About the book
Samora Machel was born in rural Mozambique in 1933 under Portuguese colonial rule and trained as a nurse but abandoned this career to join the fledgling liberation movement Frelimo. He rose through the ranks to become secretary of defence and later president of the movement in 1969. In 1974 he assumed the presidency of the new People's Republic of Mozambique.
In 1977 Frelimo formally adopted Marxist-Leninist ideology, and its policies focused on public health, mass literacy, and organising the rural population into collective forms of production. But first white-ruled Rhodesia, and then apartheid South Africa, supported a brutal anti-government rebellion that by the mid-1980s had spread across Mozambique and decimated it. In October 1986, returning from a summit in Zambia, his plane crashed in mysterious circumstances at Mbuzini in South Africa, killing him and most of his delegation.
This Voices of Liberation: Samora Machel presents the story of Machel’s rise in the liberation movement, and his successes and failures as president of Mozambique. It does so through a biographical introduction, selected translated extracts from both formal and improvised speeches, and interviews. Machel was not a theoretician and wrote little. Nevertheless, he was a compelling orator with a command of multiple registers of Portuguese, and we hear his voice distinctly through his many speeches, and in his interviews. This is the story of an authentic African hero, a man with a vision of a more just society, who died in the service of the liberation of his people.
This book will interest historians and other researchers, academics, and the mainstream reader interested in African history and Southern Africa history in particular.
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Contents
Part 1: Locating Samora Machel
Mozambique's Political Economy, 1830s-1930s
The Late Nineteenth Century in Southern Mozambique
Labour Migration and Cultural Change
Machel’s Life Under Colonial Rule, 1933-1963
Childhood and Adolescence
A Career in Nursing 0860105194
Joining FRELIMO
From Guerrilla Trainee to Secretary of Defence
Prolonged Struggle and Political Division
The Last Phase of the Liberation Struggle
Machel as President of the People’s Republic
Machel and the Struggle for Zimbabwe
Domestic Policy and the Offensives
Internationalising the Conflict with RENAMO
The Crisis of September-October 1986
Machel’s Death at Mbuzini and its Aftermath
Part 2: The Armed Struggle, 1965-1975
A Report on Opening a Front in Eastern Niassa, November 1965
A Message to Frelimo Fighters, September 1967
Opening the Front in Tete Province, March 1968
Eulogy for Eduardo Mondlane, February 1969
Extracts from Two Reports on Eastern Niassa, April 1969
An Interview with Iain Christie, March 1972
A Conversation with Pietro Petrucci, March 1973
A Letter to Father Giuseppe Frizzi, February 1974
A Letter to the Portuguese Prime Minister, April 1975
Remarks at Base Central, Cabo Delgado, May 1975
Interview on Portuguese Television, May 1975
Remarks at a Reception in Pemba, May 1975
Brief Remarks at a Reception in Dondo, May 1975
An Interview with Aquino de Bragança, June 1975
Part 3: The Challenges of Independence, 1975-1980
Television Interview with the BBC, September 1976
An Interview with Pietro Petrucci, May 1976
A Press Conference with Mozambican Journalists, October 1977
‘The Revolution is Irreversible’, February 1978
‘All Together to the Rice Harvest’, June 1978
Meeting with Former Political Prisoners, July 1978
‘Break with Bourgeois Culture’, December 1978
‘Smith will be Defeated’, January 1979
On the Political and Organisational Offensive, March 1980
Two Interviews with Foreign Journalists, June 1980
Talking to Mozambicans Studying in Cuba, August 1980
A Conversation with Augusto de Carvalho, December 1980
Part 4: The Struggle against Destabilisation, 1981-1986
‘Army Officers Must not be Dead Weights’, April 1981
Brief Remarks on the Role of Women, April 1981
A Short Interview with a Cuban Journalist, early 1982
‘Our Sophisticated Weapon’, August 1982
Breakfast in Bissau, December 1983
What the Nkomati Accord will Achieve, April 1984
The Question of Legality, May 1984
An Interview with Joyce Sikakane, September 1984
Meeting Eusébio, February 1985
Extracts from a Speech to the VIII Non-Aligned Summit, September 1986
Part 5: The Legacy of Samora Machel and Popular Memory
Funeral Eulogy – Marcelino dos Santos, 28 October 1986
Message of Condolence from Nelson and Winnie Mandela, 28 October 1986
Conclusion
