Home > Samora Machel

Samora was born in 1933 in the village of Chilembene , Mozambique, to a poor family. He studied in Catholic school but eventually begun to work against Portuguese colonial rule. 1962 Machel joined left-wing FRELIMO guerilla movement and received military training. He became leader of FRELIMO on 1968. On 1969 he became its president.

Mozambique became independent in the aftermath of Portugal military coup in 1974. FRELIMO took over in Mozambique in June 25 1975. Machel became the president. He advocated the formation of society based on Marxist ideals.

Machel had to face economical troubles and side effects of the Rhodesian civil war . Mozambique was economically dependent of South Africa with its hostile Apartheid government and had to fight Renamo guerilla movement they supported. Soviet economic aid was sporadic. At the same time he supported African National Congress and allowed South African and Rhodesian rebels train in Mozambique. He remained a popular ruler.

On October 19, 1986 Machel was on his way back from an international meeting in LusakaLusaka is the capital city of Zambia. It is located in south central Zambia on a plateau at 4200 feet (1 400 m) in altitude. Population 1,640,000 ( 2000) Lusaka was founded in 1905 by European settlers, at the site of a village named after the village hea in Tupolev 134 plane when the plane crashed into the hillside in the Lebombo MountainsThe Lebombo Mountains are a range of mountains in Southern Africa stretching from Hluhluwe in KwaZulu-Natal in the south to Punda Maria in the Limpopo Province in South Africa. Part of the mountains are found in South Africa, Mozambique and Swaziland.. 10 people survived but Machel and 33 others died, some of them members of his government. The accident was attributed to the error of Russian pilot but there has been speculationFor the movie, see Conspiracy Theory (movie # A conspiracy theory is a theory that defies common historical or current understanding of events, under the claim that those events are the result of manipulations by one or more secretive powers or conspiraci of complicity of South African security forces and that the plane had been intentionally diverted by a false navigational beacon signal, using a technology provided by Israeli Intelligence agents.

Machel's successor was Joaquim ChissanoJoaquim Alberto Chissano (born October 22 1939) is the president of Mozambique. Chissano was born in Chibuto village, Gaza province, Mozambique. He was involved in the Frelimo movement in the 1960s, representing the group in Paris and fighting in the guer.

His widow, Graça MachelGraca Machel is the widow of former Mozambique president Samora Machel, who died in a plane crash over South Africa in 1986, and is the current wife of former South African president Nelson Mandela. Born in rural Mozambique on 23rd October 1946, Machel at, would later marry Nelson MandelaNelson Rolihlahla Mandela OM (born 18 July, 1918) is a former President of South Africa, was one of its chief anti- apartheid activists, and was also an anti-apartheid saboteur and guerrilla leader. He is now almost universally considered to be a heroic f.