Zimbabwe’s Samora Machel
3 min read
By Margaret Kamba
When I juxtaposition the late visionary leader Mozambique President Samora Machel and Zimbabwe’s current leader, His Excellency, President Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa, I see men cut from the same cloth.
The similarities among them, for example, September the month of their birth, with President Mnangagwa’s falls on the 15th whilst his counterpart being on the 29th, i find it amazing.
That coupled with the servant leadership principle and policies being implemented to churn the people of Zimbabwe out of abject poverty, this makes me think that President Mnangagwa was under the tutelage of the late visionary leader and hence my conclusion that President Mnangagwa is Zimbabwe’s Samora Machel.
His Excellency, President Mnangagwa, had a unique relationship with the late Mozambique President Samora Machel, which was characterized by intense discussions far into the night and sometimes under the moonlight as the two visualized a free Zimbabwe.
In an interview recently about the role that President Machel played in Zimbabwe’s independence, it became very clear to me that President Machel saw himself in President Mnangagwa, hence his constant grooming and nurturing of President Mnangagwa He saw in President Mnangagwa, a revolutionary leader, just as himself.
If his like had not been cut short by the enemy, the two countries would be far in terms of development.
“President Samora would call me, and we would sit under the big tree up to 1 or 2am. He called me the bush lawyer and would ask Bush lawyer, “How do you think African countries can succeed in becoming themselves?” This issue of scientific socialism or Marxism, does it give us development? We must develop ourselves. We need to embrace African solutions. You must be able to create a model of development acceptable to our people and embracing the philosophies of our people,” President Mnangagwa said.
“He felt that as Africa, we have no capacity and knowledge on how we should benefit from our own resources.”
On describing the late President Machel when President Mnangagwa first met him, he said that “he was very bright young man and an outgoing. Every New Year, he would invite me and Col Khama’s twins to Mozambique. From Zimbabwe, it was only me who would be invited. We were like family to him.”
It got very emotional when President Mnangagwa narrated his last meeting with President Machel before his death.
“A few days before his death when he attended the Botswana Independence celebrations, I had accompanied President Canaan Banana to the celebrations myself. When President Samora heard that I was part of the delegation, he sent Fernando to call me to his room. I went there, and he had Jack Daniel’s and ice,” President Mnangagwa said.
“He took two glasses and put a lot of ice, then he poured the whisky. He drank it and then hit his hands. (Gestures). Then he said Emmerson, Commander drink, Officer drink. I took, and I drank, and I started sweating.
“Then he spoke about how when FRELIMO took over from the Portuguese, they were not trained. His Commander didn’t know forward planning. I told him to take his commander Sebastian to the Soviet Union to learn civil administration of the army so that when he came back, he would be respected. So Samora went back and implemented that.”
President Mnangagwa concluded by saying that when Samora “came in August 1980 and addressed the rally in Chitungwiza, he was a total hero. Here in Zimbabwe, we revere Samora Machel. The first thing we did was to name the street Cecil Rhodes after Samora Machel, and it’s the prime road of this country. We are building the museum where I am persuading President Filipe Nyusi that we need the statue of Samora. We are also going to have one for Nyerere and Kaunda. This is what I want to achieve before I leave.”
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