Comrade President

Samora Machel died in a still-unexplained ‘plane crash 26 years ago. Cut down in his prime at the age of 53, he remains an intriguing figure in the pantheon of African liberators. Training to be a nurse, his career was hampered by racist laws imposed by the Portuguese colonial government, and so he fled to join the liberation movement Frelimo. Never shirking battle, he rose to become commander and chief in 1970, and Mozambique’s first President only five years later. Rebuilding the country along Marxist lines, Machel welcomed anti-apartheid revolutionaries fighting in neighbouring Rhodesia and South Africa. These regimes retaliated, and through Renamo, destroyed railway systems and hydroelectric installations, undoing much of Machel’s work and which forced him to sign the controversial Nkomati Accord in 1984. Part history, part portrait, this timely offering is a must see for anyone seeking to understand the double edged sword of leadership and the complicated journey to South Africa’s own freedom.