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Samora Machel's Speeches, 1974-1986
Pre-1974
These pages include the full texts, organised year-by-year and as published primarily in contemporary Mozambican newspapers and magazines, of some of the speeches of the late President Samora Moisés Machel. Machel was Mozambique’s first president from independence on 25 June 1975 until his death in the air disaster at Mbuzini on 19 October 1986, in circumstances that still arouse controversy.
It should be noted that the published versions of the speeches of Samora Machel and other Frelimo leaders are normally “smooth transcriptions” that have been subjected to a process of editorial “cleaning up”, with repetitions eliminated, changes of thought in mid-sentence omitted, and grammatical irregularities standardised to varying degrees to the norms of European Portuguese. Wherever possible, therefore, these transcriptions should be compared with audio recordings, if they are available, in order to establish what was actually said, particularly in relation to occasions when Machel did not adhere to a prepared text.
The «SSB numbers» appended to some of the citations identify the relevant entries in the definitive bibliography of Samora Machel’s speeches by Amélia Souto and António Sopa, Samora Machel: Bibliografia, 1970-1986 (Maputo: Centro de Estudos Africanos, Universidade Eduardo Mondlane, 1996), 422 pages.
The speeches that were printed as full pages in the broadsheet newspapers Notícias and Notícias da Beira have been scanned and prepared for OCR and are therefore fully searchable. This work was done on behalf of MHN by the Digitisation Unit of the University of Cape Town libraries. Please note that MHN does NOT claim that this is by any means a complete collection of Machel's speeches and public utterances. Additional resources will be added to these pages from time to time. Any substantial additions will be announced on MHN's Facebook page.
MHN Resources
(in chronological order)
◊ 6 February 1969
Samora Moisés Machel. Um inimigo implacável do colonialism e do imperialismo. In: Notícias [Maputo], 3 February 1981. The oration of the FRELIMO Central Committee at the funeral of Eduardo Chivambo Mondlane, in Dar es Salaam, delivered by Samora Machel. Click here to view or download a PDF file, size 186 kb.
◊ 2 April 1972
Samora Moisés Machel. Building a nation in batle-torn Mozambique. In: Daily News [Dar es Salaam] 2 April 1972, reprinted in Facts and Reports [Amsterdam] vol.2 no.9 (29 April 1972), p.1-3. Interview conducted by Iain Christie. Click here to view or download a PDF file, size 235 kb. S.S.B.714.
◊ March 1973
Samora Moisés Machel. A libertação da mulher é uma necessidade fundamental da revolução. In: Tempo [Maputo] 4 April 1976, pages 47-50. This speech was delivered to the first conference of the Organização da Mulher Moçambicana in March 1973, and has been republished on multiple occasions. Click here to view or download a PDF file, size 235 kb. S.S.B.76.
◊ March 1973
Samora Moisés Machel. Samora on the woman question and social emancipation. In: Maji Maji [Dar es Salaam], no.33, March 1978, pages 42-48. The same text, delivered to the first conference of the Organização da Mulher Moçambicana in March 1973, and republished here in partial English translation in the radical student journal of the University of Dar es Salaam. Click here to view or download a PDF file, size 409 kb. S.S.B.76, although this translation is not listed.
Above: The cover of a volume of mainly administrative pre-independence texts, messages and exhortations by Samora Machel, dating as far back as 1967 when he was still secretary of defence. Machel only became president of FRELIMO after the assassination of Eduardo Mondlane, first as a member of a three-person presidential council, together with Marcelino dos Santos and Uriah Simango, and then, after the Central Committee meeting of April 1970, by himself.
◊ 25 March 1973
Samora Moisés Machel. A solidariedade é uma ajuda mútua entre as forças que combatem pelo mesmo objectivo. Reggio Emília, Italy: speech to the 1ª. Conferência Nacional de Solidariedade para a Liberdade e a Independência de Moçambique, Angola e Guiné-Bissau. 20 pages. Click here to view or download a PDF file, size 772 kb. S.S.B.183.