THE NATION
Graça Simbine Machel is the only woman to have become the First Lady of two different countries – Mozambique and South Africa.
She is only person in history to have been the first spouse to two different democratically elected African leaders.
Machel was born on October 17, 1945, in Mozambique. Her journey is one of resilience, activism, and an unwavering commitment to education and social justice.
She excelled in school; earning a scholarship to attend the University of Lisbon in Portugal where she studied German. She developed a love of languages and today is fluent in her native Xitsonga, Portuguese, French, German, Italian, and English.
Her father died three weeks before her birth and left an instruction that she must be educated through high school — a will that was carried out by her older siblings.
After completing high school, the Methodist church granted her a scholarship to study at Lisbon University, Portugal. And she chose to major in languages.
Due to surveillance from the Portuguese secret police, she was forced to abandon her education and fled to Switzerland.
In 1973, she returned to Tanzania and joined the FRELIMO where she met her first husband, Samora Machel – the first president of Mozambique.
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