President of Mozambique

Daniel Francisco Chapo was born on January 6, 1977, in the Administrative Post of Inhaminga, district of Cheringoma, in Sofala province.

He is the son of Francisco Chapo  (deceased) and Helena dos Santos Chiremba.

Daniel Chapo is the sixth child in a family of 10 siblings, and professes the Christian religion.

His father was an employee of the Mozambique Railways and his mother was a stay-at-home parent. Due to the armed conflict, the Chapo family was forced to leave Inhaminga for the district of Dondo. It was in Dondo, where Daniel Chapo spent his childhood and attended primary school at the Josina Machel Primary School.

In 1996, Daniel Francisco Chapo completed the 10th grade at Dondo Secondary School, then moved to the city of Beira, where he completed secondary school at Samora Machel Secondary School. While attending the second cycle of high school in the same city, Daniel Chapo worked  as a broadcaster on Rádio Miramar and presented a sports program between 1997 and 1999.

In 1999. in order to continue his studies, Daniel Chapo moved to Maputo, the country’s capital city, where he enrolled at Eduardo Mondlane University (UEM), the largest and oldest higher education institution in the country.

Already in Maputo, he was integrated into Miramar Television as a result of his collaboration with Radio Miramar in Beira. At the headquarters of that television station, Daniel Chapo was a featured reporter and presented a television program called “A Voz do Povo [The Voice of The People’]”.

In 2004 he completed his degree in Law, but continued to invest in his studies, having taken the course in Registry and Notary in the same year at the Legal and Judicial Training Center of Matola, in Maputo province.

In 2005 he was appointed Registrar and Notary in the City of Nacala-Porto, in Nampula province, thus beginning his professional career in this area until 2009. At the invitation of the Pedagogical University Delegation of Nampula, extension of Nacala-Porto, in 2009 Daniel Chapo taught Constitutional Law and Political Science at  that higher education institution.

In 2009, as a result of his work and political commitment, Daniel Chapo was appointed Administrator of the District of Nacala-a-Velha, where he promoted the creation of employment opportunities for young people, without discrimination, as well as articulating the installation of large-scale investments.

Even with a busy schedule due to his position as District Administrator, Daniel Chapo decided to continue his studies, this time for a master’s degree in Development Management at the Catholic University of Mozambique in Nampula, in 2014.

In the same year and at the time,  he underwent his training as a lawyer to enter  the Mozambican Bar Association, where he is member number 544,. He would later voluntarily suspend his membership in the Bar Association due to incompatibility of duties.

In 2015, Daniel Chapo was appointed Administrator of  Palma District in Cabo Delgado province. His mission in Palma was short-lived as he was appointed in 2016 by President Filipe Jacinto Nyusi to the post of Governor of Inhambane province.

In April 2019, the Mozambican parliament approved a new legislative package, which now determines that provincial governors become elected. In this context, Daniel Chapo was the head of list for Frelimo in Inhambane and the party won the October 2019 elections, which made Daniel Chapo become the first elected  governor  in that province.

Daniel Chapo is married to Mrs. Gueta Selemane Chapo, with whom he has three children.

Daniel Chapo plays Basketball and 11-a-side Football.

Daniel Chapo speaks fluent Sena, Ndau, Tswa, Portuguese and English.

He is  the fifth president of independent Mozambique, after Samora Machel, Joaquim Chissano, Armando Guebuza, and Filipe Nyusi.

Source: Presidencia da Republica de Moçambique

Margarida Adamugy Talapa is the chairperson of the Mozambican Parliament, the Assembly of the Republic. She was born in Memba, Nampula province, on June 5 1962.

Margarida Talapa  previously served as Minister of Labour and Social Security (2020 to January 2025).

She is the third Mozambican woman to serve as Parliament Speaker. She succeeded Esperança Bias, who chaired the body from 2020 to January 2025 and Verónica Macamo who had served in the same post for  the previous ten year in the post s. Macamo had succeeded  Eduardo Joaquim Mulémbwè who, in turn, had replaced Marcelino dos Santos.

Source: Integrity

Maria Benvinda Delfina Levi, is the Prime Minister of Mozambique.

She was born in Maxixe, Inhambane province, on Marc 24 1969.

Prior to her appointment as Prime Minister, Maria Benvinda Levi had been legal adviser to P President Filipe Nyusi until he ended his term of office in January 2025.

She had served as Justice Minister, from 2008 to 2015,  in the government of  President Armando Guebuza.

Levi is a former presiding judge on the Maputo City Court and was once director of the Legal and Judicial Training Centre (CFJJ), the country’s main training body for jurists.

Source: AIM

Maria Manuela dos Santos Lucas is the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of Mozambique.

A career diplomat, Maria Manuela Lucas held a range of ambassadorial posts, and served as  deputy foreign minister from 2017 to2020.

Source: AIM

Major General Cristóvão Artur Chume is he Minister of National Defence of Mozambique since November 2021.

He had previously served as the Commander of the Army Branch of the Mozambique Defence Armed Forces from March to November 2021.

Cristóvão Cume was born in Maputo on May 1, 1971.

Source: Wikipedia

Ivete Ângela dos Anjos Ferrão Alane is the Minister of Labour, Gender and Social Welfare.

She was previously Permanent Secretary in the now abolished State Secretariat for Youth and Employment.

Aged 48, Ivete Alane, holds a postgraduate degree in Public Administration from the Instituto Superior de Administração Pública.

In 2008, she was appointed Permanent Secretary of the Government of the Province of Niassa, a position she held until 2010, when she moved to the Ministry of Women and Social Action, where she also worked as Permanent Secretary until 2015.

From 2015 to 2020, she was Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Youth and Sports .

From 2020 until the date of her appointment as Minister, she served as Permanent Secretary of the Secretariat of State for Youth and Employment.

Source: AIM / O País

Estevão Tomás Rafael Pale is currently serving as Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy.

Pale was the Chairman and CEO of ENH, Mozambique´s National Hydrocarbons Company from 2020 to January 2025 .

He holds a Masters in Financial Economics from the University of London, a Postgraduate in Mining Engineering from the Camborne School of Mines in England and a Bachelor Degree in Economics from Eduardo Mondlane University in Mozambique.

Estevão Pale has over 35 years of experience in geology and mining and ten years of experience in the oil and gas sector. He successfully led several organizations, and was National Director of Mines at the Ministry of Mineral Resources and Energy for almost ten years. In this latter role, he was responsible for designing and implementing the support project for the development of the geological and the mining sector, financed by the World Bank. The project facilitated the review of the legal structure and attracted more investments to the sector.

Estevão Pale was the Executive Director of CMH – Companhia Moçambicana de Hidrocarbonetos, SA, from 2005 to February 2020. CMH holds 25% of the shares of Joint-Venture Pande & Temane, and Sasol Petroleum Temane holds 70% and IFC – The International Finance Corporation, a member of the World Bank Group, holds 5%.

As Executive Director of CMH, Estevão Pale was instrumental in increasingly obtaining positive results for CMH’s shareholders, and positioning CMH as a model in the oil and gas industry in Mozambique.

Source: Mozambique Gas & Energy Summit & Exhibition

Fernando Rafael as Minister of Public Works, Housing and Water Resources.

He was born on October 4 1981, in Chimoio, Manica province, son to Rafael Nguenha and Ana Fernando . He is married and the father ot three children,

Fernando Rafael holds  a Master’s degree in Accounting, Taxation and Corporate Finance from the Polytechnic University.

He is an accountant by profession.

He graduated in Accounting and Business Management at the Eduardo Mondlane University (UEM).

Fernando Rafael served as Financial and Administrative Director at the Mozambique Road Network ,REVIMO, a company which operates several major roads, including the Maputo Ring Road, and the suspension bridge over the Bay of Maputo.

He also served as Financial Director of Companhia Industrial da Matola and was Financial Controller at Colgate Palmolive Moçambique.

Source: AIM / O País / DNAAS

Nyeleti Brooke Mondlane was born on 17^th of January 1962 and is currently serving as Minister of Combatants. She served as Minister of Gender, Children and Social Action of Mozambique. Nyeleti Mondlane previously served as Minister of Youth and Sport.

She was born on 17^th of January 1962 in Onandagua, Syracusa, New York, United States of America. She is the daughter of Eduardo Chivambo Mondlane, PhD Professor in Anthropology, and Janet Rae Mondlane, PhD in Sociology.

She started and completed her primary studies at the International school in Tanzania, until 1970. Then she travelled to Mozambique, where she continued her secondary studies at FRELIMO Secondary School, Bagamoyo, in 1974, and at FRELIMO Secondary School in Ribaué, Nampula province, until 1980. Later, she entered higher education, obtaining a Bachelor of Social Sciences (Social Anthropology) from the University of Manchester, United Kingdom, in 1987. She obtained a Certificate in Conflict Management, from Uppsala University, Sweden, and from distance, took the master’s degree in Public Administration from the University of Liverpool.

Throughout her career, she worked in several institutions. She was assistant to the Executive Director of LONRHO Mozambique for the areas of Tourism and Human Resources, between 1990 and 1994 she was Manager of RIGOCHE, between 1995 and 2001 and she was a founding member of the Eduardo Chivambo Mondlane Foundation in 1999. She coordinated the HIV / AIDS program in Office of the Coordinator of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in 2002 coordinated the Positive Life Program, between 2004 and 2006 she assumed the Presidency of the African Women’s Academy (WAFA), in 2010 she became a Member of the Assembly of the Republic, in the seventh legislature, between 2009 and 2015.

She is a member of FRELIMO, the Executive Committee of the Association of National Liberation Struggle Combatants (ACLLN), the Mozambican Women’s Organization (OMM) and the 8^th of March cell of Sommerschield, in Maputo, collaborated with the Department of Foreign Affairs and belonged to the brigades of Zambézia and Tanzania.

Source: https: MMO

Ricardo Sengo is the Minister in the President’s Office for Civil Matters.

Sengo was the chairperson of MECTS (Mozambique Electronic Cargo Tracking System), which won the contract to track and seal petroleum product cargoes.

He holds two master’s degrees: one in Agricultural Economics from Queensland University, Australia, and another in Development Finance from Stellenbosch University, South Africa.

He worked at Banc ABC Moçambique as Director of Corporate and Investment Banking.

He was Director of Business Banking for Standard Bank Angola, Director of Agribusiness for Standard Bank’s operations in Africa, Standard Bank- South Africa.

He worked at KPMG – South Africa where he held the positions of Advisory Manager in Mozambique and Deputy Director, Advisory and Development Services.

Source: AIM / O País

Lúcia da Luz Ribeiro was born in Maputo on 16^th of June 1963, she was appointed President of the Constitutional Council in 2019.

She holds master’s degree in business law from the Polytechnic University of Madrid. Post-Graduate Studies in Business Law at the same University. Law Degree from the Eduardo Mondlane University (1994), PhD in Law from the Faculty of Law of the UEM (2019).

Among the positions held, the following stand out:

• Director of the Eduardo Mondlane University Law School (UEM) (2003 -2004).

• Legal Advisor to the Minister of Public Works and Housing from 1995 to 2003.

• President of the Jurisdictional Council of the Bar Association of Mozambique, (2003).

• Lecturer at Universidade Eduardo Mondlane since 1995.

• Teacher of Portuguese Language (secondary school) since 1984 – graduated from the Faculty of Education of UEM.

• Founding member of the Mozambican Bar Association, Associação Mulher Lei e Desenvolvimento (MULEIDE), Associação Moçambicana das Mulheres de Carreira Jurídica (AMCJ) and Criança Família e Desenvolvimento (CFD).

• Associate Researcher at WLSA.

• She was a lawyer and legal advisor of several state and private institutions.

Source: CC

Américo Julião Letela is the Attorney-General of Mozambique.

Américo Letela served as director of the Central Office for the Fight against Organised and Transnational Crime (GCCCOT) . He has been a magistrate at the Public Prosecutor’s Office for over 20 years.

He began his career at the Panda District Attorney’s Office, in Panda district, Inhambane province, as District Attorney. He then performed similar functions in the Vilanculos district, also in Inhambane province, and was later promoted to Provincial-level Attorney in Inhambane province. He was later transferred to Gaza Province.

Letela also served as Chief Provincial Prosecutor in Cabo Delgado and Tete provinces, where he was promoted to Deputy Attorney General and seconded to the High Court of Appeal in Maputo City.

In 2017, Américo Julião Letela was appointed by presidential order to the post of Deputy Attorney General. In this role, he was assigned, by resolution of the Higher Council of the Public Prosecutor’s Office (CSMMP), to the Specialized Department in the Criminal Area of the Attorney General’s Office.

Sources: Rádio Moçambique / O País

Beatriz da Consolação Mateus Buchili is an adviser to the President of Mozambqiue for legal and constitutional matters. She is .a ormer Attorney-Genera of Mozambique who held the post from 2014 until  December2024.

She holds a master’s degree in Law from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul. She finished her master degree in 2007, her law degree from Universidade Eduardo Mondlane, in 1999.

Bu chili  was a career magistrate, having joined the Public Prosecution Service in 1994, as a District Attorney. She served as the provincial Chief Prosecutor of Cabo Delgado (2001-2005), and Sofala Provincial Chief Prosecutor (2008 to 2011). In 2011, the Deputy Attorney General was promoted to the Superior Court of Appeal of the City of Maputo, and still in 2011 she was appointed to serve as Secretary General of the PGR on a service commission.

Beatriz Buchili was the sixth PGR in the history of Mozambique after Joaquim Mulembwè, Sinai Nhatitima, António Namburete and Joaquim Madeira and Augusto Paulino.

Source: http://www.ministeriospublicoscplp.org/AIM

Manuel A. Alculete Lopes de Araújo (born 11 October 1970) is a Mozambican politician who has been Mayor of Quelimane since December 2011. He has served as a Member of Parliament for Maganja da Costa Constituency, Zambezia Province, Shadow Minister for Youth, Sports, Tourism and Culture and Shadow Secretary of State for Europe, North, Central and South America.

He has lectured in Economics, Development Economics, International Relations and Comparative Foreign Policy at Pedagogical University, Instituto Superior de Ciencias e Tecnologias de Moçambique, Universidade A Politecnica and Instituto Superior de Relações Internacionais.

Manuel de Araujo, was a Campaigner for the Portuguese and Spanish African Speaking Countries (Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Sao Tome e Principe) and then a Campaign Coordinator for the Southern African Development Community Project on Policing and Human Rights at Amnesty International (London). Previously, Manuel de Araujo was also a researcher for the Southern African Research and Documentation Centre (SARDC) Human Development Report Project

Born: October 11,1970

Education: Mozambique:BA,Honors degree,Instituto Superior de Relações Internacionais. Zimbabwe: MPS, University of Zimbabwe and SARIPS. United Kingdom: SOAS, University of London (MSc) and the University of East Anglia (PhD, 2011).

Political Party: MDM (Democratic Movement of Mozambique).

Source: Wikipedia

Former President of Mozambique

Armando Emílio Guebuza is a Mozambican politician who was President of Mozambique from 2005 to 2015. 

Born: January 20, 1943), Murrupula

Spouse: Maria da Luz Guebuza

Party: FRELIMO

Presidential term: February 2, 2005 – January 15, 2015

Previous office: President of Mozambique (2005–2015)

Children: Valentina Guebuza, Armando Ndambi Guebuza, Norah Guebuza, Mussumbuluko Guebuza

Source: Wikipedia

Steven Le Vourc’h / Saint-Louis Studio (File photo)

Former President of Mozambique

Joaquim Alberto Chissano was the second President of Mozambique, serving from 1986 to 2005. He is credited with transforming the war-torn country of Mozambique into one of the most successful African democracies. 

Born: October 22, 1939 Chibuto District

Education: University of Lisbon

Party: FRELIMO

Presidential term: November 6, 1986 – February 2, 2005

Movies: En Route to Baghdad

Children: Nyimpine Chissano

Source: Wikipedia

Steven Le Vourc’h / Saint-Louis Studio (File photo)

Former Speaker of the Assembly of the Republic of Mozambique ,from 13.01.2020; to January 2025; Former Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy from 2094 to 2015.Member of Parliament of the Assembly of the Republic of Mozambique..

Esperança Bias was born on the 28^th of July 1958 in the Island of Mozambique, Nampula Province. She is the daughter of Francisco Nhiuane Bias and Laurinda Augusto Faustino.  She did Primary and Secondary education in the province of Nampula, she finished primary school at Dona Filipa Primary School in 1970 and secondary school at Liceu Almirante Gago Coutinho in 1978. In 1979, she attended the propaedeutic course at Eduardo Mondlane University in the city of Maputo.

Between 1976 and 1980, Esperança Bias worked as a clerk at Banco Standard Totta (now Standard Bank) and in 1983 she joined the National Mines Company, where she was head of Administrative Services and, in the following year, she became Head of Department. From 1984 to 1987 she worked at Gemas e Pedras Lapidadas,(GPL) also as Head of Department.

In 1987, she was appointed as Chief Executive Officer of the Lapidation Industry, a role she held until 1990.

In 1990, Bias graduated in Economics from Eduardo Mondlane University and after she was appointed to the position of General Director of GPL, which she held until 1991. On the same year (1991), she started working at the Ministry of Mineral Resources and Energy (MIREME), where she successively assumed the functions of Deputy Director of Coal (1991-1994), Deputy Director of Economics (1994-1998) and Director of Economics until she was appointed, in 1999, to the post of Deputy Minister of MIREME.

She served as deputy minister of MIREME until 2004. In 2004, Esperança Bias was entrusted with the position of Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy, a role she held until 2015.

Source: Carta de Moçambique 

Adriano Afonso Maleiane was the Prime Minister of Mozambique from March 2022 to January 2025. He had previously served as Minister of Economy and Finance.

Adriano Maleiane worked in the Banking Sector for more than 33 years in various positions, including as Central Bank Governor in Mozambique for 15 years.

He also worked as National Director for Agrarian Economy in the Ministry of Agriculture, coordinating the implementation of the agrarian policy. He lectured financial systems at the Eduardo Mondlane University. Adriano’s background is in Accounting and Financial Sciences.

Source: The World Bank

Steven Le Vourc’h / Saint-Louis Studio (File photo)

Verónica Nataniel Macamo served as Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Mozambique. She previously served as President of the Mozambican Parliament (from January 2010 to January 2020), becoming the first Mozambican woman to fill this post. First, she has been elected to Gaza provincial assembly and than in 1994, as Parliament Vice-President, position she held during 15 years. In 2004, she was also a member of the Pan-African Parliament.

Born: November 12, 1957

Party: FRELIMO

Education: Lawyer

Source: Wikipedia; www.parlamento.mz

Carlos Alberto Fortes Mesquita was born on 25^th of March 1962, in Gurué, Zambézia province. He served as Minister of Public Works, Housing and Water Resources of Mozambique from March 2022 to January 2025.

Mesquita previously served as Minister of Industry and Commerce of the Republic of Mozambique. Prior to that, he served as the Minister of Transport and Communications from January  2015 to January  2020.

He graduated in Mechanical Engineering in 1987 at Eduardo Mondlane University, having subsequently done (in 1993) a postgraduate degree in Ports and Navigation from the International Maritime Academy in Netherlands.

Carlos Mesquita is a mechanical engineer by profession, he worked at the Mozambique Railways as an engineer between 1987 and 1998. From 1998 to 2015 he was the Managing Director of Coornelder Mozambique. He was the leader of the supervision group for the Macuti housing complex between 1993 and 2006. He served as honorary consul of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, in Beira, from 1999 to 2014. He served as the Board of Directors of the National Institute of the Navy (INAMAR), between 2007 and 2014. He assumed the position of Administrator of Beira Grain Terminal, SA, from 2009 to 2015.

In 2001, Mesquita was Director of Porto da Beira, in the company of Ports and Railways of Mozambique (CFM), at the time considered the best company of the 100 largest in Mozambique. Between 2000 and 2015, he received several merit awards in business management.

The mechanical engineer has been a member of the Frelimo party, and of the SIMPIOC-Estiva Association, in Beira, since 1998.

Source: https://www.biografia.co.mz/

Celso Ismael Correia was born at Maputo on 18^th of July 1978. He served as Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development of Mozambique.

Correia began his studies in Maputo and continued in South Africa. On his return to Mozambique in 2001 he founded the \INSITEC Group, one of Mozambique’s largest investors conglomerates. Later, he became the CEO of the Nacala Development Corridor and of the Mozambique’s Investment Commercial Bank (BCI). He was elected to the FRELIMO Central Committee at the 10th Congress in 2012 and was head of Filipe Nyusi’s election campaign office in 2014.

Source: https://live.worldbank.org/

Carmelita Rita Namashulua (Dar-es-Salaam 2 December 1962) is a Mozambican politician,  who served as Minister of Education and Human Development.

Namashulua attended her primary school in Tunduro, Tanzania. After Independence, she came to Mozambique and studied at FRELIMO Secondary School in Ribaué until 1981, where she finished secondary school.

Between 1982 and 1983, she attended and concluded the course of Mathematics and Physics at the Faculty of Education of Eduardo Mondlane University (UEM) in Maputo. Later she attended the Pedagogical University, also in Maputo, where she obtained a degree in Psycho-Pedagogy in 1994.

Throughout her professional career, Carmelita Namashulua has always worked in Maputo city. She was a Physics teacher at Josina Machel Secondary School, between 1984 and 1996. She was also the Physics Delegate School, between 1985 and 1987, and Pedagogical Director, between 1998 and 2001. Outside her teaching career, Carmelita Namashulua was Coordinator of Support Programs for Vulnerable Women in the Office of the First Lady, from 1994 to 2001. In 1998, she was Advisor to the National Institute of Social Action for income generating activities.

Between 2001 and 2005 she was the National Coordinator of the “Terre de Hommes”, based in Germany. Carmelita Namashulua was awarded the Socialist Emulation in 1985.

She served as Minister of State Administration and Public Service, between 2015 and 2020. In the five-year period from 2010 to 2014, she was also Minister of State Administration.

She is a member of the FRELIMO Party and since September 2006 has been a member of the Central Committee and the Secretariat of the Central Committee. She professes the Christian religion in the Catholic Church. She is the mother of two children. She speaks Shimakonde, Kiswahili, Portuguese and English. Her hobbies are reading, listening to music and caring for plants.

Source: https://www.mmo.co.mz/pessoa/carmelita-rita-namashulua/#ixzz6T6FneIAE

Armindo Daniel Tiago served as the Minister of Health of the Republic of Mozambique from June 2022 to January 2025. Prior to his appointment to the position of Minister of Health, he was Vice-Rector of the Eduardo Mondlane University for the Administration and Resources Area.

He holds a PhD in Cardiovascular Disease Genetics (2003), from the University of Witwatersrand, Republic of South Africa; Degree in Medicine (1993), by Eduardo Mondlane University (UEM); and Specialist Doctor in Endocrinology (2009), from Maputo Central Hospital, with an internship at Hospital Inkosi Albert Lithuli, Durban, Republic of South Africa. His areas of interest in health research includes, malaria, diabetes mellitus, high blood pressure and medical education. In these areas, he is the author or co-author of several scientific articles and didactic and normative manuals. In the same areas, he organized and participated in several national and international scientific events. He was Director of the Office of Medical Education (2012-2015), due to his duties, Coordinator of Academic Quality and Deputy Director for Teaching at the Faculty of Medicine of UEM.

He is a member of socio-professional organizations, such as the Medical Association of Mozambique; Academy of Sciences of Mozambique; and Order of Doctors of Mozambique.
He also assumes the Presidency of the Mozambican Association of Diabetics (AMODIA) and, through it, is a Member of the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) and President of the Malaria Technical Advisory Committee.  He was a non-executive member of the National Council for the Evaluation of the Quality of Higher Education (CNAQ) and of the installation commissions of the University of Lúrio and Ordem dos Médicos de Moçambique, having also been a member of the Academic Council of UEM (2012-2017), as a representative of the Medical Sciences area.

Source: MISAU

Eldevina Materula, also known as Kika Materula served as Minister of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Mozambique from January 2020 to January 2025.

Eldevina Materula began her musical studies at the age of 7 at the National School of Music in Maputo (Mozambique). In 1995, already in Portugal, she continued her musical studies and had the first contact with oboe. She finished her degree at ESML in the class of Andrew Swinnerton (oboe), and Olga Prats (Chamber Music). At the Malmö Academy of Music, she finished her post-graduate studies in the class of Professor Bjorn Carl Nielsen. She has performed concerts from North to South of Portugal, as well as in Spain, Germany, France, Denmark, Sweden, Angola, Mozambique, Brazil, among others. In 2001, he won the XVI edition of the Young Musicians Award in the oboe category.

She collaborated as a guest with the Orquestra Clássica da Madeira, Orquestra de Câmara de Cascais e Oeiras, Orquestra Sinfonieta de Lisboa, Orquestra Gulbenkian, Malmö Symphonie Orchestra (Sweden), Malmö Opera Orchestra, Danish Radio Sinfonietta (Denmark), Orquestra Sinfónica da Bahia (Brazil), Kwazulu Natal Philharmonic Orchestra (South Africa) among others.

She played solo with the Chamber Orchestra of Cascais and Oeiras, National Tagus Orchestra, Gulbenkian Orchestra (PJM 2001), Symphony Orchestra of Bahia, Portuguese Chamber Orchestra, Kwazulu Philarmonic Orchestra and with the Johannesburg Festival Orchestra.

As a teacher she worked at the Évora Professional School of Music, the Palmela School of Music, the Neojibá Project (Brazil) and the Costa Cabral Academy of Music. She is a guest teacher at the Neojibá Social Project (Brazil).

She is currently a soloist with the Porto Casa da Música Symphonic Orchestra.

Eldevina Materula, was Artistic Director of the Xiquitsi/Temporada de Música Clássica de Maputo Project since its foundation in 2013, and in May 2016 was awarded the medal of the Order of Merit the Infant D. Henrique by the President of the Portuguese Republic – Professor Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.

Source: MITUR

Born in October 30 1960 in Macia, Ana Comoana served as  Minister of State Administration and Civil Service of Mozambique.

She began her primary studies at the Swiss Mission Primary School in Macia and completed the primary level in 1973. She then studied at Liceu Joaquim de Araújo and completed basic secondary education in 1976. She attended  technical education at Escola Comercial de Maputo/Instituto Comercial until 1979. In 1998, Ana Comoana obtained her degree in Law at the Faculty of Law of the Eduardo Mondlane University (UEM). In 2007, she obtained from the same university, the Master’s degree in legal-Economic Sciences and, in 2014, she holds a PhD in the same area of studies, from the University of Lisbon, Portugal.

From 1981 to 1990, Ana Comoane was a teacher at Escola Comercial and from 1998 to 2010 she taught at UEM, Instituto Superior de Ciências e Tecnologia de Moçambique (ISCTEM) and Universidade São Tomás de Moçambique (USTM).

A lawyer by profession, Ana Comoane has taken on several managerial and management positions in her career. From 1997 to 2001, she was Head of the Department of Industrial Activities and Member of the Mozambique Steel Board of Directors. Between 2001 and 2003, she held the position of Head of the Licensing and Registration Department at the Ministry of Tourism. From 2003 to 2010, she assumed the position of National Director of Tourism and was Coordinator of the team responsible for Tourism Sector Legislation.

During the same period, she was a member of the Superior Council of the Judiciary in the analysis of tourism projects and, from 2002 to 2010, she was Coordinator of the Privatization process. From 2010 to 2015 she was Governor of Manica Province. Ana Comoana is a member of the Mozambican Bar Association since 2000.

Prior to her position as Minister of State and Public Works she served as Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism.

She is a member of the Frelimo Party and its Central Committee.

Source: MMO

Helena Mateus Kida served as Minister of Justice, Constitutional and Religious Affairs of the Republic of Mozambique from January 2020 to January 2025.

Helena Mateus Kida was born on 12th of October 1971 in Metangula district, Niassa province.

Kida did her primary studies at Frelimo School in Maputo until 1986. She continued her secondary education at the Francisco Manyanga Secondary School, where she finished her level in 1988.

She attended and graduated from the Eduardo Mondlane University Law School (UEM) in 1997 and in 2004 she completed her master’s degree in Law at the Federal University of Bahia-UFBA in Salvador da Bahia, Brazil. Later, in 2005, he completed the initial course for entry to the Judiciary at the Centre for Legal and Judiciary Training.

Judicial Magistrate by profession, Kida, from 2006 to 2008 served as District Judge of the Chibuto Judicial Court in Gaza province. From 2008 to 2010 she was also assigned as Judge at Boane District Court, from 2010 to 2011, Kida moved as Judge to the 3rd Section of Kampfumo District Court in Maputo City Judicial Court and from 2011 to 2015 she was assigned as Judge at the Criminal Investigation Section of Maputo Province Judicial Court, and from 2015 to 2017 she moved to the 4th Labour Section of the same Court. In 2017, she was transferred to the Police Court, and in the same year she was assigned to the position of Deputy Minister of Interior.

Source: MJCR

Mozambican Politician

Afonso Macacho Marceta Dhlakama was a Mozambican politician and the leader of RENAMO, an anti-communist guerrilla movement that fought the FRELIMO government in the Mozambican Civil War before signing.

Born: January 1, 1953 Sofala Province

Died: May 3, 2018 

Party: RENAMO

Spouse: Dona Rosario (m. 1980)

Parents: Nhundasse Massambajene

Siblings: Elias Marceta Dhlakama

Source:  Wikipedia

Ernesto Max Elias Tonela served as Minister of Economy and Finance of Mozambique from March 2022 to August 2024.

He is an economist trained at Universidade Eduardo Mondlane.

Max Tonela also served as Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, from December 2017 to March 2022.

He was finance director of Electricidade de Moçambique (EdM) in the era in which it was run by Jacinto Veloso. He was the Administrator of Hidroeléctrica de Cahora Bassa (HCB).

He served as Minister of Industry and Commerce between 2015 and 2017.

Source: CIP

Steven Le Vourc’h / Saint-Louis Studio (File photo)

Oswaldo Armindo Faquir Petersburgo is a Mozambican politician, who served as Secretary of State for Youth and Employment.

He was born on April 22, 1984, in Milange district, Zambezia province. He is the son of Armindo dos Santos Petersburgo, and Emuna Ismael Cassamo Faquir Petersburgo.

Oswaldo Petersburg began his studies at Quelimane Primary School and finished primary school in 1995. He then attended secondary school at 25 September School and completed the level in 2002. He did his higher education at the Mozambique Institute of Science and Technology (ISCTEM) and obtained a degree in 2006. Petersburg has a degree in Sociology in Public Management.

Oswaldo Petersburgo has taken on several functions throughout his professional career: He was Director of the company Domus, SA, between 2014 and 2015; he was a member of STEMA’s corporate bodies from 2010 to 2014; he assumed the position of President of the National Youth Council, from 2009 to 2014, and Consultant of Global Suny Corporation, from 2007 to 2011.

Oswaldo Petersburgo was, between 2009 and 2013, simultaneously President of the Youth Forum of the CPLP (FJ-CPLP) and President of the Assembly Board of this collective. He led the development of a standard research tool including training in the provinces and the design of electronic terminals at the Single Service Counters (BAU) for the Public Service. He worked and collaborated in the drafting of the regulations for pre-professional training courses.

He was an advisor on the drafting of Agenda 2025, vision and future of the nation, member of the Honour Committee of the X African Games in Maputo in 2011 and received a diploma of Honour from the Ministry of Planning and Development.

Source: MMO

Political leader

Samora Moisés Machel was a Mozambican military commander, revolutionary socialist leader, and eventual President of Mozambique.

Born: September 29, 1933, Gaza Province

Died: October 19, 1986, Mbuzini, South Africa

Succeeded by: Joaquim Chissano

Spouse: Graça Machel (m. 1975–1986), Josina Mutemba (m. 1969–1971)

Children: Samito Machel, Idelson Machel, Olívia Machel, more

Books: Samora Machel, an African revolutionary, more

Source: Wikipedia

Eduardo Chivambo Mondlane served as the founding President of the Mozambican Liberation Front from 1962, the year that FRELIMO was founded in Tanzania, until his assassination in 1969.

Born: June 20, 1920, Manjacaze

Died: February 3, 1969, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Party: FRELIMO

Books: The struggle for Mozambique, Eduardo Mondlane

Education: University of Lisbon University of the Witwatersrand(1949), Oberlin College, Northwestern University

Organizations founded: FRELIMO

Source: Wikipedia

Marcelino dos Santos (20 May 1929 – 11 February 2020) was a Mozambican poet, revolutionary, and statesman. As a young man he traveled to Portugal and France for education. He is a founding member of the Frente de Libertação de Moçambique (FRELIMO) party.  Marcelino dos Santos, served as FRELIMO deputy president from 1969 to 1977. Later, he was pointed Minister of Economic Development and the party Political Bureau member. From 1987 to 1994 was member of the Assembly of the Republic and as of 1999, remained a member of the FRELIMO Central Committee.

Poet and Mozambican politician, Marcelino dos Santos, or Kalungano or Lilinho Micaia as he was known, was born in 1929, in Lumbo, Mozambique. A renowned poet and Mozambican political activist, he joined the Portuguese society when he went to Lisbon to do his higher studies. Marcelino dos Santos, a young connoisseur and concerned with the realities of the Mozambican people, began his participation in the House of Students of Império in Lisbon – an unofficial organization that was forcibly removed from the Portuguese government’s end by generations of African students who ” transformed “into the most powerful and special platform for the dissemination and dissemination of African authors that it was impossible to edit in Africa.

His texts describe the fate of the colonized, a victim of society and unable to achieve a means of liberation, but an extreme believer in the possibility of turning his destiny and moving from persecuted to persecutor. On the other hand, and by opening a perfectly antithetical line, the song of Marcelino dos Santos is no longer of the so-called “mulata poetry”, which sought an identification, a proper authenticity, a definition of the land. More advanced and confronted with other socio-political constraints, another Africa, in short, Marcelino dos Santos opposed a poetry that outlined a situation and a massification of truly Mozambican wills.Already within the guerrilla period of the armed struggle in Mozambique, Marcelino dos Santos, now freed from the nightmare of censorship, raised the voice and gesture that proclaimed the material of destruction of the demons of colonialism, in the purest attempt to sing for liberation, arriving even to say, in one of his most striking poems, “Yes, mom / it is necessary to plant / by the paths of freedom / the new tree / of National Independence.” Marcelino dos Santos, whose political militancy would have displaced the poetic production of a deeply Mozambican substrate, is still considered today as one of the most significant voices of the affirmation of a truly Mozambican poetry.

Born: May 20^th, 1929

Died: February 11, 2020

Party: FRELIMO

Higino Francisco de Marrule is the  coordinator of the second Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) programme in Mozambique. He served as Minister of Agriculture and Food Security of Mozambique from December 2017 to January 2020. Previously, Marrule was the Mozambique representative of VUNA, a regional program funded by DFID and administered by Adam Smith International.

Higino de Marrule has been at the forefront of planning and promotion of agricultural development in Mozambique for several years as a senior policy analyst for the MINAG/USAID/Michigan State University Food Security project and as coordinator and head of the Policy Analysis Department of the Ministry of Agriculture.

While in the Ministry of Agriculture (MINAG), Higino de Marrule led the technical group for the Agricultural Development Strategy project from October 2005 to February 2006. He was also a member of the central MINAG group for the design of the National Agricultural Programme Phase II (ProAgri II). As a member of the TechnoServe team in Mozambique, he recently worked as manager of the poultry programme.

Graça Machel DBE is a Mozambican politician and humanitarian. She is the widow of former South African president Nelson Mandela and of Mozambican president Samora Machel. 

Born: October 17, 1945 Gaza Province

Education: University of Lisbon

Party: FRELIMO

Spouse: Nelson Mandela (m. 1998–2013), Samora Machel (m. 1975–1986)

Children: Josina Z. Machel, Malengani Machel

Books: The impact of war on children

Source: Wikipedia

Steven Le Vourc’h / Saint-Louis Studio (File photo)

Maria Alice Mabota (8 April 1949 – 12 October 2023) was a Mozambican human rights activist and president of the Mozambique Human Rights League.

Renowned Mozambican lawyer and social activist Alice Mabote served as president of the Human Rights League of Mozambique, where she stood out for her strong social intervention.

Maria Alice Mabota was born in 1949, at the Hospital de Sºao José de Lhanguene, now called Hospital Geral José Macamo, in the City of Maputo.

In 1995, together with other Mozambican activists and intellectuals, Mabota founded the Human Rights League of Mozambique.

In 2019, Alice Mabota presented her candidacy for the Presidency of the Republic, in the general elections that took place on December 15th. The formalization was done through the Democratic Alliance Coalition (CAD), which, in this way, made history with Mabota as the first woman to ever to run for President of Mozambique.

Alice Mabota died in a hospital in South Africa on 12 October 2023, at the age of 74

Source: Wikipedia / O País

Luísa Dias Diogo, (born 11 April 1958) was Prime Minister of Mozambique from February 2004 to January 2010. She replaced Pascoal Mocumbi, who had been Prime Minister for the previous nine years. Before becoming Prime Minister, she was Minister of Planning and Finance, and she continued to hold that post until February 2005.  She was the first female Prime Minister of Mozambique. . In 1980, she began working in Mozambique’s Finance Ministry. Became a department’s head in 1986 and in 1989 became national budget director. Then she worked for the World Bank as program officer in Mozambique. In 1994, she joined the FRELIMO government as Deputy Minister of Finance.

Diogo is a member of the Council of Women World Leaders, an international network of current and former women presidents and prime ministers whose mission is to mobilize the highest-level women leaders globally for collective action on issues of critical importance to women and equitable development. Actually, she is the Barclays Administration Council President.

Born: April 11, 1958

Spouse: Albano Silva.

Education:Bachelor degree in Economics-Eduardo Mondlane University, Maputo.

Master degree in Financial Economics-School of Oriental and African studies, University of London.

Party: FRELIMO

Source: Wikipedia

Athlete

Maria de Lurdes Mutola is a retired female track and field athlete from Mozambique who has specialised in the 800 metres. She was born in Maputo, hence the nickname of “The Maputo Express”. She is the fourth athlete to compete at six Olympic Games. 

Born: October 27, 1972 Maputo

Weight: 61 kg

Education: Springfield High School

Olympic medals: Athletics at the 1996 Summer Olympics – Women’s 800 metres, more

Nominations: Laureus World Sports Award for Sportswoman of the Year

Source: Wikipedia

Writer

António Emílio Leite Couto, better known as Mia Couto, is a Mozambican writer and the winner of the 2014 Neustadt International Prize for Literature. 

Born: July 5, 1955 Beira

Spouse: Patrícia Couto

Movies: The Last Flight of the Flamingo, Sleepwalking Land

Children: Rita Couto, Madyo Dawany

Parents: Maria de Jesus, Fernando Couto

Source: Wikipedia

Paulina Chiziane  is an author of novels and short stories in the Portuguese language. She studied at Eduardo Mondlane University, Maputo. She was born to a Protestant family that moved from Gaza to the capital Maputo (then Lourenço Marques) during the writer’s early childhood. At home she spoke Chopi andRonga.

Chiziane was the first woman in Mozambique to publish a novel. Her writing has generated some polemical discussions about social issues, such as the practice of polygamy in the country. For example, her first novel, Balada do Amor ao Vento (1990), discusses polygamy in southern Mozambique during the colonial period. Related to her active involvement in the politics of Frelimo (Liberation Front of Mozambique), her narrative often reflects the social uneasiness of a country ravaged and divided by the war of liberation and the civil conflicts that followed independence. Her novel “Niketche: Uma História de Poligamia“ won the José Craveirinha Prize in 2003.^[3]

Born: June 4, 1955

Education: Eduardo Mondlane University, Maputo.

Source: Wikipedia.

Gonçalo Mabunda, born in 1975 in Maputo, in Mozambique, is a Mozambican designer and sculptor.

Gonçalo Mabunda educated in Mozambique and South Africa and has worked as a full time artist since 1997. He uses his furniture, including thrones, and their anthropomorphic sculptures, weapons, which were collected in 1992 after sixteen years of armed conflict in Mozambique. He had his first exhibition outside of Mozambique in 1995, Tech Icon Natal in Durban, South Africa.

He made ​​the sculpture prize of the Clinton Global International Citizen Awards in 2008. He has been asked to participate in delutställningen All The World’s Futures at the Venice Biennale 2015th.

Gonçalo Mabunda lives and works in Maputo.

Born: 1975

Place of Birth: Maputo, Mozambique

Education: In Mozambique and South Africa

Jose Alberto Basto Pereira Forjaz { 1936 Coimbra, Portugal- June 25, 2024. Lisbon, Portugal)

The architect Jose Forjaz worked in Sub-Saharian Africa since the early 1960s and after serving as National Director of housing for seven years , was that Country’s  Secretary of State for physical planning. He has also designed in Swaziland, Tanzania, Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Kenya. Forjaz searched to make an architecture that was not merely Eurocentric, but which found reasons for its forms within the local culture.

Education

Diploma in Architecture with distinction

Fine Arts School of Oporto, Portugal 1966

Master of Science in Architecture, Columbia, University, New York, U.S.1968

Professional Membership and Registration

Licensed to practice architecture in Portugal, Mozambique, South Africa.

Member of the South African Council For Architect 1990

Member of the South African Institute of Architect 1969

Member of the Associação dos Arquitectos Portugueses 1991

Source: www.joseforjazarquitectos.com

Born in 1977 in Maputo, Filipe Branquinho grew up as son of a photojournalist who was well connected in the art community. Thus the artist was early on confronted with the work of such famous Mozambican photographers as Ricardo Rangel, Kok Nam, and José Cabral. Branquinho studied architecture in Brazil but was always interested in photography, and pursued that passion when returning to Mozambique.

The photographer finds his subjects on strolls through the city. He started the project by photographing urban public employees, but then quickly moved on to also taking pictures of workers in other professions—athletes, firemen, domestic workers—and homeless people and kids. “Occupations” turned into a study of how people spend their time in the urban environment.

Branquinho’s current work includes the cinematography for short films under the titleJourney to the Center of Capricorn, directed by the Mozambican artist Rui Tenreiro. The short films point to the power and complexity of urban structures in constant degradation: “At the top of the gray anthill, in the center and at the zenith of this structure is the imperial cabinet, symbol of revolution and national power.”

Born: 1977

Place of Birth: Maputo, Mozambique

Education: Graduated in Architecture by UEM (Universidade Eduardo Mondlane, Maputo / Mozambique) and attended the same course at UEL (Universidade Estadual de Londrina / Brazil)

Source: Wikipedia

Naguib Elias Abdula was born in 1955, in the Mozambican province of Tete. With his work exhibited at the United Nations headquarters and at the Vatican, painter and muralist Naguib Elias is one of Mozambique’s most renowned living artists.

Born: 1955

Place of Birth: Tete, Mozambique

Exhibitions: United Nations headquarters and at the Vatican

Source: Wikipedia

Born in 1941, Roberto Chichorro spent his childhood in the Mafalala, suburban area of Lourenço Marques, the frontier between the cement city of the whites and the cane city of the blacks. A mulato, he is himself a frontier between two cultures and constantly paints his childhood memories using a highly colored palette where, in the words of Ana Mafaida Leite, “The parodised Chagailian backgrounds open one’s eyes to the intensity of a magical, almost imponderable floating world”. Chichorro lived in Mozambique until 1983 and held several one-man exhibitions both there and in Luanda, as well as participating in numerous exhibitions in Mozambique and abroad. In 1973 he received the “Acquisition” prize at the Angola Modern Art Salon.

In 1983 he went to Spain on a scholarship from the Spanish government to study ceramics and engraving. He had several exhibitions of his own there and participated in a number of others. In 1986 he went to

Portugal on a scholarship from the Portuguese General Directorate for Cooperation and is still there, exhibiting both individually and collectively. In Portugal he has received an Honorable Mention at the Obidos Biennal in 1991. In 1997 he held a one-man exhibition in Maputo.

He is represented in the National Art Museum, the Lisbon Contemporary Art Museum and in public and official collections in Mozambique and other countries including Brazil, Italy, Tanzania and the United States.

“Acquisition” prize at the Angola Modern Art Salon, 1973. Honorable Mention at the Casino do Estoril Autumn Salon, Portugal, 1987. Honorable Mention at the Obidos Biennal, Portugal, 1991.

Born: 1941, Mafalala

Place of Birth: Mafalala, Lourenço Marques

Source: Wikipedia

Clarisse Machanguana (born 4 October 1976) is a professional Mozambican basketball. She is a successful role model and example of determination and dedication, with the potential to influence an entire generation of youth with her visionary spirit. She had a childhood dream of becoming a lawyer, but instead, her height and dexterity allowed her a twenty-two year career in professional basketball. She played in the Women’s National Basketball Association in the United States, and in Portugal, Spain, Italy, Brazil, France and Korea.

Fluent in four languages, and skilled at writing and motivating people to action, she has recently published her first book aimed at inspiring readers to pursue their life dreams. She has recently returned to her home country, Mozambique, and is now channeling her efforts toward youth through the work of her organization Fundação Clarisse Machanguana. She aspires to motivate a generation of young people to pursue their dreams through the powerful vehicles of sports, health and education.

Born: October 4, 1976.

Playing Career: 1999-2002.

Career history: 1999-200, Los Angeles Sparks.

2001-Charlotte Sting.

2002-Orlando Miracle.

Source: fcm.org.mz

Elisa Domingas Jamisse mostly known by her stage name ‘Mingas’ is a Mozambican singer. Born in the capital city, Maputo in Mozambique Mingas started to sing at a very early age. Her music is a mixture of Afro sounds that gives prominence to the rhythms of the Chope people of southern Mozambique, and she is one of the most famous singers of Marrabenta. Her career is marked with big hits and collaborations with major African singers like Miriam Makeba, Hugh Masekela, Angélique Kidjo, Baba Maal, Yvonne Chaka Chaka, Jimmy Dludlu, Gilberto Gil, among others.

Born: Maputo.

Albums: Vuka Africa, Vhumela.

Source: Wikipedia.

Lucrecia Paco is a Mozambican international actress.  Born and raised in colonial context, when cultural expressions were not authorized, and practices like speaking bantu languages, sing and dance traditional sounds were things that the Portuguese colonial masters didn’t accept. However, the natives used to find a way out to do it. In 1975, when Mozambique became free country, the culture was one of the channels that the government used to disseminate policies. As such, around the 80s, numerous theater groups we formed within the neighborhoods. Tchova xita duma was one of them and Lucrecia Paco was part of it.  In 1984, after participating in the documentary Maputo Mulher, she realized the importance of arts within society. Few years later, she joined Mutumbela Gogo, the  theater group where she became professional and still remains  there today as actress.

Born: October 19, 1969

Theater  Group: Mutumbela Gogo.

Source: www.biografia.co.mz

Neyma began her career when she appeared on the Fantasia TV singing competition, in which she took in the second place. However, her breakthrough came when she was given a recording contract and in 1999 released her first album, Brigas. It featured the popular singles “Brigas”, “Mae virtude mais bela” and the well received single, “Praia feliz”, which won her much publicity. The success of the album Brigas led her to release Baila in 2000 and Renascer in 2001. But it was Arromba, released in 2005, that brought Neyma back into the spotlight as an acclaimed singer who was internationally recognized as a major singing sensation from Mozambique and the Lusophone world. In early 2010, she released her sixth album, entitled Neyma 10 Anos in acknowledgement of her 10 years in the Mozambican music industry.

Born: May 6, 1979 (age 37) in Maputo, Mozambique.

Genres: Marrabenta, Kizomba, Afro-Zouk.

Occupation: Singer.

Years active: 1999-Present.

Source: Wikipedia.

Ethnomusicologist

Moreira Chonguica is an ethnomusicologist, saxophonist, songwriter and producer. 

Born: February 13, 1977 Mozambique

Film music credits: Virgin Margarida

Education: University of Cape Town, South African College of Music

Source: Wikipedia

Band

Ghorwane is a Mozambican marrabenta band. It was founded in 1983. The band got its name after the lake of the same name in the province of Gaza. 

Active from: 1983

Albums: Kudumba, Vana-Va-Ndota, Não é Preciso Empurrar!,Majurugenta

Source: Wikipedia

Singer

Stewart Sukuma is undoubtedly the most dynamic and revolutionary Mozambican musician of the moment, committed to divulging the music of his country in the world.

He is also a television presenter, currently presenting a tourism program called “Txopela Moçambique” and a full-time social activist. Stewart Sukuma became in 2012 the first Mozambican musician to register a brand and consequently launch a perfume: fusiON.

Music: Stewart Sukuma combines traditional and contemporary Mozambican music with revolutionary instrumentation to create an energetic and danceable sound that can be called Afro / Pop / Jazz. Contagious rhythms mixed with sweet but powerful melodies carry a message of hope but at the same time it would revolutionize new times in Africa and the world, challenging the laziest foot for a dance and the laziest head for a reflection of the role that music plays in communication with the masses. History: Born in Cuamba, a small village in the Mozambican province of Niassa, Sukuma won his first guitar at a charity event when he was a young boy. In 1997, five years after the end of the country’s civil war, he recorded his first album, Afrikiti, which opened space for many other Mozambican artists to do the same. Since then, the musician has toured Europe, Africa, the United States and the Caribbean, performing at major festivals such as Beat Apartheid! Houston International Festival, alongside legends such as Miriam Makeba, Hugh Masekela, Abdullah Ibrahim, Gilberto Gil, Jimmy Dludlu, Mike Del Ferro and others … In 2009, Stewart Sukuma and his legendary Nkhuvu Band renewed once again the votes of Mozambican popular music in a historical tour through Europe where they participated in 21 concerts including the legendary festivals of Kasumama in Austria, Tom de Festa and World Music LX in Portugal and still at the Lent Festival in Slovenia.The most desired reunion of this musician’s career comes when Elizah, singer gaucha introduces him to the CASA GRANDE project in New Olinda in Brazil where he participated in the sample of the culture of the Portuguese Language Countries to Filipe Mukenga’s Lab, Elizah Rodrigues. In this project he met the arts director of the Cultural Center of ITAU Sao Paulo, who invites him to participate in four shows in the Antidoto project with the Band Afroreggae of RJ, accompanied by other figures of Brazilian music such as:Jardes Macale, Arnaldo Antunes and others not less important.  Stewart Sukuma became the most awarded Mozambican musician of the largest festival of the popular song of Mozambique: the Ngoma, with 3 prizes of the Most Popular Music. Bilboard magazine of June 7, 1997 conferred on Stewart Sukuma the same level of Pope Wemba and other consecrated African musicians. Stewart Sukuma is a member of the African Evaluation and Consultation Committee of the African Scholars Program of the Berklee College of Music (USA / Boston / Mass) where other great African artists such as Angelique Kidjo, Richard Bona, Bakiti Kumalo, Lionel Loueke and Mulato Astakte. Social ProjectsSukuma links his music to social aspects, working in coordination with national HIV / AIDS campaigns, with the National Elections Commission, UNICEF and other humanitarian aid organizations with the goal of expanding knowledge about HIV / AIDS, the importance of Voting and Human Rights. In March 2010 Stewart Sukuma signs a partnership agreement with UNICEF. In 2012 he is appointed by Unicef the Ambassador of Good Will. Nkhuvu / Celebration: In November 2007, Sukuma released the album, “Nkhuvu”, which means “Celebration” featuring great musicians like Lokua Kanza, Jimmy Dludlu, Bonga, Artur Maia and Elizah – just to name a few. In this album, Sukuma sings in Portuguese, English, Shitswa, Ekoti, Shangana, Gitonga, Ciyao and Shimakonde, most languages never represented on a single Mozambican album. Inspired by Bantu languages, the base of various parts of Mozambique, Angola and Guinea-Bissau, Sukuma captured the voice of Africa Lusofona.

Marrabenta Series: (Marrabenta & Derivados)In addition to research projects in traditional Mozambican music, Stewart Sukuma has also been promoting popular music and since 2010 has started a project to record and promote the most popular contemporary style in and outside the country: Marrabenta. Songs such as Felizminha, Xitchuketa Marrabenta, Vale a Pena Casar? e carangueijo are authentic hymns to the musical style originating in the traditional rhythm Magika reinvented in the famous District of Mafalala where the great footballer Eusebio and the poetess Noemia de Sousa were born. Stewart Sukuma thus became the first interpreter of Marrabenta sung in Portuguese, since other interpretations were usually made in Ronga, a predominantly spoken language in Maputo Province. Discography: 1997: Afrikiti Feat. Hugh Masekela, George Lee and Jimmy Dludlu / CCP Records / EMI / Tropical Music 1998: New African World Beat Vol 4 / Star Pool / Universal 2000: Mozambique Relief / Naxos World 2003: Music from CPLP / Marcelo Salazar 2006: Tales of Mozambique / Sheer Sound 2007: Nkhuvu / Celebration Feat: Lokua kanza, Bonga, Jimmy Dludlu, Elizah … / nstudio 2008: Kizomba Mix / Vidisco 2010: Single Xitchuketa Marrabenta / nstudio2011: Single Carangueijo / Globe Music2012: 30 Years of Career / Compilation / Vidisco2013: African Journey Television programsFama Show 2005/07/08Attraction 2010Txopela Mozambique 20122013 Mega Show Awards & ReviewsAwards & Distinctions:Award for Best Performance / EME / 1982 Press Award / Ngoma Mocambique 1992 Prize of the Most Popular Song / Ngoma Mocambique 1994 Prize of the Best Song / Ngoma Mocambique 1996 Prize of the Song Most Popular / Ngoma Mozambique 2008 Mozart Prize / UNESCO / Best Musico 1997 Cultural Personality 2008 / Jornal Noticias MMA 2009 Best Light Music AwardBest Male Video Channel O Awards 2005 (Nomination) Most Popular Music Award in MMA (Mozambique Music Awards) 2009 Most Popular Music Award / Ngoma Mozambique 2010 Best Alternative Music Award MOAMAS 2010Prize Best Duet cm VJ in MMA 2011Cultural Personality 2012 / Savannah Newspaper

Luis Pereira, known as Stewart Sukuma, is a Mozambican singer. His stage name – Stewart Sukuma – means ‘Rise Up’ in Zulu and ‘Push’ in Swahili. He was born in Cuamba, Niassa Province in Mozambique.

Born: 1963, Cuamba

Education: Berklee College of Music

Journalist

José Craveirinha was a Mozambican journalist, story writer and poet, who is today considered the greatest poet of Mozambique. His poems, written in Portuguese, address such issues as racism and the Portuguese colonial domination of Mozambique. 

Was a Mozambican writer born on May 28, 1922, in Lourenço Marques (now Maputo), and died on February 6, 2003 in South Africa. He was the son of an Algarvian father. His family moved to Mozambique in 1908 in search of fortune. He pursued his studies at the Escola Primeiro de Janeiro that belonged to Freemasonry. As a teenager, he began attending the African Association. He collaborated in the African Brado, which dealt with matters of a local nature and which concerned mainly the most unprotected population. He campaigned against racism in Noticias, where he worked, and was the first journalist to be officially unionized. In 1958, he also began to work in the National Press. He continued in Noticias until the founding of the newspaper A Tribuna in 1962. Between 1964 and 1968 he was arrested because of his connection to FRELIMO but had the opportunity to meet the painter Malangatana in prison.

He began to write at an early stage, but his poetry took time to be published. In Lisbon, the first work to emerge was Xigubo, in 1964, through the House of Students of Império. From a certain point, the author’s political awareness began to be reflected in works such as “O Grito” and “O Tambor”.His poetry has a social character that lies in the deepest layers of the Mozambican people. Writer of affective links with Portugal, he was awarded the Camões Prize in 1991 and received decorations from the presidents of Portugal and Mozambique, Jorge Sampaio and Joaquim Chissano respectively.

Vice-president of the Bibliographic Fund of Portuguese Language, a writer awarded the “Literary Life” prize of the Association of Mozambican Writers, was honored on May 28, 2002, following the initiative of the Mozambican government to consecrate the year 2002 to José Craveirinha.

Born: May 28, 1922, Maputo

Died: February 6, 2003, Maputo

Source: Plural Editores

(Real name Rogério Dinis) is a Mozambican singer of Reggaeton and Pandza and was the host of the television program “Músicas d ‘ África” for RTP. MC Roger revealed as a Mozambican music star in his appearance on the hit ” O que esta a dar ” alongside rapper Zito Doggystyle. So far he has released 10 albums and several videos. His work involves the support and participation of several national music icons such as Doppaz, Mr. Arssen and many others.

Singer

Humberto Carlos Benfica, known as Wazimbo, is one of the greatest voices of Mozambique and one of the most famous marrabenta singers. 

Born: November 11, 1948 Mozambique

Albums: Luso Noir – Music from Portuguese-Speaking Africa

Source: Wikipedia

Poet

Malangatana Valente Ngwenya was a Mozambican painter and poet. He frequently exhibited work under his first name alone, as Malangatana. He died on 5 January 2011 in Matosinhos, Portugal. 

Born: June 6, 1936, Mozambique

Died: January 5, 2011, Matosinhos, Portugal

Artwork: Death of a man in prison, Female forms, Fruit market, etc.

Source: Wikipedia

Footballer

Eusébio da Silva Ferreira, GCIH, GCM, was a Portuguese footballer who played as a striker. Eusébio is considered one of the greatest footballers of all time. 

Born: January 25, 1942, Maputo

Died: January 5, 2014, Lisbon, Portugal

Height: 1.75 m

Spouse: Flora (m. 1965–2014)

Awards: Ballon d’Or, BBC Overseas Sports Personality of the Year

Children: Carla, Sandra

 Source: Wikipedia

Author

Raul Alves Calane da Silva (born in Maputo, 20th October 1945) is a poet a writer and a Mozambican journalist

Calane da Silva coordinated the Gazeta Artes e Letras from revista Tempo, in 1985, and was a chief editor at Televisão Experimental de Moçambique in 1987.

He was also a Board member of the Association of Mozambican writers.

Some of his published work:

• Dos meninos da Malanga. Maputo: Cadernos Tempo, 1982.

Poetry

• Xicandarinha na lenha do mundo. Maputo: Associação dos Escritores Moçambicanos, 1988. Colecção Karingana.

Contos. Capa de Chichorro.

• Olhar Moçambique. Maputo: Centro de Formação Fotográfica, 1994
• Gotas de Sol. Maputo: Associação dos Escritores Moçambicanos, 2006.
• A Pedagogia do Léxico. O Estiloso Craveirinha. As escolhas leixicais bantus, os neologismos luso-rongas e a sua função estilística e estético-nacionalista nas obras Xigubo e Karingana wa Karingana. Maputo: Imprensa Universitária, 2002.

Publication of the masters thesis.

Preface for Mário Vilela.

• Ao mata bicho: Textos publicados no semanário “O brado Africano”. Lisboa: Texto Editores, 2006
• Nyembêtu ou as Cores da Lágrima. Lisboa: Texto Editores. 2008.

Born: October 20th 1945

Place of Birth: Maputo, Mozambique

Books:  Ricardo Rangel: photographer

Source: Wikipedia

With Euro-Afro-Asian roots, Ricardo Achiles Rangel was born in Lourenço Marques, now Maputo, in 1924. He died in 2009.

Rebel and sensitive, with a willing strength that bordered on stubbornness, he managed, as a teenager, to enter in a photographic laboratory as a dark room assistant, he was later promoted to printer and eventually as the first non-white photo-reporter in the early 50’s.

Rangel documented watershed moments in Mozambique’s troubled history under colonial rule, the lengthy liberation war, until the independence in 1975. He thereafter declined to be an official artist for the revolutionary government and focused on his photographic work as he assumed the direction of the Centre of Photographic Formation in Maputo.

His work is documented in numerous publications and has been exhibited around the world. The series “Our nightly bread” on Maputo’s prostitutes, spanning 20 years, is regarded as a masterpiece of African photography.

Born: 1924

Place of Birth: Lourenço Marques, now Maputo

Died: 2009

Source: Wikipedia

(25 January 1935 – 19 February 1994) born in Manjacaze, Gaza, in the south of Portuguese Mozambique and died in his home in Matola.  Was a sculptor best known for his work using indigenous woods, and sculptures in rock, stone and iron.

Born: 25 January 1935

Place of Birth: Manjacaze, Gaza, Mozambique

Died: 19 February 1994

Source: Wikipedia

Carlos Agostinho do Rosário served as Prime Minister of the Republic of Mozambique from January of 2015 to March 2022.

Prior to that. Rosario was Ambassador of the Republic of Mozambique to Indonesia, with multiple accreditations in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Timor-Leste, functions for which he was entrusted in 2009.

Born on 26^th of October 1954 at the city of Maxixe. Carlos Agostinho do  Rosário holds a Master’s degree in applied Economics in the area of Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development, from Imperial College in Wye – University of London. And Bachelor of Economics from Eduardo Mondlane University – Maputo, Mozambique.

His journey through public and private institutions began in 1977, as a part-time employee at the Ministry of Public Works and Housing, in the Economic and Financial area, where he remained until 1983.

From 1980 to 1982 he was a professor of mathematics, evening course, at the Industrial Institute of Maputo. In 1983, he worked as an Economist at the Citrine Agricultural Company of Manica, in the centre of the country. Four years later, Rosario was appointed to the posts of Governor of the Province of Zambézia and First Secretary of the Provincial Committee of Zambézia.

In 1994, he became a Member of the Assembly of the Republic, having resigned by legal imposition, right at the beginning of the legislature, after being appointed Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries – he was in charge of this area until 1999.
From the late 90s until 2002, his governmental trajectory was interrupted, having only exercised his functions as Member of the Central Committee of the Frelimo Party, a task he has exercised since 1989. In 2002, he held the position of High Commissioner of the Republic of Mozambique in India and Sri Lanka, a mission that ended in 2008.

Source: Biografia (https://www.biografia.co.mz/)

8 feet 0.75 inches (245.7 cm)

Gabriel Monjane (born Gabriel Estêvão Monjane 1944 – 1990) is one of only 16 individuals in medical history to have reached 8 feet or more in height.

Born in Manjacaze, Mozambique, Gabriel Monjane’s abnormal growth, attributed to an overactive pituitary gland, started soon after birth. By the time he was 17, Gabriel Monjane stood 7 feet 10 inches. He joined a Portuguese circus around this age, and was billed as 8 feet 8.3 inches. When measured officially in 1987, Gabriel Monjane was attributed with the height of 8 feet and three quarters of an inch. He also weighed 29 stone and 12 lbs (418 lb).

During his lifetime, especially late into his life, Monjane suffered leg problems and was once crippled after falling and breaking his hip.

The Guinness Book of Records stated that he was the tallest living man in their 1988 edition. Gabriel Monjane died in January 1990 after a fall at his home (supposedly from the stairs), after which Suleiman Ali Nashnush, another African, became the tallest living man.

Eyuphuro is a Mozambican band founded in 1981 by Omar Issa, Gimo Remane and Zena Bacar. Their music is a combination of traditional African music and western popular music. Eyuphuro’s music is sung mostly in Makua, a Bantu language. Name of the band means “whirlwind”.  Eyuphuro released successful album Mama Mosambiki before its breakup in 1990. In 1998 singer Zena Bacar founded Eyuphuro again with new members and in 2001 they released the new album, Yellela.

Albums

• Mama Mosambiki (1990)
• Yellela (2001

Genre: Marrabenta.

Years active: 1981-1991; 2001-Present.

Source: Wikipedia.

Janfar Abdulai was born on 4^th of September 1985 in Pemba, Mozambique. He served as Minister of Transport and Communications from 18 January 2020 to 13 June 2022.

Career economist, he has several degrees in economics and management, with emphasis on Postgraduate studies in Organizational Management and Corporate Responsibility, at Universidade Lúrio (UNILURIO) and Degree in Economics, at Universidade Eduardo Mondlane (UEM).

At the time of his appointment, Dr Janfar Abdulai was a member of the Bank of Mozambique, with an assignment at the Pemba Branch. In his professional profile, his contribution to the Energy Fund (FUNAE) also stands out. He is a Customs Technician and Financial Consultant.

Source: MTC

José Condungua António Pacheco (born 1958 in Sofala Province) was the minister of Foreign Affairs of Mozambique from December 14, 2017 to January 2020. He previously served as minister of Agriculture, from 2010 to 2017; minister of the Interior, from 2005 to 2009; governor of Cabo Delgado Province, from 1998 to 2005; and deputy minister of Agriculture, from 1995 to 1998. He is a certified agricultural technology engineer.

He served as the National Director for Rural Development and from 1981-1990, he was the Provincial Agriculture Director for Zambeze Province. He is a certified Agricultural Technology Engineer. He attended Wye College, University of London, and the universities of Minnesota and Wisconsin-Madison.

Source: Diário de Notícias

Wikipedia (File photo)

Former Minister of Mineral Sources and Energy (October 2016 – December 2017) .

Leticia Klemens was born in August 15^th, 1972 in Maputo. Graduated in Communications in 1998 and in Law in 2005 by the Higher Polytechnic University Institute, Klemens is a well-known business woman.

According to “A Verdade” newspaper, Leticia founded PROSERV Mozambique a company dedicated to the fight against malaria. Furthermore, she was the chairman and founding member of the Association of Mozambican women entrepreneurs. By the time of her nomination, she was the chairman of the shareholders’ meeting of Millennium Bim- a Mozambican commercial bank.

Sources: Wikpedia; “ A Verdade”newspaper

Steven Le Vourc’h / Saint-Louis Studio (File photo)