Machel was born in the village of Madragoa which is today’s Chilembene gaza Province on 29 September 1933 to a family that was relatively peasantry. He was born at a time when his country Mozambique was under harsh Portuguese rule.
Although his father was an ally and a collaborative agent to the Portuguese he 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.
With savings from farming Michel was able to attend 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 instead he trained as a nurse till he left the country to join the Mozambican armed struggle that was being organized in neighboring Tanzania.
Life in the liberation struggle Samora Machel and what role he played
Machel was first attracted to anti-colonial ideals and began his political activities in the Miguel Bombarda hospital in Lourenço Marques, where he protested against the fact that black nurses were paid less than whites doing the same job with same tasks at times black nurses would be given hard tasks that required a lot of working hours.
In Dar es Salaam, Machel volunteered for military service and was one of the second group of FRELIMO guerrillas sent for training in Algeria. Back in Tanzania, he was put in charge of FRELIMO’s own training camp, at Kongwa near Dodoma.
When Frelimo officially launched the independence liberation on September 25, 1964, Machel soon became a key commander, making his name in particular in the grueling conditions of the eastern area of the vast and sparsely populated province of Niassa. He rapidly rose up the ranks of the guerrilla army, the FPLM, and became the head of the army after the death of its first commander, Filipe Samuel Magaia, in October 1966.
Samora Michel quickly rose through the ranks, when in 1969 FRELIMO founder Eduardo Mondlane, was assassinated by a parcel bomb Samora was chosen as FRELIMO president. With Samora Michel as the President of FRELIMO, he faced direct threats from the Portuguese who didn’t want to lose Mozambique.
The new commander of the Portuguese army in Mozambique, Gen. Kaúlza de Arriaga, boasted that he would eliminate FRELIMO in a few months. He launched the largest offensive of Portugal’s colonial wars, had it not been for the courageous and smart leadership of Samora Michel, the master Mozambican liberation struggle would have continued to exist.
As luck would have it on April 25, 1974, Portuguese officers, tired of fighting three unwinnable wars in Africa, overthrew the government in Lisbon. The coup was almost bloodless. Nobody came onto the streets to defend Prime Minister Marcelo Caetano. Within 24 hours, the Armed Forces Movement (MFA) was in full control of Portugal.
Initial discussions between Frelimo and the new Portuguese government, held in Lusaka in June 1974, proved fruitless. It was clear to Machel that the Portuguese foreign minister, Socialist Party leader Mário Soares, had no power to negotiate independence.
More serious talks between the Lisbon government and Frelimo ensued, and this time the MFA played a dominant role. The result was an agreement, signed in Lusaka on September 7, 1974, which agreed to transfer full power to Frelimo with the date for independence set for June 25, 1975.
Frelimo was constitutionally the leading force in Mozambican society, and the President of Frelimo would automatically be President of Mozambique. On June 25, 1975, Machel proclaimed “the total and complete independence of Mozambique and its constitution into the People’s Republic of Mozambique”
The next episode will focus on life after independence, Samora Michel’s involvement in fighting the apartheid regime in southern Africa.
Kamukama Rukundo Clinton is a Ugandan pan-Africanist, author, and columnist for 1cananews who can be contacted via +256704393540 or rukundopeter33@gmail.com
