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The Conflict with Renamo, 1976-1992
«October 1983»
Dossier MZ-0020
44. The Bandit Witch
Above: The "bandit witch", Emília Michele, was a Zimbabwean who was described as unsmiling and avoiding eye contact.
The "feitiçeira dos bandidos" was Emília Michele, born in Gweru in central Zimbabwe in 1953, and interviewed by the Mozambican press, through an interpreter, in chiManyika, an eastern variety of the Shona language . She was captured at the Tome base in Inhambane during the October offensive, and had apparently been with the MNR for five years or so, promising them protection from harm by consulting the spirits. At the end of the interview, the journalist Maria de Lourdes Torcato comments that Emília Michele certainly knew and understood more than she was willing to admit about politics in her own country, Zimbabwe.
The Portuguese weekly O Jornal reported that a "chemical weapon" that fired poisonous gas projectiles had been found among materiel captured from the MNR, according to Maj.-Gen. Domingos Fondo, provincial military commander in Inhambane.
Two Portuguese citizens who had spent nine months in MNR cativity – Eduardo Regado Ribeiro and Narendra Kumar Bhay – managed to escape during the month.
Consolidated Downloadable Zipped Files
Click on the yellow folder image below to download an unsorted zipped archive of documents and press clippings in PDF format concerning the armed conflict between Renamo/MNR and the Mozambican government in October 1983.
