Josina Machel
Josina Abiathar Muthemba Machel (born August 10, 1945 in Vilankulo , Inhambane Province , Portuguese East Africa , † April 7, 1971 in Dar es Salaam , Tanzania ) was a Mozambican feminist and resistance fighter . Machel rose quickly within the resistance organization FRELIMO and developed into the feminist icon of the Mozambican liberation struggle.
Life
Youth and education
Josina Muthemba was born into a family of five sisters and three brothers in Vilanculos ( Inhambane Province ) on the coast of southern Mozambique. Her father worked as a nurse in state hospitals, which resulted in the family having to move regularly within the colony. Her family had the "assimilated" status (assimilados) , so that Muthemba was allowed to enjoy an education.
At the age of seven, Muthemba began her schooling at the Escola Primária Dom João de Castro in Mocímboa da Praia ( Cabo Delgado province ). Two years later, the family moved south to João Belo (now Xai-Xai), where they attended the Escola Primária Mouzinho de Albuquerque . After completing the 4th grade there were no further opportunities for on-site training, so Muthemba moved to the capital Lourenço Marques (now Maputo) to live with her grandmother and attend secondary school.
Engagement in the resistance and attempts to escape to Tanzania
From 1958 Muthemba attended the Escola Comercial Dr. Azevedo e Silva to train as an accountant. About two years later she became a member of the Núcleo dos Estudantes Secundários de Moçambique (NESAM), a group of secondary school students who endeavored to create a Mozambican identity and political education in secondary schools.
In March 1964 Muthemba fled abruptly with other students of the group with the aim of reaching the Mozambican liberation front FRELIMO in Tanzania , founded in 1962 . The group reached the border between Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and Zambia at the Victoria Falls , where they were arrested by police and taken back to Lourenço Marques. Muthemba spent the next few months in prison. The Portuguese colonial administration only released her on her 19th birthday after FRELIMO had started an international campaign aimed at her release. After she was released, she resumed her education but was kept under police surveillance.
Four months later, Muthemba tried to flee again with some fellow students in order to reach FRELIMO. Their second attempt to escape first led them to Swaziland , where they fled to Johannesburg with the help of a Presbyterian pastor and FRELIMO sympathizers. From there the group drove to Francistown ( Bechuanaland ), where they met 14 other FRELIMO supporters. However, the British colonial administration had labeled the group as undesirable and threatened to return them to Swaziland.
With the help of the Organization for African Unity and the United Nations , FRELIMO chairman Eduardo Mondlane managed to convince the British colonial administration to release the group and allow them to travel to Tanzania. As a result, the administration turned the groups over to the United Nations Refugee Agency , which organized the trip to Lusaka . From there the group traveled on to Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), where the headquarters of FRELIMO was located.
Engagement in FRELIMO
Upon reaching the age of 20, FRELIMO Muthemba transferred various responsibilities within the Mozambican liberation front. Initially, Muthemba worked at the Mozambique Institute , an educational institution for Mozambican refugees in Tanzania. There she supported the director, Janet Mondlane , the American wife of FRELIMO chairman Eduardo Mondlane. A year and a half later, she became involved in the women's group within FRELIMO, Destacamento Feminino , a predecessor group of the later Mozambican women's organization OMM .
Muthemba later received military training together with 25 other women at the Tanzanian FRELIMO camp Nachingwea . It was there that Josina Muthemba met Samora Machel , her future husband and the first president of independent Mozambique, who led the training camp. After their training, Muthemba organized the supplies for the FRELIMO fighters behind the front and also carried out reconnaissance in the villages in northern Mozambique in order to win the population over to the goals of FRELIMO. Muthemba developed into the female figurehead of FRELIMO, in particular through the local support of the population and their struggle for better care for children and families.
In mid-1968 Muthemba was sent as a delegate for the second FRELIMO congress. During the congress she campaigned for full equality for women within the liberation struggle. After the Congress, she was appointed by the Central Committee as Commissioner for Women's Affairs within the Department of International Relations. In this position, Muthemba traveled to numerous international meetings to promote FRELIMO as a pioneer for equal rights for women.
In 1969 the Central Committee appointed Muthemba head of the Department of Social Affairs. In this position, too, Muthemba campaigned for better child care and was committed to better education for young girls. After the murder of FRELIMO chairman Mondlane by Portuguese PIDE agents , Muthemba moved in with Mondlane's wife, Janet Mondlane, for consolation. In May 1969 Josina Muthemba married Mondlane's successor, Samora Machel, at FRELIMO Camp Tunduru in southern Tanzania and took his surname. Josina Machel gave birth to her son Samora Junior at the end of November.
death
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In the course of 1970 Machel suffered more and more from abdominal pain. She decided to go to Moscow to be examined. The doctors diagnosed liver cancer and prescribed Machel rest and a strict diet. Nevertheless, Machel returned and resumed her activities for FRELIMO. In late 1970 she went on a two-month trip through the Mozambican province of Niassa . In March 1971 Machel made another trip to the Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado . Machel was already suffering from fatigue and exhaustion on her trip. Back in Dar es Salaam, she fell seriously ill. Despite treatment at the Muhimbili Hospital , Machel died on April 7, 1971 at the age of 25.
Josina Machel was buried in the Kinondoni cemetery , where her uncle Mateus Muthemba , who was murdered by the Portuguese colonial power, lies. In 1979, Machel's remains were transferred from Tanzania to Maputo, where they found their rest in the newly created national pantheon below Praça dos Heróis Moçambicanos .
Posthumous honors
One year after her death, FRELIMO declared April 7th - the anniversary of Machel's death - to be Mozambican national women's day. Two years later, on March 16, 1973, FRELIMO founded the Organização da Mulher Moçambicana , the organization of Mozambican women, as a sub-organization of the Liberation Front. The organization continues to fight for equal rights for women in Mozambique and honors Josina Machel as a feminist icon of the Southeast African country.
After Mozambique gained independence in 1975, FRELIMO renamed numerous streets, squares and facilities. Among other things, the largest secondary school in the Mozambican capital, the Liceu Salazar , was given the new name Escola Secundária Josina Machel.
In 1977, in Luanda , Angola , the country's largest hospital was renamed Hospital Josina Machel .
Web links
- Short biography of Machel as well as links to numerous FRELIMO primary sources on Josina Machel (Portuguese, English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h Ama Biney: Uncovering Josina Machel from obscurity. In: Pambazuka News. April 3, 2014, accessed September 1, 2016 .
- ↑ Josina Abiatar Machel (1945–1971). In: Mozambique History Net. Retrieved September 1, 2016 (Portuguese).
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Machel, Josina |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Machel, Josina Abiathar Muthemba |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Mozambican feminist and resistance fighter |
| DATE OF BIRTH | August 10, 1945 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Vilankulo , Inhambane Province , Portuguese East Africa |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 7th 1971 |
| Place of death | Dar es Salaam , Tanzania |