Samora Moisés Machel
Samora Moisés MachelThe Marxist revolutionary who overthrew Portuguese colonial rule and led Mozambique to independence
“The liberation of Africa is the liberation of the continent, or it is nothing.”
Mozambique's independence leader and first president. As FRELIMO chairman, he waged armed struggle to end Portuguese colonial rule and built a socialist state. A crucial ally of liberation movements against Rhodesia and South African apartheid.
Career timeline
- 1963Exiled to Tanzania, joins FRELIMO; guerrilla training in Algeria
- 1966FRELIMO Secretary for Defense
- 1968Commander-in-chief of the Mozambican liberation army
- 1970Becomes FRELIMO President; adopts Marxism-Leninism as party ideology
- 1974Negotiates independence with Portugal's new government — Lusaka Accord
- 1975–1986First President of the People's Republic of Mozambique
- 1984Signs the Nkomati non-aggression pact with South Africa
- 1986.10Killed in plane crash at Mbuzini, South Africa, returning from Zambia