Deeper Roots: Honoring Josina Machel’s Truth

Josina Machel—daughter of the winds that sweep across the plains of Mozambique, voice of the voiceless, and flame that refused to be extinguished—we call upon your spirit today, not in mourning, but in celebration of the unbroken chain of resistance you forged.

Your life was a testament to the truth that freedom is never a gift; it is seized by those who dare to imagine a world beyond oppression. From the classrooms where you first awakened to injustice, to the battlefronts where you strategized not just as a fighter but as a visionary, you embodied the revolutionary ideal that liberation is both a political and a human act.

You understood that the fight was not only against colonial rule but for the soul of a nation—for the right of women to stand as equals, for children to learn in dignity, and for the land to belong to those who nourished it with their labor and blood. You carried the dreams of your people in your hands and did not falter, even when the weight threatened to break you.

And though the ancestors called you home too soon, your absence did not weaken the movement—it ignited a fiercer determination. Your name became a rallying cry, your legacy a compass guiding new generations. Today, when a Mozambican woman lifts her voice in protest, when a girl reads your story and stands taller, when the principles of justice and equity are defended—you are there.

We see you in the schools that bear your name, where young minds are taught not just to remember history but to shape it. We feel you in the unyielding spirit of women who, like you, refuse to accept a world that denies them their full power. You are present in every act of courage, every refusal to bow, every insistence that another Mozambique—another Africa—is possible.

So we say to you, Josina: Your journey did not end with your last breath. It lives in the soil, in the rivers, in the defiant songs of the people. We honor you not as a relic of the past but as a living force, urging us forward.

Lala ngoxolo, qhawe lamaqhawe. The struggle continues, and your fire still burns within us."