Josina Machel

A year later, FRELIMO declared April 7, the day of Josina's death, as National Women’s Day in Mozambique. In March 1973 FRELIMO established the National Organization of Mozambican Women as the movement's social and political arm for women. Inspired in part by the ideals of women's emancipation that Machel promoted, the organization continued to work for this goal following Mozambican independence in 1975. A number of Josina's sisters in arms went on to play important leadership roles in this organization and in government. The principal secondary school in the capital city is named after her.

In March 1971 Josina traveled again, this time to Cabo Delgado, to evaluate social programs being implemented there. During the marches she struggles with chronic fatigue and exhaustion. Yet at one point she leads a meeting of more than 1,000 persons. Tired and very thin, she decides to return to Dar es Salaam at the beginning of April. As she crosses the border into Tanzania, she hands her pistol to a companion and says, “Comrades, I can continue no longer. Give this to the military commander of the province so that it may contribute to the salvation of the Mozambican people.”

In Dar es Salaam, Josina becomes seriously ill on April 5. She was taken to Muhimbili Hospital and died on April 7, 1971 at the age of 25 years. She was buried in Kinondoni Cemetery where her uncle Mateus Muthemba, who was assassinated by Portuguese agents in 1968, is also interred.

During 1970 Josina begins to suffer from stomach pains and weakness. She travels to Moscow for medical attention. The apparent diagnosis is liver cancer. Rest and a strict diet are recommended, but Josina returns to her duties with FRELIMO. At the end of the year, she leaves Samito with a friend and undertakes a two-month trip, largely on foot, through Niassa Province to assess conditions and plan activities for the Department of Social Affairs.

1969 proves an eventful year for Josina. She is appointed head of FRELIMO's Department of Social Affairs where she actively develops child care and educational centers in northern Mozambique and advocates with local populations for the importance of sending girls to school. When FRELIMO President Eduardo Mondlane is assassinated in Tanzania by Portuguese agents, Josina moves in with his wife, Janet, to provide comfort and company. In May she marries Samora Machel at the Educational Center of Tunduru in southern Tanzania, a facility she had helped to develop. At the end of November, Josina and Samora's only child, named Samora Junior and called Samito, is born.

During 1968 the Women's Branch evolves into a de facto social services program for FRELIMO in the liberated areas. It organizes health centers, schools, and child care centers. It helps families whose homes have been destroyed, and provides emotional support to wounded soldiers and peasant families traumatized by the warfare. Josina plays a visionary role in identifying the need for child care centers to look after children who have been orphaned or separated from their families by the war.

In mid-1968 Josina is named a delegate to the Second FRELIMO Congress where she is a strong advocate for the full inclusion of women within all aspects of the liberation struggle. She is then appointed head of the Women's Section in FRELIMO's Department of International Relations. In this position she travels periodically to international meetings on women's rights and the role of women in development where she uses examples of FRELIMO experiences to advocate for women's equal participation in all aspects of the development process. She is now 24 years old.

In 1958, now 13 years old, Josina entered the commercial school Dr. Azevedo e Silva to pursue accounting. Two years later, she joined the Núcleo dos Estudantes Africanos Secundários de Mocambique (NESAM), a clandestine cultural and political organization that was founded by Eduardo Mondlane in 1949. Her political consciousness developed within the organization, which was surveilled by colonial police, until once she was 18 she fled the country with eight other students (including Armando Emilio Guebuza) intending the Tanzania-based Mozambican Liberation Front (FRELIMO). They managed to reach the Rhodesia-Zambia border at Victoria Falls, a journey of some 1,300 kilometres (800 mi), before they were apprehended, extradited back to Mozamqique, and jailed. Five months later, in the month of her 19th birthday, Josina was released from jail as a result of an international campaign carried out by FRELIMO. She resumed attending secondary school, but she was watched by police agents.

Josina Abiathar Muthemba Machel (August 10, 1945 – April 7, 1971) was a leader of FRELIMO and a significant figure in the struggle for independence in Mozambique.

Josina was born with a twin brother, Belmiro, in Vilanculos, Inhambane, Mozambique on August 10, 1945 into an assimilado family that was nevertheless active in anti-colonial work. Her grandfather (a Presbyterian lay preacher who spoke out against Portuguese colonialism), her father, two of her sisters, and two uncles were all jailed at one point or another as a result of their participation in clandestine opposition to the Portuguese colonial administration. Her father worked as a nurse in government hospitals and this required him to periodically move the family to accommodate his job transfers. At age 7, Josina entered the primary school Dom João de Castro in Mocímboa da Praia, a school for the children of Portuguese and assimilado families. Two years later her father was transferred to the town of João Belo, and Josina enrolled in Mouzinho de Albuquerque. After 4th grade, Josina was sent to the capital city of Lourenço Marques in order to continue her education, living with her grandmother.