Samora Machel Samora Moisés Machel ( September 29 , 1933 – October 19 , 1986 ) was a Mozambican military commander , revolutionary socialist leader and eventual President of Mozambique . Machel led the country from independence in 1975 until his death in 1986 , when his presidential aircraft crashed in mountainous terrain where the borders of Mozambique , Swaziland and South Africa converge . Early life . Samora Machel was born in the village of Madragoa ( today ' s Chilembene ) , Gaza Province , Portuguese East Africa ( Mozambique ) , to a family of farmers . He was a member of the Shangana ethnic group and his grandfather had been an active collaborator of Gungunhana . Under Portuguese rule , his father , like most black Mozambicans , was classified by the demeaning term " indigena " ( native ) . 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 . However , Machel ' s father was a successful farmer : he owned four plows and 400 head of cattle by 1940 . Machel grew up in this farming village and attended 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 . However , he had the prerequisite certificate to train as a nurse anywhere in Portugal at the time , since the nursing schools were not degree - conferring institutions . Machel started to study nursing in the capital city of Lourenço Marques ( today Maputo ) , beginning in 1954 . In the 1950s , he saw some of the fertile lands around his farming community on the Limpopo river appropriated by the provincial government and worked by white settlers who developed a wide range of new infrastructure for the region . Like many other Mozambicans near the southern border of Mozambique , some of his relatives went to work in the South African mines where additional job opportunities were found . Shortly afterwards , one of his brothers was killed in a mining accident . Unable to complete formal training at the Miguel Bombarda Hospital in Lourenço Marques , he got a job working as an aide in the same hospital and earned enough to continue his education at night school . He worked at the hospital until he left the country to join the Mozambican nationalist struggle in neighbouring Tanzania . Independence struggle . Machel was 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 . Machel decided to leave Lourenco Marques , when a white anti - fascist , the pharmaceutical representative Joao Ferreira , warned him that he was being watched by the Portuguese political police , the PIDE . He slipped across the border , and made his way to join FRELIMO in Dar es Salaam , via Swaziland , South Africa and Botswana . In Botswana , he hitched a lift on a plane carrying recruits of the African National Congress of South Africa to Tanzania . Impressed by the young Mozambican , a senior ANC official J . B . Marks ( according to Joe Slovo ) bumped one of the ANC recruits off the flight to let Machel on . 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 . After FRELIMO launched the independence war , 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 . Frelimo ’ s founder and first president , Eduardo Mondlane , was assassinated by a parcel bomb on February 3 , 1969 . His deputy , Rev Uria Simango , expected to take over – but instead the FRELIMO Executive Committee appointed a presidential triumvirate , consisting of Simango , Machel and veteran nationalist and poet Marcelino dos Santos . Simango soon broke ranks , and denounced the rest of the FRELIMO leadership in the pamphlet “ Gloomy Situation in Frelimo ” . This led to Simango ' s expulsion from the liberation front , and the election , in 1970 , of Machel as Frelimo President , with dos Santos as Deputy President . 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 , Operation Gordian Knot , in 1970 , concentrating on what was regarded as the FRELIMO heartland of Cabo Delgado in the far north . Kaúlza de Arriaga boasted of destroying a large number of guerrilla bases – but since such a base was just a collection of huts , the military significance of such supposed victories was dubious . Machel reacted by shifting the focus of the war elsewhere , stepping up FRELIMO operations in the western province of Tete . This was where a massive dam was being built at Cahora Bassa , on the Zambezi , to sell electricity to South Africa . Fearful that FRELIMO would attack the dam site , the Portuguese set up three concentric rings of defence around Cahora Bassa . This denuded the rest of Tete province of troops , and in 1972 FRELIMO crossed the Zambezi , striking further and further south . By 1973 , FRELIMO units were operating in Manica and Sofala Province and began to hit the railway from Rhodesia to Beira , causing panic among the settler population of Beira , who accused the Portuguese army of not doing enough to defend white interests . The end came suddenly . 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 . Independence . Frelimo ’ s immediate warning was that there was no such thing as democratic colonialism , and that nobody should imagine that Mozambicans would tolerate Portuguese rule just because there had been a change of government in Lisbon . Frelimo ’ s fears were well - founded . The MFA allowed General Antonio de Spinola to become the first post - coup President . He had been commander of the Portuguese forces in Guinea - Bissau , and was believed to be deeply implicated in the assassination of the Guinean nationalist leader , Amílcar Cabral . Spinola had no intention of letting Mozambique and Angola go . He dreamed of a Lusophone commonwealth run from Lisbon , and wanted a referendum on independence . Machel rejected such plans with the pithy remark “ You don ’ t ask a slave if he wants to be free , particularly when he is already in revolt , and much less if you happen to be a slave - owner ” . 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 Mario Soares , had no power to negotiate independence . So Machel sent one of his top advisers , Aquino de Braganca , to Lisbon to find out who really held power in Portugal . His answer was that Frelimo should really be talking to the MFA , particular to military intellectuals such as Col . Ernesto Melo Antunes , whose power was on the rise , as that of Spinola waned . Machel refused to give the Portuguese the ceasefire they wanted . For as long as there was no commitment to Mozambican independence , the war would continue . Frelimo re - opened its front in Zambezia province , and stepped up operations throughout the war zone . There was little resistance . Following the collapse of the Caetano government , rank and file Portuguese soldiers saw little point in continuing to fight , preferring to stay in their barracks . 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 . That day there was a short lived settler revolt against the agreement , put down within a day by Portuguese and Frelimo troops acting jointly . A transitional government was set up , containing ministers appointed by both Frelimo and Portugal , but headed by Frelimo ’ s Joaquim Chissano as Prime Minister . Machel continued to run Frelimo from Tanzania . He returned home triumphantly , in a journey “ from the Rovuma to the Maputo ” ( the rivers marking the northern and southern boundaries of the country ) , in which he addressed rallies in every major population centre in the country . The journey was interrupted at the beach resort of Tofo , in Inhambane Province , for a meeting of the Frelimo Central Committee , which drew up Mozambique ’ s first Constitution . This gave the outline of the one - party , socialist state which Frelimo intended to establish . 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 ” . This , Machel said , would be " a state of People ' s Democracy , in which , under the leadership of the worker - peasant alliance , all patriotic strata commit themselves to the destruction of the sequels of colonialism , and to annihiliate the system of exploitation of man by man " . Machel ’ s government moved quickly to bring key areas under state control . All land was nationalized – individuals and institutions could not hold land , but leased it from the state . On July 24 , 1975 , just a month after independence , all health and education institutions were nationalized . National health and education services were set up , and all private schools and clinics were abolished . The Catholic Church immediately lost the privileged position it had held in these areas . On February 3 , 1976 , the government nationalized all rented housing . “ Landlords ? What do we want landlords for in our country for ? ” , asked Machel at the rally announcing the measure . Private ownership of houses was not banned . Anyone , Mozambican or foreign , could own a house for their own use - but building private property for rent was forbidden . This changed the face of Mozambican cities – black Mozambicans moved from the suburbs into blocks in the centre of the cities , occupying houses and flats , once owned by Portuguese landlords , and many of which had now been abandoned . In February 1977 , at its 3rd Congress , Frelimo declared that it was now a Marxist - leninist party , dedicated to the building of socialism , based on the “ worker - peasant alliance ” . The Congress re - elected Machel as President of Frelimo , and thus automatically as President of the Republic . Frelimo was reorganized into “ celulas ” ( branches ) throughout the county . The party was to be a Leninist vanguard , and state institutions , at whatever level , were to be subordinate to the party . In 1978 elections were held . Since this wa a one - party state , there as no organized opposition . Instead candidates were presented by Frelimo at meetings – and were sometimes rejected when people complained of offences ranging from wife - beating and drunkenness to acting as an informer for the PIDE during the colonial government . Frelimo faced a hostile environment , with the white minority governments of Ian Smith ’ s Rhodesia and apartheid South Africa on Mozambique ’ s borders . In March 1976 , Machel ’ s government implemented United Nations sanctions against the Smith government , and closed the borders with Rhodesia . In retaliation , Smith ’ s Central Intelligence Organisation ( CIO ) recruited dissatisfied Mozambicans and former Portuguese settlers and helped set up an anti - Frelimo movement . Initially this “ Mozambique National Resistance ” operated as an auxiliary branch of the Rhodesian armed forces . Frelimo dismissed them as “ armed bandits ” . As part of the repressive measures accompanying the new Frelimo government , Machel introduced " reeducation centers " in which petty criminals , political opponents , and alleged anti - social elements such as prostitutes were imprisoned , often without trial . These were later described by foreign observers as " infamous centers of torture and death . " It is estimated that 30 , 000 inmates died in these camps . Rhodesian Bush War . Frelimo had longstanding links with Zimbabwean nationalist movements . Even during the independence war , guerrillas of ZANLA ( Zimbabwean African National Liberation Army ) , the armed wing of ZANU ( Zimbabwe African National Union ) , were able to operate from Frelimo - held areas in Tete province into northern Zimbabwe . After the implementation of the UN sanctions against the Rhodesian government , the entire length of the border was now available for nationalist incursions into Zimbabwe . ZANU leader Robert Mugabe , released from a Rhodesian jail in 1974 , made his way into Mozambique the following year . Initially Machel was suspicious of the apparent coup within ZANU that had brought Mugabe to power , and he was effectively rusticated to the central city of Quelimane , where he taught English . Tired of the divisions within Zimbabwean nationalism , Machel sponsored an alternative to both ZANU and its rival ZAPU . This was the Zimbabwean People ’ s Amy ( ZIPA ) , which took credit for many operations in eastern Zimbabwe , and was enthusiastically promoted by the Mozambican media . But it soon turned out that the dominant force within ZIPA were ZANLA guerrllas who had never abandoned their loyalty to ZANU and to Mugabe . Machel accepted the reality that the people doing most of the fighting in Zimbabwe were ZANLA . To bring the war to a successful conclusion , Machel embarked on a dual strategy , military and diplomatic . He sent Mozambican units into Zimbabwe to fight alongside ZANU guerrillas , while also insisting that the new British Conservative government , under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher , should resume its responsibilities as the colonial power . The British government hosted a conference at Lancaster House , London , aimed at ending the Smith government and drawing up a constitution for an independent Zimbabwe . Mozambicans , notably Machel ’ s British - trained advisor , Fernando Honwana , were in London to advise the ZANU delegation – and ensured that Mugabe accepted the Lancaster House deal , despite its failure to solve the land question , with a small minority of white commercial farmers still holding most of the fertile land . Machel , with his own intelligence teams on the ground , was certain that ZANU would win any fair election . Indeed , ZANU won 57 of the 80 seats reserved for black Zimbabweans , while the second nationalist movement , ZAPU , won 20 . Smith ' s Rhodesian Front took the 20 seats , which Mugabe had reluctantly agreed to allocate to the whites . Machel was fully aware of the dangerous ethnic divisions in Zimbabwe , with ZANU drawing most of its support from Shona - speakers , and ZAPU from the minority Ndebele people . On his first state visit to Zimbabwe , in 1980 , Machel gave a prescient warning : " To ensure national unity , there must be no Shonas in Zimbabwe , there must be no Ndebeles in Zimbabwe , there must be Zimbabweans . Some people are proud of their tribalism . But we call tribalists reactionary agents of the enemy " . Civil War . However in his own country in 1977 a rebel army known as RENAMO launched a rebellion backed by Rhodesia . Following the collapse of Smith ' s government the rebel force began to receive principal backing from South African Military Intelligence . It was initially known as the RNM ( translated into English as MNR ) , but as from 2003 adopted the more euphonic acronym Renamo , as if it were fighting Frelimo on the linguistic as well as the military battleground . During the 1980s the South African government took an inceasingly hostile attitude to the Front Line States . Mozambique in particular was accused of harbouring military bases of the African National Congress . On June 30 , 1981 , South African commandos attacked three houses in the southern city of Matola , killing 12 ANC members as well as a Portuguese electrician . While those killed were members of the ANC ' s armed wing , Umkhonto we Sizwe ( MK - Spear of he Nation ) , the houses were not a guerrilla base , as visiting diplomats and journalists soon confirmed . A fortnight later , Machel flung down the gauntlet . At a rally in Maputo ’ s independence square , he embraced ANC leader Oliver Tambo and declared " They want to come here and commit murder . So we say : Let them come ! Let all the racists come ! . . . Let the South Africans come , but let them be clear that the war will end in Pretoria ! . But Frelimo had underestimated its enemies , and the military situation deteriorated steadily . Helped by weapons airdropped by the South African Defence Force ( SADF ) , Renamo spread its operations across the entire country apart from the far north . Frelimo reacted with a series of authoritarian measures , some of which deeply shocked its supporters inside and outside the country . The death penalty , already in force for serious security offences , was now extended to a range of economic crimes . In addition , corporal punishment was imposed as a penalty for a range of offences . Both laws fell into disuse within a year or so , but had done severe damage to Frelimo ’ s image . It is widely believed that , at about this time , former Frelimo officials regarded as “ traitors ” were executed , including Simango and his wife Celina . To this day , Frelimo has published nothing about the circumstances of the execution , though in the Mozambican parliament , in 1995 , former security minister Sergio Vieira publicly confirmed “ the traitors were executed ” . Renamo supporters published colourful versions claiming that the executions happened in 1977 , but a date of 1983 seems more likely . In either case , this violated a promise which Machel gave to the Tanzanian and Zambian Presidents , Julius Nyerere and Kenneth Kaunda in 1975 . At the Frelimo Fourth Congress , in April 1983 , Frelimo reaffirmed its commitment to Marxism , but admitted economic mistakes , particularly in agriculture . Machel was re - elected President of Frelimo , and once again warmly embraced Oliver Tambo . But the deteriorating military and economic situation drove Frelimo to give the apartheid government what it said it wanted – a non - aggression pact . On March 16 , 1984 on a railway carriage in the non - man ’ s land between South Africa and Mozambique , Machel and South African President P . W . Botha signed the Nkomati Accord on Non - Aggression and Good Neighbourliness . The deal expressed in the agreement was extremely simple – South Africa would drop its support for Renamo in exchange for Mozambique dropping support for the ANC . Machel only partially honoured commitments to expel various ANC members from his territory . South African support for Renamo did not stop – massive shipments of arms were airlifted to Renamo immediately prior to the Accord , and a senior South African official , Deputy Foreign Minister Louis Nel , even visited the Renamo base at Casa Banana in Gorongosa district , using an airstrip which South Africa had helped Renamo build . In mid - 1985 , the Mozambican and Zimbabwean armed forces launched a joint offensive to drive Renamo out of Gorongosa . Zimbabwean paratroopers ensured the capture of Casa Banana , but Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama fled north , and re - established the Renamo HQ in the district of Maringue . Visiting Casa Banana on September 5 , Machel was optimistic . “ We have broken the back of the snake , but the tail will still thrash around ” , he said . But in fact , the war continued , although its focus shifted northwards to Zambezi and Tete provinces , with Renamo operating with impunity out of Malawi . Machel loathed the Malawian “ life President ” Hastings Kamuza Banda , who was the only leader of an independent African state who had established diplomatic relations with Pretoria . After an unsuccessful meeting with Banda , Machel openly threatened to place missiles on the Mozambique - Malawi border and to prevent trade from landlocked Malawi passing through Mozambican territory . Fatal aircrash and investigations . On October 19 , 1986 , Machel attended a summit in Mbala , Zambia , called to put pressure on Zairean dictator Mobutu Sese Seko , over his support for the Angolan opposition movement UNITA . The strategy of the Front Line States was to move against Mobutu and Banda in an attempt to end their support for UNITA and Renamo , who they regarded as South African surrogates . Although the Zambian authorities invited Machel to stay in Mbala overnight , he insisted on returning to Maputo . He had a meeting scheduled for the following morning at which he intended to reshuffle the leadership of the armed forces . Machel thus overrode the instruction from the Security Ministry that the President should not travel at night – with fatal consequences . The plane never reached Maputo . That night it crashed into a hillside at Mbuzini , just inside South Africa . Machel and 33 others died . Nine people sitting at the back of the plane survived . The Margo Commission , set up by the South African government , but which included high - level international representation , investigated the incident and concluded that the accident was caused by pilot error . Despite the acceptance of its findings by the International Civil Aviation Organization , the report was rejected by the Mozambican and Soviet governments . The latter submitted a minority report suggesting that the aircraft was intentionally lured off course by a decoy radio navigation beacon set up specifically for this purpose by the South Africans . Speculation about the accident has therefore continued to the present day , particularly in Mozambique . Hans Louw , a Civil Cooperation Bureau operative , claims to have assisted in Machel ' s death . Pik Botha , South African foreign affairs minister at the time , who later joined the ANC , said that the investigation into the plane crash should be re - opened . The Portuguese journalist José Milhazes , who lives in Moscow since 1977 and currently works for the Portuguese newspaper " Público " and as a correspondent for the Portuguese television chain " SIC " , sustains that the plane crash had nothing to do with any attempt or any mechanical failure , but was due to several errors of the Russian crew ( including the pilot ) , who , instead of diligently performing their duties , were busy with futile things , like sharing alcoholic and soft drinks unavailable in Mozambique that they had had the possibility to bring from Zambia . In Milhazes ' opinion , both the Soviet and the Mozambican authorities had an interest to spread the thesis of an attempt by the South - African government : the Soviets wanted to safeguard their reputation ( exempting the plane and the crew from any responsibility ) , the Mozambicans wanted to create a hero . In 2007 , however , Jacinto Veloso , one of Machel ' s most unconditional supporters within Frelimo , had sustained in his memoirs that Machel ' s death was due to a conspiracy between the South African and the Soviet secret services , both of which had reasons to get rid of him . According to Veloso , the Soviet ambassador once asked the President for an audience to convey the USSR ' s concern about Mozambique ' s apparent " sliding away " towards the West , to which Machel supposedly replied " " Vai à merda ! " " ( Eat shit ! ) . Having then commanded the interpreter to translate , he left the room . Convinced that Machel had irrevocably moved away from their orbit , the Soviets allegedly did not hesitate to sacrifice the pilot and the whole crew of their own plane . Marriages and family life . In the late 1950s , when Machel was working as a nurse on Inhaca Island , he met a local girl , Sorita Tchaiakomo , and set up house with her . Their first child , Joscelina , was born on Inhaca in 1958 . Idelson ( 1959 ) and Olívia ( 1961 ) were both born after the family returned to the mainland , where they lived in Mafalala , a suburb of Lourenço Marques . Machel returned to the Miguel Bombarda Hospital and was accepted onto a course of further training . At the hospital he began a relationship with another nurse , Irene Buque . She gave birth to their daughter Ornila in February 1963 , three weeks before Machel left Mozambique to join Frelimo . N ’ tewane , Tchaiakomo ’ s fourth child with Machel , was born that September , six months after Machel had left the country . Later , Machel expressed remorse for what he had come to see as bad behaviour towards Sorita and Irene . Machel was not married to either Tchaiakomo or Buque . When he joined Frelimo in 1963 it was widely believed that the war for independence would last years , if not decades , and that the chances of Frelimo cadres being reunited with their families in Mozambique were vanishingly small . Josina Abiatar Muthemba , who had been active in the anti - colonial student organisation NESAM , arrived in Tanzania in 1965 , on her second attempt to flee Mozambique . In Tanzania she worked first as an assistant to Janet Mondlane , Eduardo Mondlane ' s wife and director of the Mozambique Institute . She became one of the earliest recruits to the Women ’ s Detachment of the guerrilla army , and campaigned vigorously for women ’ s full inclusion within all aspects of the liberation struggle . She and Machel were married at Tunduru in southern Tanzania in May 1969 . In November their only son Samora , known as Samito , was born . Josina returned to work as head of Social Affairs , with special responsibility for the welfare of war orphans , and for the health and education of all children in the war zones of northern Mozambique . But she felt increasingly unwell . In 1970 she travelled to the Soviet Union to seek a diagnosis for her chronic ill - health , but to no avail . She was probably suffering from leukaemia , although pancreatic cancer is another possibility . She died on April 7 , 1971 , aged twenty - five . Machel was devastated . Machel ’ s second wife , Graça Simbine , joined Frelimo in 1973 after graduating in modern languages from Lisbon University . She worked as a teacher , first in Frelimo - held areas in Cabo Delgado province , and then at the Frelimo school in Tanzania . She became Minister for Education and Culture in newly independent Mozambique . She and Machel were married three months after Independence , in September 1975 . In April 1976 a daughter , Josina , was born , and in December 1978 a son , Malengane . ( Sopa , Antonio ( ed ) , Samora : Man of the People , Maputo 2001 ) At Independence Machel ’ s five older children joined Josina Machel ’ s son Samito in the Presidential household . In 1998 , twelve years after Samora Machel ' s death , Graça Machel married Nelson Mandela , President of South Africa , thus becoming the only woman to have been First Lady of two African countries . Legacy . Memorial . A memorial at the Mbuzini crash site was inaugurated on January 19 , 1999 , by Nelson Mandela and his wife Graça , and by President Joaquim Chissano of Mozambique . Now the monument is made professional and the memorial service is held on October 19 each year . Designed by Mozambican architect José Forjaz , at a cost to the South African government of 1 . 5 million Rand ( US $ 300 , 000 ) , the monument comprises 35 steel tubes symbolising the number of lives lost in the air crash . At least eight foreigners were killed there , including the four Soviet crew members , Machel ' s two Cuban doctors and the Zambian and Zairean ambassadors to Mozambique . One of the largest streets in Harare , the capital of Zimbabwe , was renamed Samora Machel Avenue ( from Jameson Avenue ) after independence in a gesture of gratitude for Machel ' s support for black liberation activities before majority rule . Also , a street in Moscow bears his name and the Zimbabwean band R . U . N . N . family had a hit song that mourned his loss .