Josina Machel (FRELIMO)
Encyclopedia
Josina Muthemba Machel is a major heroine in the history of Mozambique
. She was born with a twin brother, Belmiro, in Vilanculos, Inhambane, Mozambique on August 10, 1945 into a family of 5 sisters and 3 brothers. Her grandfather was a lay Presbyterian evangelist who preached nationalism and cultural identity against European assimilation. Her father worked as a nurse in government hospitals and this required him to periodically move the family to accommodate his job transfers. At one time or another, Josina, her father, two of her sisters, and two uncles were all jailed as a result of their participation in clandestine opposition to the Portuguese colonial administration. She became a key figure in the Mozambican struggle for independence, promoted the emancipation of African women, married the man who would become the country’s first president, and died at the age of 25 years.
, a school for the children of Portuguese and assimilated African families. Two years later her father is transferred to the town of João Belo, and Josina enrolls in the school “Mouzinho de Albuquerque” in the nearby town of Xai-Xai
. Finishing 4th grade, Josina has exhausted the options for local schooling and is obliged to move to the capital city of Lourenço Marques
in order to continue her education. There she lives with her grandmother.
. They manage to travel as far as the border between Rhodesia
(now Zimbabwe) and Zambia
at Victoria Falls
, a distance of some 800 miles, when they were apprehended, returned to the police in Lourenço Marques, and jailed. Five months later, in the month of her 19th birthday, Josina was released from jail as a result of an international campaign carried out by FRELIMO. She resumed attending secondary school, but she was watched by police agents.
Four months afterwards Josina fled Mozambique for a second time, again with a group of fellow students. From this point, Josina never saw any member of her family again. The group seeks asylum in Swaziland
, where they are put in a refugee camp. With the help of a local Presbyterian pastor, also a FRELIMO sympathizer, Josina and three others are able to escape from the camp just as it is rumored that they are to be turned over to the Portuguese authorities. Traveling first by car, then by foot, and finally by bus, the four students arrive in Johannesburg
, South Africa
. There they make contact with a FRELIMO version of the underground railroad
. Next the group traveled by truck to Francistown
, Botswana
where they joined 14 others who are also seeking to get to Tanzania. Here they were declared “undesirable visitors” by the British colonial authorities and arrangements are made to deport them all to Swaziland. Following intense international publicity involving the Organization of African Unity and the United Nations, FRELIMO leader Eduardo Mondlane
succeeded in persuading the British authorities to release the 18 students and allow them to proceed to Tanzania. The group is accordingly handed over to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees which arranged for them to travel to Lusaka
, Zambia. There they spend several days in a refugee camp until they are turned over to a FRELIMO representative. After a long, arduous trip in public buses, the group finally arrives weak and undernourished in Dar es Salaam
, Tanzania. All together, Josina has traveled nearly 2,000 miles from her home.
. She began work at the Mozambique Institute, a residential education center for Mozambican students in Tanzania, as assistant to the director. The director is Janet Mondlane
, the American born wife of FRELIMO president Eduardo Mondlane. A year and a half later, Josina turns down the offer of a scholarship to undertake university studies in Switzerland and volunteers for FRELIMO’s newly created Women’s Branch (Destacamento Feminino). The Women’s Branch is tasked with providing women with political and military training in order that they may be fully integrated into the liberation struggle. This initiative is little short of extraordinary in view of the fact that gender equality goes strongly against traditional African cultural norms.
Josina subsequently became one of 25 young women to go through three months of military training at Nachingweya in the liberated area of Cabo Delgado in northern Mozambique. Samora Machel
, the future first president of Mozambique and Josina’s future husband, serves as the director of this training center.
Afterwards, Josina and other women combatants combine defensive roles in guarding supplies and facilitites behind the lines of combat with community organizing roles in which they explain FRELIMO’s history, goals, and purposes to the local liberated populations in the effort to win their moral and material support. This division of labor frees up additional men for direct military actions.
During 1968 the Women’s Branch evolves into a de facto social services program for FRELIMO in the liberated areas. It organizes health centers, schools, and child care centers. It helps families whose homes have been destroyed, and provides emotional support to wounded soldiers and peasant families traumatized by the warfare. Josina plays a visionary role in identifying the need for child care centers to look after children who have been orphaned or separated from their families by the war.
In mid-1968 Josina is named a delegate to the Second FRELIMO Congress where she is a strong advocate for the full inclusion of women within all aspects of the liberation struggle. She is then appointed head of the Women’s Section in FRELIMO’s Department of International Relations. In this position she travels periodically to international meetings on women’s rights and the role of women in development where she uses examples of FRELIMO experiences to advocate for women’s equal participation in all aspects of the development process. She is now 24 years old.
1969 proves an eventful year for Josina. She is appointed head of FRELIMO’s Department of Social Affairs where she actively develops child care and educational centers in northern Mozambique and advocates with local populations for the importance of sending girls to school. When FRELIMO President Eduardo Mondlane is assassinated in Tanzania by Portuguese agents, Josina moves in with his wife, Janet, to provide comfort and company. In May she marries Samora Machel at the Educational Center of Tunduru
in southern Tanzania, a facility she had helped to develop. At the end of November, Josina and Samora’s only child, named Samora Junior and called Samito, is born.
During 1970 Josina begins to suffer from stomach pains and weakness. She travels to Moscow for medical attention. The apparent diagnosis is liver cancer. Rest and a strict diet are recommended, but Josina returns to her duties with FRELIMO. At the end of the year, she leaves Samito with a friend and undertakes a two month trip, largely on foot, through Niassa Province to assess conditions and plan activities for the Department of Social Affairs.
In March 1971 Josina traveled again, this time to Cabo Delgado, to evaluate social programs being implemented there. During the marches she struggles with chronic fatigue and exhaustion. Yet at one point she leads a meeting of more than 1,000 persons. Tired and very thin, she decides to return to Dar es Salaam at the beginning of April. As she crosses the border into Tanzania, she hands her pistol to a companion and says, “Comrades, I can continue no longer. Give this to the military commander of the province so that it may contribute to the salvation of the Mozambican people.”
In Dar es Salaam, Josina becomes seriously ill on April 5. She was taken to Muhimbili Hospital and died on April 7, 1971 at the age of 25 years. She was buried in Kinondoni Cemetery
where her uncle Mateus Muthemba, who was assassinated by Portuguese agents in 1968, is also interred.
A year later, FRELIMO declared April 7, the day of Josina’s death, as National Women’s Day in Mozambique. In March 1973 FRELIMO established the National Organization of Mozambican Women as the movement’s social and political arm for women. Inspired in part by the ideals of women’s emancipation that Machel promoted, the organization continued to work for this goal following Mozambican independence in 1975. A number of Josina’s sisters in arms went on to play important leadership roles in this organization and in government. The principal secondary school in the capital city is named after her.
Mozambique
Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique , is a country in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west and Swaziland and South Africa to the southwest...
. She was born with a twin brother, Belmiro, in Vilanculos, Inhambane, Mozambique on August 10, 1945 into a family of 5 sisters and 3 brothers. Her grandfather was a lay Presbyterian evangelist who preached nationalism and cultural identity against European assimilation. Her father worked as a nurse in government hospitals and this required him to periodically move the family to accommodate his job transfers. At one time or another, Josina, her father, two of her sisters, and two uncles were all jailed as a result of their participation in clandestine opposition to the Portuguese colonial administration. She became a key figure in the Mozambican struggle for independence, promoted the emancipation of African women, married the man who would become the country’s first president, and died at the age of 25 years.
Early Years
At age 7, Josina entered the primary school “Dom João de Castro” in Mocímboa da PraiaMocimboa da Praia
Mocimboa da Praia is a port in northern Mozambique, lying on the Indian Ocean coast, located in Cabo Delgado Province. It is a border post for travel to and from Tanzania and is the seat of Mocímboa da Praia District.-History:...
, a school for the children of Portuguese and assimilated African families. Two years later her father is transferred to the town of João Belo, and Josina enrolls in the school “Mouzinho de Albuquerque” in the nearby town of Xai-Xai
Xai-Xai
Xai-Xai is a city in the south of Mozambique. It is the capital of Gaza Province. As of 2007 it has a population of 116,343 -Portuguese rule:...
. Finishing 4th grade, Josina has exhausted the options for local schooling and is obliged to move to the capital city of Lourenço Marques
Maputo
Maputo, also known as Lourenço Marques, is the capital and largest city of Mozambique. It is known as the City of Acacias in reference to acacia trees commonly found along its avenues and the Pearl of the Indian Ocean. It was famous for the inscription "This is Portugal" on the walkway of its...
in order to continue her education. There she lives with her grandmother.
Teenage Years
In 1958, now 13 years old, Josina entered the commercial school “Dr. Azevedo e Silva” to pursue an interest in accounting. Two years later, she joined the Nucleo dos Estudantes Secondários de Moçambique (Mozambican Secondary Students Group), which encourages cultural identity and political awareness among secondary students. Then abruptly in March 1964 she fled the country with several other students (including Armando Emilio Guebuza with the intention of joining the Mozambican Liberation Front (FRELIMO), which is based in TanzaniaTanzania
The United Republic of Tanzania is a country in East Africa bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique to the south. The country's eastern borders lie on the Indian Ocean.Tanzania is a state...
. They manage to travel as far as the border between Rhodesia
Rhodesia
Rhodesia , officially the Republic of Rhodesia from 1970, was an unrecognised state located in southern Africa that existed between 1965 and 1979 following its Unilateral Declaration of Independence from the United Kingdom on 11 November 1965...
(now Zimbabwe) and Zambia
Zambia
Zambia , officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. The neighbouring countries are the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia to the south, and Angola to the west....
at Victoria Falls
Victoria Falls
The Victoria Falls or Mosi-oa-Tunya is a waterfall located in southern Africa on the Zambezi River between the countries of Zambia and Zimbabwe.-Introduction:...
, a distance of some 800 miles, when they were apprehended, returned to the police in Lourenço Marques, and jailed. Five months later, in the month of her 19th birthday, Josina was released from jail as a result of an international campaign carried out by FRELIMO. She resumed attending secondary school, but she was watched by police agents.
Four months afterwards Josina fled Mozambique for a second time, again with a group of fellow students. From this point, Josina never saw any member of her family again. The group seeks asylum in Swaziland
Swaziland
Swaziland, officially the Kingdom of Swaziland , and sometimes called Ngwane or Swatini, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa, bordered to the north, south and west by South Africa, and to the east by Mozambique...
, where they are put in a refugee camp. With the help of a local Presbyterian pastor, also a FRELIMO sympathizer, Josina and three others are able to escape from the camp just as it is rumored that they are to be turned over to the Portuguese authorities. Traveling first by car, then by foot, and finally by bus, the four students arrive in Johannesburg
Johannesburg
Johannesburg also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa...
, South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
. There they make contact with a FRELIMO version of the underground railroad
Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad was an informal network of secret routes and safe houses used by 19th-century black slaves in the United States to escape to free states and Canada with the aid of abolitionists and allies who were sympathetic to their cause. The term is also applied to the abolitionists,...
. Next the group traveled by truck to Francistown
Francistown
Francistown or Nyangabgwe is the second largest city in Botswana, with a population of about 85,363, and often described as the "Capital of the North". It is located in eastern Botswana, about north-northeast from the capital, Gaborone...
, Botswana
Botswana
Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana , is a landlocked country located in Southern Africa. The citizens are referred to as "Batswana" . Formerly the British protectorate of Bechuanaland, Botswana adopted its new name after becoming independent within the Commonwealth on 30 September 1966...
where they joined 14 others who are also seeking to get to Tanzania. Here they were declared “undesirable visitors” by the British colonial authorities and arrangements are made to deport them all to Swaziland. Following intense international publicity involving the Organization of African Unity and the United Nations, FRELIMO leader Eduardo Mondlane
Eduardo Mondlane
Eduardo Chivambo Mondlane served as President of the Mozambican Liberation Front from 1962, the year that FRELIMO was founded in Tanzania, until his assassination in 1969.-Early life:...
succeeded in persuading the British authorities to release the 18 students and allow them to proceed to Tanzania. The group is accordingly handed over to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees which arranged for them to travel to Lusaka
Lusaka
Lusaka is the capital and largest city of Zambia. It is located in the southern part of the central plateau, at an elevation of about 1,300 metres . It has a population of about 1.7 million . It is a commercial centre as well as the centre of government, and the four main highways of Zambia head...
, Zambia. There they spend several days in a refugee camp until they are turned over to a FRELIMO representative. After a long, arduous trip in public buses, the group finally arrives weak and undernourished in Dar es Salaam
Dar es Salaam
Dar es Salaam , formerly Mzizima, is the largest city in Tanzania. It is also the country's richest city and a regionally important economic centre. Dar es Salaam is actually an administrative province within Tanzania, and consists of three local government areas or administrative districts: ...
, Tanzania. All together, Josina has traveled nearly 2,000 miles from her home.
In the liberation struggle
As she reached her 20th birthday, Josina was immediately assigned responsibilities within FRELIMO’s multifaceted quest for national independenceMozambican War of Independence
The Mozambican War of Independence was an armed conflict between the guerrilla forces of the Mozambique Liberation Front or FRELIMO , and Portugal...
. She began work at the Mozambique Institute, a residential education center for Mozambican students in Tanzania, as assistant to the director. The director is Janet Mondlane
Janet Mondlane
Janet Mondlane and her husband, Eduardo Chivambo Mondlane were the founders of Frelimo and helped organize the liberation of Mozambique from the Portuguese colonialists.Janet was born in 1935 in Illinois, and was raised in a middle-upper class American family...
, the American born wife of FRELIMO president Eduardo Mondlane. A year and a half later, Josina turns down the offer of a scholarship to undertake university studies in Switzerland and volunteers for FRELIMO’s newly created Women’s Branch (Destacamento Feminino). The Women’s Branch is tasked with providing women with political and military training in order that they may be fully integrated into the liberation struggle. This initiative is little short of extraordinary in view of the fact that gender equality goes strongly against traditional African cultural norms.
Josina subsequently became one of 25 young women to go through three months of military training at Nachingweya in the liberated area of Cabo Delgado in northern Mozambique. Samora Machel
Samora Machel
Samora Moisés Machel was a Mozambican military commander, revolutionary socialist leader and eventual President of Mozambique...
, the future first president of Mozambique and Josina’s future husband, serves as the director of this training center.
Afterwards, Josina and other women combatants combine defensive roles in guarding supplies and facilitites behind the lines of combat with community organizing roles in which they explain FRELIMO’s history, goals, and purposes to the local liberated populations in the effort to win their moral and material support. This division of labor frees up additional men for direct military actions.
During 1968 the Women’s Branch evolves into a de facto social services program for FRELIMO in the liberated areas. It organizes health centers, schools, and child care centers. It helps families whose homes have been destroyed, and provides emotional support to wounded soldiers and peasant families traumatized by the warfare. Josina plays a visionary role in identifying the need for child care centers to look after children who have been orphaned or separated from their families by the war.
In mid-1968 Josina is named a delegate to the Second FRELIMO Congress where she is a strong advocate for the full inclusion of women within all aspects of the liberation struggle. She is then appointed head of the Women’s Section in FRELIMO’s Department of International Relations. In this position she travels periodically to international meetings on women’s rights and the role of women in development where she uses examples of FRELIMO experiences to advocate for women’s equal participation in all aspects of the development process. She is now 24 years old.
1969 proves an eventful year for Josina. She is appointed head of FRELIMO’s Department of Social Affairs where she actively develops child care and educational centers in northern Mozambique and advocates with local populations for the importance of sending girls to school. When FRELIMO President Eduardo Mondlane is assassinated in Tanzania by Portuguese agents, Josina moves in with his wife, Janet, to provide comfort and company. In May she marries Samora Machel at the Educational Center of Tunduru
Tunduru
Tunduru is one of the 5 districts of the Ruvuma Region of Tanzania. It is bordered to the North by the Lindi Region, to the East by the Mtwara Region, to the South by Mozambique and to the West by the Namtumbo District....
in southern Tanzania, a facility she had helped to develop. At the end of November, Josina and Samora’s only child, named Samora Junior and called Samito, is born.
During 1970 Josina begins to suffer from stomach pains and weakness. She travels to Moscow for medical attention. The apparent diagnosis is liver cancer. Rest and a strict diet are recommended, but Josina returns to her duties with FRELIMO. At the end of the year, she leaves Samito with a friend and undertakes a two month trip, largely on foot, through Niassa Province to assess conditions and plan activities for the Department of Social Affairs.
In March 1971 Josina traveled again, this time to Cabo Delgado, to evaluate social programs being implemented there. During the marches she struggles with chronic fatigue and exhaustion. Yet at one point she leads a meeting of more than 1,000 persons. Tired and very thin, she decides to return to Dar es Salaam at the beginning of April. As she crosses the border into Tanzania, she hands her pistol to a companion and says, “Comrades, I can continue no longer. Give this to the military commander of the province so that it may contribute to the salvation of the Mozambican people.”
In Dar es Salaam, Josina becomes seriously ill on April 5. She was taken to Muhimbili Hospital and died on April 7, 1971 at the age of 25 years. She was buried in Kinondoni Cemetery
Kinondoni
Kinondoni District is the northernmost of three districts in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, the others being Temeke and Ilala . To the east is the Indian Ocean, to the north and west the Pwani Region of Tanzania. The 2002 Tanzanian National Census showed that the population of Kinondoni was 1,083,913...
where her uncle Mateus Muthemba, who was assassinated by Portuguese agents in 1968, is also interred.
A year later, FRELIMO declared April 7, the day of Josina’s death, as National Women’s Day in Mozambique. In March 1973 FRELIMO established the National Organization of Mozambican Women as the movement’s social and political arm for women. Inspired in part by the ideals of women’s emancipation that Machel promoted, the organization continued to work for this goal following Mozambican independence in 1975. A number of Josina’s sisters in arms went on to play important leadership roles in this organization and in government. The principal secondary school in the capital city is named after her.