Samora Machel
1st President of Mozambique (1933–1986)
Samora Moisés Machel (September 29, 1933 – October 19, 1986) was a Mozambican politician and revolutionary who served as the first President of Mozambique from the country's independence in 1975 until his death in the 1986 Mozambican Tupolev Tu-134 plane crash which killed 34 people, including several Mozambican ministers and government officials. Machel was a socialist in the tradition of Marxism–Leninism.
Early life
Samora Moisés Machel was born on September 29, 1933, in the village of Madragoa (today's Chilembene), Gaza Province, Mozambique, to a family of farmers. His grandfather had been an active collaborator of Gungunhana. Under Portuguese rule, his father, like most Black Mozambicans, was classified as "indígena" (native). He was forced to accept lower prices for his crops than White farmers; compelled to grow labour-intensive cotton, which took time away from the food crops needed for his family; and forbidden to brand his mark on his cattle to prevent thievery. Despite these barriers, Machel's father was a successful farmer who owned four plows and 400 head of cattle by 1940. Machel grew up in this farming village and attended mission elementary school. In 1942, he was sent to school in the town of Zonguene in Gaza Province. The school was run by Catholic missionaries who educated the children in Portuguese language and culture.
The public source identifies “Samora Machel” as 1st President of Mozambique (1933–1986). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Samora, Machel and President.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q219918. VIAF identifies the subject as 76310491. The Library of Congress control number is n80121224. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1933, 1986, 1975 and 1940.
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This entry incorporates text from “Samora Machel” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.