League of Mozambican Women

Last updated
League of Mozambican Women
Formation1962
Type Women's rights
Location

The League of Mozambican Women, also known by its acronym LIFEMO, was an organization associated with FRELIMO (Mozambique Liberation Front), founded in 1962. Its aim was to support the families of combatants during the war of independence and to spread the principles of the Front. Selina Simango held the presidency and Priscila Gumane the vice-presidency. In addition to participating in the Pan-African Women's Congress, these leaders travelled frequently, establishing a network of support with countries or organizations that collaborated with the struggles for independence in Africa. [1] [2]

However, with the start of the armed conflict in Mozambique, new demands were made. Faced with the need to defend and mobilize the liberated areas, and those still controlled by Portugal, the Destacamento Feminino was created in 1967, a year after the end of LIFEMO. Made up of female guerrillas who had requested military training from the FRELIMO leadership, these combatants occupied territories reserved for men, provoking a revolution in the peasant and conservative areas, delimiting the power and control of men over the productive and reproductive role of women. [3] [4]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mozambique</span> Country in Southeastern Africa

Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique, is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west, and Eswatini and South Africa to the southwest. The sovereign state is separated from the Comoros, Mayotte and Madagascar by the Mozambique Channel to the east. The capital and largest city is Maputo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samora Machel</span> Former president of Mozambique (1933–1986)

Samora Moisés Machel was a Mozambican military commander and political leader. A socialist in the tradition of Marxism–Leninism, he served as the first President of Mozambique from the country's independence in 1975.

Pascoal Manuel Mocumbi was a Mozambican politician who served as Prime Minister from 1994 until 2004. His traditional name was Mahykete.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">FRELIMO</span> Ruling party in Mozambique

FRELIMO is a democratic socialist political party in Mozambique. It is the dominant party in Mozambique and has won a majority of the seats in the Assembly of the Republic in every election since the country's first multi-party election in 1994.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United Nations Operation in Mozambique</span>

The United Nations Operations in Mozambique was a UN peace mission to Mozambique established in December 1992 under Security Council Resolution 797 with the assignment to monitor the implementation of the Rome General Peace Accords agreed upon by the Mozambican president Joaquim Chissano of FRELIMO, the Front for Liberation of Mozambique, and Afonso Dhlakama of RENAMO, the Mozambican National Resistance. The operation was one of the most significant and extensive UN operations and it sought to demobilize and disarm troops, provide humanitarian aid, and oversee the elections. The operation ended in December 1994.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eduardo Mondlane</span> Mozambican politician

Eduardo Chivambo Mondlane was the President of the Mozambican Liberation Front (FRELIMO) from 1962, the year that FRELIMO was founded in Tanzania, until his assassination in 1969. Born in Mozambique, he was an anthropologist by profession, and worked as a history and sociology professor at Syracuse University before returning to Mozambique in 1963.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Armando Guebuza</span> President of Mozambique from 2005 to 2015

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

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mozambican Civil War</span> 1977–1992 civil war in Mozambique

The Mozambican Civil War was a civil war fought in Mozambique from 1977 to 1992. Like many regional African conflicts during the late twentieth century, the impetus for the Mozambican Civil War included local dynamics exacerbated greatly by the polarizing effects of Cold War politics. The war was fought between Mozambique's ruling Marxist Mozambique Liberation Front (FRELIMO), the anti-communist insurgent forces of the Mozambican National Resistance (RENAMO), and a number of smaller factions such as the PRM, UNAMO, COREMO, UNIPOMO, and FUMO.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mozambican War of Independence</span> 1964–1974 armed conflict between Mozambique Liberation Front and Portugal

The Mozambican War of Independence was an armed conflict between the guerrilla forces of the Mozambique Liberation Front or FRELIMO and Portugal. The war officially started on September 25, 1964, and ended with a ceasefire on September 8, 1974, resulting in a negotiated independence in 1975.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Verónica Macamo</span> Mozambican politician

Verónica Nataniel Macamo Dlhovo is a Mozambican politician who has served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs since 2020. She served as the President of the Assembly of the Republic of Mozambique from 2010 to 2020. Dlhovo is a member of Frelimo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marcelino dos Santos</span> Mozambican poet, revolutionary, and politician (1929–2020)

Marcelino dos Santos was a Mozambican poet, revolutionary, and politician. As a young man he travelled to Portugal, and France for an education. He was a founding member of the Frente de Libertação de Moçambique, in 1962, and served as the party's deputy president from 1969 to 1977. He was Minister of Economic Development in the late 1970s, Frelimo Political Bureau member in charge of the economy in the early 1980s, Chairman of the country's parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, from 1987 to 1994, and, as of 1999, remained a member of the Frelimo Central Committee. He represented the left wing of the party, remaining an avowed Marxist-Leninist, despite the party's embrace of capitalism in recent decades, an embrace which dos Santos declared was temporary.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">People's Republic of Mozambique</span> 1975–1990 country in southeast Africa

The People's Republic of Mozambique was a socialist state that existed in present day Mozambique from 1975 to 1990.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Religion in Mozambique</span>

Christianity is the largest religion in Mozambique, with substantial minorities of the adherents of traditional faiths and Islam.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Josina Machel</span> Mozambican politician and activist

Josina Abiathar Muthemba Machel was a leader of FRELIMO and a significant figure in the struggle for independence in Mozambique.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Uria Simango</span> Mozambican dissident

Uria Timoteo Simango was a Mozambican Presbyterian minister and prominent leader of the Mozambique Liberation Front (FRELIMO) during the liberation struggle against Portuguese colonial rule. His precise date of death is unknown as he was extrajudicially executed along with several other FRELIMO dissidents and his wife, Celina by the post-independence government of Samora Machel.

The Wiriyamu Massacre or Operation Marosca was a massacre of the civilian population of the village of Wiriyamu in Mozambique by Portuguese soldiers in December 1972.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alice Mabota</span> Mozambican human rights activist (1949–2023)

Maria Alice Mabota was a Mozambican human rights activist and president of the Mozambique Human Rights League.

The Organization of Mozambican Women is the women's section of FRELIMO. Founded in 1973, during the Mozambican War of Independence, in recognition of women's growing roles in the conflict against Portuguese colonialism, the OMM was created as a non-military structure to promote women's education, emancipation and mobilization. Following independence in 1975, the OMM focussed on issues related to women's education, ethnic division, divorce, family planning, adultery and promiscuity, prostitution, and alcoholism. In 1990, the OMM voted to separate from FRELIMO, although shortly thereafter, the organization re-affiliated.

Esperança Abiatar Muthemba was a Mozambican independence activist and politician. In 1977 she was one of the first group of women elected to the People's Assembly.

The Destacamento Feminino was a group of female guerrillas from the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (FRELIMO), involved in the struggle for independence in Mozambique, founded on March 4, 1967. The emergence of this group was important for the armed struggle and for redefining relations between men and women in Mozambique, and was a precursor to the creation of the Organization of Mozambican Women.

References

  1. Pyl, Bianca (2020-04-10). "Mulheres moçambicanas na luta pela independência". Le Monde Diplomatique (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 2023-04-11.
  2. Carneiro Santos, Amanda (2018). "Lute como uma mulher: Josina Machel e o movimento de libertação em Moçambique (1962- 1980)" (PDF). Retrieved 11 April 2023.
  3. Júlia Tainá, Monticeli Rocha (2018). "DO "VENTO DA EMANCIPAÇÃO" À "FORÇA MOTRIZ DA REVOLUÇÃO": A MULHER NOS DISCURSOS DE SAMORA MOISÉS MACHEL (MOÇAMBIQUE) (1973 – 1980)" (PDF). Retrieved 11 April 2023.
  4. "MHN: OMM". www.mozambiquehistory.net. Retrieved 2023-04-11.