Graça Machel

She married the first President of Mozambique Samora Machel in September 1975, three months after Independence of the country. Together they had two children, daughter Josina born In April 1976 and son Malengane born in December 1978. Samora Machel succumbed to a plane crash on October 19, 1986, in Mbuzini, Lebombo Mountains, South Africa.

In July 18, 1998, she married the first President of South Africa, Nelson Mandela, in Johannesburg on his 80th birthday. Mandela died on December 5, 2013 after suffering from a prolonged respiratory infection. Graça is the only woman till present who had been the First Lady of two countries.

She was born Graça Simbine on October 17, 1945, seventeen days after the death of her father, in rural Incadine, Mozambique, (then Portuguese East Africa). She was the youngest child among six children.

She attended Methodist mission schools and then joined the University of Lisbon in Portugal on a mission scholarship. She studied German at the university and it was there that she first became associated with the idea of independence.

Apart from her native Shangaan language, Graça can also speak English, Spanish, French, Portuguese and Italian languages.

In 1973 she returned to Portuguese East Africa and joined the Mozambique Liberation Front (FRELIMO). Although she had military training, Graça started teaching, first in FRELIMO held areas in the province of Cabo Delgado and thereafter at the FRELIMO School in Tanzania. She also worked with women and children. She was inducted Deputy Director of the Frelimo Secondary School at Bagamoyo in 1974.

Mozambique's independence was achieved in June 1975, after which she was appointed Minister of Education and Culture, a post she held till 1989. The percentage of children who joined primary and secondary schools doubled during her term in the ministry. She was also included as a Central Committee member of FRELIMO.

She has worked in relocating displaced orphans and empower women of Mozambique in her capacity as Chairman of National Organization of Children of Mozambique. She has also served as President of UNESCO’s National Commission in Mozambique. She was one of the delegates of the UNICEF Conference in 1988 and was also on the steering committee of the World Conference on Education for All in 1990.

She formed the Association for Community Development (ADC), an indigenous nongovernmental organization in 1990. ADC became the Foundation for Community Development, the first endowed grant-making foundation of Mozambique in 1994.

Graça is the President of this only social and economic development foundation of the country that fund and operate programs in nine out of ten provinces of Mozambique.