Machel of Mozambique http://www.aluka.org/action/showMetadata?doi=10.5555/AL.SFF.DOCUMENT.crp2b20010 Use of the Aluka digital library is subject to Aluka’s Terms and Conditions, available at http://www.aluka.org/page/about/termsConditions.jsp. By using Aluka, you agree that you have read and will abide by the Terms and Conditions. Among other things, the Terms and Conditions provide that the content in the Aluka digital library is only for personal, non-commercial use by authorized users of Aluka in connection with research, scholarship, and education. The content in the Aluka digital library is subject to copyright, with the exception of certain governmental works and very old materials that may be in the public domain under applicable law. Permission must be sought from Aluka and/or the applicable copyright holder in connection with any duplication or distribution of these materials where required by applicable law. Aluka is a not-for-profit initiative dedicated to creating and preserving a digital archive of materials about and from the developing world. For more information about Aluka, please see http://www.aluka.org Machel of Mozambique Author/Creator Christie, Iain Publisher Zimbabwe Publishing House (Harare) Date 1988 Resource type Books Language English Subject Coverage (spatial) Mozambique Coverage (temporal) 1933 - 1986 Source Northwestern University Libraries, Melville J. Herskovits Library of AfricanStudies, 967.9 M1493Ze Description 'Part One: THE REBEL AND HIS CAUSE': Scaring the crocodile(1933-1963). The birth of Frelimo. Hitching a lift to war (1963-1964). 'PartTwo: THE CHAMELEON ENEMY': Into battle (1964-1967). The years of crisis(1968-1970). More crocodiles (1970-1974). The struggle continues (1974-1986). The roadto Mbuzini. 'Part Three: PORTRAIT OF A REVOLUTIONARY': HomegrownMarxism. The sophisticated weapon. The enemy within. The Samorian touch. Format extent 224 pages (length/size) http://www.aluka.org/action/showMetadata?doi=10.5555/AL.SFF.DOCUMENT.crp2b20010 http://www.aluka.org Northwestern University Library Evanston, Illinois 60208-2300 Lh i MACHEL OF MOZAMBIQUE. lain Christie ZIMBABWE PUBLISHING HOUSE Zimbabwe Publishing House (Pvt) Ltd P 0 Box 350 Harare, Zimbabwe © lain Christie 1988 Cover design: lain Christie and Tracy Dunn Published by Z P H 1988 ISBN 0 949225 59 2 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers. Typeset in Zimbabwe by Crystal Graphics Printed in Zimbabwe by Jongwe Printers CONTENTS Preface i Acknowledgements iii Map of southern Africa iv Map of Mozambique v Orthographical notes vi About the author vi Introduction vii Part One: THE REBEL AND HIS CAUSE 1. Scaring the crocodile (1933-1963) 3 2. The birth of Frelimo 19 3. Hitching a ift to war (1963-1964) 23 Part Two: THE CHAMELEON ENEMY 4. Into battle (1964-1967) 31 5. Theyearsofcrisis(1968-1970) 48 6. More crocodiles (1970-1974) 61 7. The struggle continues (1974-1986) 81 8. The road to Mbuzini 100 Part Three: PORTRAIT OF A REVOLUTIONARY 9. Homegrown Marxism 123 10. The sophisticated weapon 142 11. The enemy within 154 12. The Samorian touch 165 Index 177 PREFACE I first met Samora Machel in Dar es Salaam in 1971 and very soon afterwards decided I would like to write his life story. There seemed to be no hurry, since events were making that story more fascinating by the day. In 1975 my family and I moved from Tanzania to Mozambique where I was able to continue monitoring Machel's life. From time to time I met him and we talked. But the years dragged on and still there was no book. In 1986 I asked Fernando Honwana, President Machel's special assistant, to inform the President that I would like to write his official biography. I would need many hours of discussion with the President, access to unpublished documents, and so on. Fernando, a dear friend who taught me a great deal about the subject of this book, died with Machel in the plane crash on 19 October, 1986, before he could give me the reply. Who knows what that reply would have been? Would Machel have said he didn't want books about him published during his lifetime? Would he have said that he would rather his biography be written by a Mozambican? I have no idea. I decided to go ahead with a book about him, simply because I felt I was in a unique position to provide an English language commentary on the life of a great African revolutionary. What I have written is my own appraisal, not an official biography with the government's seal of approval. Machel of Mozambique is a personal view and neither the Machel family nor the Mozambican authorities bear any responsibility for its content. With one exception, they have not been consulted at an official level. The exception is that Machel's widow, Graca, kindly gave me permission to reproduce her letter to Winnie and Nelson Mandela. It is contained in the introduction. This book is a preliminary effort to place the life of Samora Machel in its broader historical and political context. As such it emphasizes his own development and the critical role he played in the Mozambican revolution. It does not purport to be a study of Mozambique - in either the colonial or post-colonial periods. The themes emphasized in this study either helped to shape Samora Machel's life or demonstrate how he contributed to the shaping of southern African history. Thus there is some detail about his childhood and youth and substantial discussion of his role as a military leader. But some issues which ought to be analysed in a more general history of ii Machel of Mozambique Mozambique are barely touched on in this biography. These include church-state relations, education as an institution for social change, post-independence debates on the emancipation of women, attempts to reverse the urban influx and Mozambique's definition of a non-aligned foreign policy. Machel of Mozambique is not a neutral book. Political journalists always make judgements about the people they are writing about, even if these judgements are not always explicit in the articles they write dayby-day. This book reflects my judgements and is intended as a starting point for debate on a plethora of issues surrounding Samora Machel, a man who helped change the face of southern Africa. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank those who helped and advised me in various ways in writing this book. Alpheus Manghezi, Jose Mota Lopes and David Hedges of Eduardo Mondlane University in Maputo, and the journalist Carlos Cardoso, provided useful comment and historical and cultural background. Lemos Macuacua and the other nurses who were colleagues of Machel in his years as a nurse gave me their valuable time and talked frankly about their departed friend. Aurelio Manave and Joao Ferreira delved into their memories for recollections of the same period. Several authors of books about southern Africa have helped me over the years with information and ideas which have gone into this volume. They include Allen and Barbara Isaacman, Barry Munslow, David Martin, Phyllis Johnson and Joseph Hanlon. Ali Mafudh, who hopefully will someday write his own memoirs, provided fascinating insights into Machel the soldier. But my main thanks must go to Samora Machel himself, and to all my friends in the leadership and rank and file of Frelimo who have spoken to me, formally or informally, since I came to live in Africa in 1970. They made this book possible. Finally, I must thank Frances Christie, my wife, who did invaluable research into some areas of the story of Machel, and made the book more accurate than it would otherwise have been. This said, everything in Machel of Mozambique is my own responsibility. lain Christie, Maputo, April 1987. ZAIRE ZAMBIA INDIAN OCEAN Machel of Mozambique ORTHOGRAPHICAL NOTES Names of people and places in Mozambique present orthographical problems. The Gaza emperor who I refer to as Ngungunyana is mentioned in other books as Gungunhana or Ngununhana. I refer to the town of Chai-Chai while the official map says Xai-Xai. Many of the problems are related to the differences between Portuguese and English orthography. For example, in Portuguese the English sound 'y' (as in Ngungunyana) is represented by the letter 'h'. For an English speaking reader, Xai-Xai looks as though it might be a southern African click sound. It is not. With this and other names I have tried to use English spelling approximate to the actual sound. An exception is the island of Inhaca (pronounced Inyaka), which I left in its Portuguese spelling simply because it is so well known in the southern African region. The official post-independence name of the dam on the Zambezi river is Cahora Bassa. Before independence the Portuguese called it Cabora Bassa. In pre-independence references I have used the Portuguese version. ABOUT THE AUTHOR lain Christie was born in 1943 in Edinburgh, Scotland. He worked for British newspapers from 1958 until 1970, then moved to Tanzania where he worked as a journalist until 1975, specializing in African liberation movement affairs. Since 1975 he has lived and worked in Mozambique, first with the national news agency and then with Radio Mozambique, as head of the English language external service. He has been the Maputo correspondent of Reuters news agency since 1980 and has contributed many articles on Mozambican affairs to African newspapers and specialist publications such as Africa Contemporary Recor4 Afrique-Asie, Africa Report and Africa. He is married with two children.