Machel, Samora Moises

(1933–1986)

   Machel led the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (FRELIMO) and was the first president of the People’s Republic of Mozambique. Born in Gaza province, southern Mozambique (then a Portuguese colony), Machel worked as a medical assistant before joining FRELIMO in 1962. He went to Algeria in 1963 to receive military training, returning the following year as a guerrilla fighter. He became commander in chief of the military wing of FRELIMO, the People’s Forces for the Liberation of Mozambique, and in 1970 the FRELIMO Central Committee formally made Machel party president. In 1974 Machel led the FRELIMO delegation in peace talks with the Portuguese who had finally conceded that they were losing the protracted war against the independence movement. In June 1975 he was invested as president of the newly formed and avowedly Marxist People’s Republic of Mozambique. He died on 19 October 1986 in an air crash.