Samora Machel First President of Mozambique Country: Mozambique

Biography of Samora Machel

Samora Machel, the first President of Mozambique, was born in October 1933 into a peasant family in the Shangaan region of southern Mozambique. He completed four years of primary school and briefly attended secondary school. Before 1963, Machel worked at a hospital in Maputo.

In 1962, Eduardo Mondlane, a Shangaan who had received education in the United States, founded the Mozambique Liberation Front (FRELIMO). Machel went to Tanzania in 1963 and was sent to Algeria by FRELIMO to learn guerrilla warfare tactics. Upon returning to Tanzania, Machel established the first FRELIMO training camp for insurgents.

In 1966, Machel became the Secretary of Defense for FRELIMO, and in 1968, he became the Commander-in-Chief of the army. After Mondlane was assassinated in 1969 by a mail bomb at his home in Dar es Salaam, Machel, Urias Simango, and Marcelino dos Santos took over the leadership of FRELIMO.

However, power struggles continued, and Machel and dos Santos ousted Simango. In 1970, Machel was confirmed as the leader of FRELIMO. With Soviet and Chinese military assistance, FRELIMO was able to gain control over parts of northern Mozambique by 1973. By 1974, FRELIMO posed a threat to central Mozambique, and in April, after the revolution in Portugal, a new government decided to grant Mozambique independence.

In 1975, Machel became the President of the country. His government nationalized land, most of the trade and industry, and encouraged the rapid exodus of white settlers from the country. Machel provided bases and military aid to the guerrillas who, in 1980, ended the white minority regime in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and fought for the elimination of apartheid in South Africa.

Machel faced a shortage of skilled personnel and resistance from peasants against the state's coercive measures. The guerrillas inflicted serious damage on the country and thwarted all attempts to revive the economy. Machel died in an airplane crash on October 19, 1986.