Award-winning
writer Sarah LeFanu has penned a new, gripping biography of one of Africa’s
greatest liberation heroes titled “S is For Samora Machel”.
The author describes the book as “A Lexical Biography of Samora Machel and the
Mozambican Dream”.
The biography takes stock of the discourse of equality, liberty, and
comradeship that motivated the
liberation struggles of Southern Africa in the 1960s and 1970s within the context
of the Cold War discourse.
In 1974, Samora Machel led FRELIMO, the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique,
to victory over the Portuguese colonial government.
The following year, he became independent Mozambique’s first President and 11
years later he was killed in a mysterious plane crash that many suspect was
engineered by South Africa’s apartheid government.
Drawing on speeches, documents, the memories of those who knew Machel well and
anecdotal evidence, the biography captures the many facets of a man Nelson
Mandela has called “a true African revolutionary”.
Machel was trained as a nurse but could not stomach colonial oppression and
rose to become the consummate military strategist.
A farmer’s son, who possessed the advanced diplomatic skills necessary to balance a relationship with China and the Soviet Union ‑ while winning over Western leaders such as Margaret Thatcher ‑ Machel was a man of the people who at the same time found himself utterly alone.
Though a dedicated proponent of peace, he never saw anything but war.
“Mixing journalism, diary and academic research, LeFanu succeeds in offering one of the most wide-ranging accounts of Machel available to date. The author offers a gripping insight into the personal and political mix, which made Machel the outstandingly successful leader he undoubtedly was,” writes Patrick Chabal, Professor of African History at King’s College London in the United Kingdom.
Susan Williams, a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, says of the book in her introductory note: “A brilliant book that offers a fresh contribution to our understanding of postcolonial Mozambique and its Southern African neighbours.”
Sarah LeFanu is author of the acclaimed biography “Rose Macaulay” and the award-winning “In the Chinks of the World Machine: Feminism and Science Fiction”.
She says Samora Moises Machel is someone who left a fascinating legacy, adding that he was “necessarily” a failure and a hero at the same time.
LeFanu notes that when Machel signed the non-aggression pact, the Nkomati Accord, with South Africa in 1984, he was undoubtedly tricked by Pretoria into making one of the worst deals of his and his country's life.
Yet at the same time Machel was a man of dignity and humour, who steered a small ‑ almost penniless nation ‑ into a surprising position of influence in its region and in the Third World.
He kept rival elements in his party together during times of adversity and ultimately guided his government along a pragmatic path.