particularly in Mozambique.[13]
Hans Louw, a Civil Cooperation Bureau operative, claims to have assisted in Machel's death.[14][15] Pik Botha, South African foreign affairs minister at the time, who later joined the ANC, said that the investigation into the plane crash should be re-opened.[16]
The Portuguese journalist José Milhazes, who lives in Moscow since 1977 and currently works for the Portuguese newspaper Público and as a correspondent for the Portuguese television chain SIC, sustains that the plane crash had nothing to do with any attempt or any mechanical failure, but was due to several errors of the Russian crew (including the pilot), who, instead of diligently performing their duties, were busy with futile things, like sharing alcoholic and soft drinks unavailable in Mozambique that they had had the possibility to bring from Zambia. In Milhazes' opinion, both the Soviet and the Mozambican authorities had an interest to spread the thesis of an attempt by the South-African regime: the Soviets wanted to safeguard their reputation (exempting the plane and the crew from any responsibility), the Mozambicans wanted to create a hero.[17]
In 2007, however, Jacinto Veloso, one of Machel's most unconditional supporters within Frelimo, had sustained in his memoirs that Machel's death was due to a conspiracy between the South African and the Soviet secret services, both of which had reasons to get rid of him.
According to Veloso, the Soviet ambassador once asked the President for an audience to convey the USSR's concern about Mozambique's apparent "sliding away" towards the West, to which Machel supposedly replied "Vai à merda!" (Eat shit!). Having then commanded the interpreter to translate, he left the room. Convinced that Machel had irrevocably moved away from their orbit, the Soviets allegedly did not hesitate to sacrifice the pilot and the whole crew of their own plane.[18]
Graça Machel
Machel's widow, Graça (née Simbine), is convinced the aircrash was not an accident and has dedicated her life to tracking down her husband's alleged killers. In July 1998, Mrs Machel married the then South African President Nelson Mandela. She thus became unique in having been the first lady of two different countries, Mozambique and South Africa.Memorial
Main article: Samora Machel Monument
A memorial at the Mbuzini crash site was inaugurated on January 19, 1999 by Nelson Mandela and his wife Graça, and by President Joaquim Chissano
of Mozambique. Now the monument is made professional and the memorial
service is held on the 19th October each year. Designed by Mozambican
architect José Forjaz, at a cost to the South African government of 1.5
million Rand (US$ 300,000), the monument comprises 35 steel tubes
symbolising the number of lives lost in the air crash. At least eight
foreigners were killed there, including the four Soviet crew members,
Machel's two Cuban doctors and the Zambian and Zairean ambassadors to
Mozambique.[19]One of the largest streets in Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe, was renamed Samora Machel Avenue (from Jameson Avenue) after independence in a gesture of gratitude for Machel's support for black liberation activities before majority rule. Also, a street in Moscow bears his name and the Zimbabwean band R.U.N.N. family had a hit song that mourned his loss.
See also
- Portuguese Colonial War
- Samora Machel constituency, named after Machel in Namibia
References
- ^ Samora Machel, a Biography, Author(s) of Review: David Hedges Journal of Southern African Studies, Vol. 19, No. 3 (Sep., 1993), pp. 547-549, JSTOR
- ^ Azevedo, Mario, Historical Dictionary of Mozambique, African Historical Dictionaries, No. 47., Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1991.
- ^ Christie, Iain, Machel of Mozambique, Zimbabwe Publishing House, 1988.
- ^ Henriksen, Thomas H., Revolution and Counterrevolution: Mozambique's War of Independence, 1964-1974, Greenwood Press, 1983.
- ^ Samora Machel: An African Revolutionary, edited by Barry Munslow, Zed Books, 1985.
- ^ Mozambique: A Country Study, edited by Harold D. Nelson, Foreign Area Studies, American University, U.S. Government, Research Completed 1984.
- ^ Samora Machel: Biography and Much More from Answers.com
- ^ Mozambique: a tortuous road to democracy by J .Cabrita, Macmillan 2001 ISBN 9700333977385
- ^ José Pinto de Sá, O dia em que eles foram queimados vivos, Público Magazine, # 277, Lisboa, 25.06.1995
- ^ "RENAMO: from military confrontation to peaceful democratic engagement, 1976-2009". African Journal of Political Science and International Relations Vol. 5(1), pp. 42-51, January 2011. Retrieved 2012-05-21.
- ^ António de Almeida Santos, Quase Memórias, p. 110, ed. Casa das Letras, Lisboa, 2006.
- ^ a b "Accident description". Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved 2007-12-18.
- ^ "Samora Machel remembered". BBC News. October 19, 2001. Retrieved 2008-03-30.
- ^ "Ex-CCB man in Machel death claim". Daily Dispatch. Retrieved 2008-10-06.
- ^ "A Case of Assassination?" (PDF). University of Cape Town. Retrieved 2008-10-06.
- ^ "Probe Samora Machel's death - Pik Botha". Sunday Independent. Retrieved 2008-10-06.
- ^ José Milhazes, Samora Machel: Atentado ou Acidente?, ed. Alêtheia, Lisboa, 2010
- ^ Jacinto Veloso, Memórias em Voo Rasante, p. 204-209, ed. Papa-Letras, Lisboa, 2007
- ^ Panafrican News Agency January 5, 1999 "Monument for Machel plane crash site"
External links
- Speech by Nelson Mandela at the unveiling of the Samora Machel Memorial
- The TRC's Special Investigation into the death of President Samora Machel
- A case of assassination? President Samora Machel and the plane crash at Mbuzini
- Biographical notes on Samora Machel
- Graça Machel and Mandela
- Historic film essay on Frelimo and Samora Machel's rehabilitation program
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by None, office created |
President of Mozambique 1975-1986 |
Succeeded by Joaquim Chissano |
|
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