Every Day Is Special: April 7 – Women's Day in Mozambique

April 7 – Women's Day in Mozambique

Posted on April 7, 2016

Many times people and nations celebrate an important person on his or her birthday, or on the anniversary of an important event, such as a coronation. But many times a person is celebrated on the anniversary of his or her death.

This is one of those times.

Josina Machel died on this date in 1971. She was an important person in the modern history of Mozambique. Her grandfather preached against “assimilation” with the Portuguese, who had colonized their country – in other words, he thought that the peoples of Africa and of Mozambique specifically should hold onto their own cultures, languages, and religions rather than adopting the cultures of the European colonizers. Josina's whole family may have worked against the Portuguese colonizers – I'm just guessing, based on the fact that her father, two of her five sisters, two uncles, and Josina herself were all imprisoned at some point for their actions towards independence for Mozambique. One of her uncles was actually assassinated by Portuguese agents!

Machel was not a
pacifist. She was
trained military!

Josina Machel not only worked for independence, she also worked for freedoms and rights of African women, she traveled almost 2,000 miles in her efforts to elude Portuguese and British forces that sought to imprison her as an “undesirable visitor” and a rebel, and she married the man who would eventually become Mozambique's first president.

It was a shock, after I read all the things Machel did in her life, to read that she died so early – tragically, she was just 25 years old when she died! She died of liver cancer.

In 1972, one year after Machel died, the organization she worked for (Mozambican Liberation Front) declared April 7 as National Women's Day in their nation. Mozambique finally achieved full independence in 1975.

Here are some of the beautiful sights to be seen in Mozambique: