The Most Famous

POLITICIANS from Mozambique

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This page contains a list of the greatest Mozambican Politicians. The pantheon dataset contains 19,576 Politicians, 12 of which were born in Mozambique. This makes Mozambique the birth place of the 133rd most number of Politicians behind Singapore, and Zimbabwe.

Top 10

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary Mozambican Politicians of all time. This list of famous Mozambican Politicians is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of Mozambican Politicians.

Photo of Samora Machel

1. Samora Machel (1933 - 1986)

With an HPI of 64.48, Samora Machel is the most famous Mozambican Politician.  His biography has been translated into 56 different languages on wikipedia.

Samora Moisés Machel (29 September 1933 – 19 October 1986) was a Mozambican politician and revolutionary. A socialist in the tradition of Marxism–Leninism, he served as the first President of Mozambique from the country's independence in 1975 until his death in a plane crash in 1986.

Photo of Graça Machel

2. Graça Machel (b. 1945)

With an HPI of 60.85, Graça Machel is the 2nd most famous Mozambican Politician.  Her biography has been translated into 38 different languages.

Graça Machel (Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈɡɾasɐ mɐˈʃɛl]; née Simbine [sĩˈbinɨ]; born 17 October 1945) is a Mozambican politician and humanitarian. Machel is an international advocate for women's and children's rights and was made an honorary Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II in 1997 for her humanitarian work. She is the only woman in modern history to have served as First Lady of two countries: South Africa and Mozambique. She is the widow of former President of Mozambique Samora Machel (1975–1986) and former President of South Africa Nelson Mandela (1998–2013). Graça Machel is a member of the Africa Progress Panel (APP), a group of ten distinguished individuals who advocate at the highest levels for equitable and sustainable development in Africa. As a panel member, she facilitates coalition building to leverage and broker knowledge, and convenes decision-makers to influence policy for lasting change in Africa. She was chancellor of the University of Cape Town between 1999 and 2019.

Photo of Joaquim Chissano

3. Joaquim Chissano (b. 1939)

With an HPI of 60.10, Joaquim Chissano is the 3rd most famous Mozambican Politician.  His biography has been translated into 53 different languages.

Joaquim Alberto Chissano (born 22 October 1939) is a Mozambican politician who served as the second President of Mozambique, from 1986 to 2005. He is credited with transforming the war-torn country of Mozambique into a successful African democracy. After his presidency, Chissano became an elder statesman, envoy and diplomat for both his home country and the United Nations. Chissano also served as Chairperson of the African Union from 2003 to 2004.

Photo of Armando Guebuza

4. Armando Guebuza (b. 1943)

With an HPI of 58.91, Armando Guebuza is the 4th most famous Mozambican Politician.  His biography has been translated into 44 different languages.

Armando Emílio Guebuza (born 20 January 1943) is a Mozambican politician who was the third President of Mozambique from 2005 to 2015.

Photo of Filipe Nyusi

5. Filipe Nyusi (b. 1959)

With an HPI of 56.27, Filipe Nyusi is the 5th most famous Mozambican Politician.  His biography has been translated into 50 different languages.

Filipe Jacinto Nyusi (Portuguese pronunciation: [fiˈlipɨ ʒɐˈsĩtu ˈɲusi]; born 9 February 1959) is a Mozambican politician serving since 2015 as the fourth president of Mozambique. He is the current leader of FRELIMO, the party that has governed Mozambique since its independence from Portugal in 1975. Additionally, he has served as the Chairman of the Southern African Development Community since August 2020. During his time in office, President Nyusi has promoted peace and security, and signed multiple agreements with the main opposition parties, RENAMO, to bring a definitive and lasting peace to Mozambique. Nyusi served as the Minister of Defense from 2008 to 2014 under Armando Guebuza. He won the 2014 and 2019 Mozambican presidential elections as the candidate of FRELIMO. Despite allegations of irregularities the President of the National Election Commission stated that "the elections were free, fair and transparent", with the Constitutional Count verifying the result on 23 December 2019. However, according to the European Union Election Observation Mission in Mozambique, Commonwealth Observer Group, and the U.S. Embassy in Mozambique, the 2019 election was characterized by instances of fraud, intimidation, and the murders of opposition leaders and election observers. The President of the National Election Commission acknowledged that the 2019 elections were marked by irregularities, stating "that is why when [the National Election Commission] announced the results, nobody heard [the National Election Commission] saying that the elections were free, fair and transparent." During his time in office from 2015 to 2018, the poverty reduction trend observed between 2009–11 and 2015 reversed direction; the number of multidimensionally poor people increased from about 21.3 to about 22.2 million people from 2015 to 2018, with the extra million poor people mainly located in rural areas of the central provinces. Since March 2015, at least 10 high-profile figures have been killed in Mozambique. These include leaders of opposition parties, journalists, and academics. Previously, no similarly defined high-profile leaders of opposition parties and academics were reported killed since the Peace Accord of 1992 between RENAMO and FRELIMO. Nyusi has also been accused of abuse of power; for example, some 90,000 school desks publicly delivered by Nyusi in September 2018 were manufactured by a company 50% owned by his daughter. Furthermore, court documents filed by Jean Boustani in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York in 2019 and by Iskandar Safa in The High Court of Justice in London in 2021 alleged that Nyusi received up to 2 million dollars in bribes in 2014 in connection with illegal loans (also known as "hidden debts"), which caused an economic crisis in Mozambique when he was the Minister of Defense and/or afterward. Nyusi's time in office has been marked by the escalation of the war in Mozambique's central and northern regions. The FRELIMO government has been described as authoritarian by The Economist Intelligence Unit, Monjane et al., and Manning et al.

Photo of Eduardo Mondlane

6. Eduardo Mondlane (1920 - 1969)

With an HPI of 54.04, Eduardo Mondlane is the 6th most famous Mozambican Politician.  His biography has been translated into 27 different languages.

Eduardo Chivambo Mondlane (20 June 1920 – 3 February 1969) was a Mozambican revolutionary and anthropologist, and founder of the Mozambican Liberation Front (FRELIMO). He served as the FRELIMO's first leader until his assassination in 1969 in Tanzania. An anthropologist by profession, Mondlane also worked as a history and sociology professor at Syracuse University before returning to Mozambique in 1963.

Photo of Carlos Agostinho do Rosário

7. Carlos Agostinho do Rosário (b. 1954)

With an HPI of 50.45, Carlos Agostinho do Rosário is the 7th most famous Mozambican Politician.  Her biography has been translated into 34 different languages.

Carlos Agostinho do Rosário (born 26 October 1954) is a Mozambican politician who was the Prime Minister of Mozambique from 17 January 2015 until 3 March 2022. He is a member of the FRELIMO, and served under President Filipe Nyusi. He worked as a civil servant in the 1970s and was Governor of Zambezia Province between 1987 and 1994. Later he served a short while as MP in 1994 before becoming Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, in which post he served until 1999. Afterwards he became a diplomat in Asia; prior to his appointment as prime minister, Rosario served as ambassador to Indonesia.

Photo of Pascoal Mocumbi

8. Pascoal Mocumbi (1941 - 2023)

With an HPI of 48.58, Pascoal Mocumbi is the 8th most famous Mozambican Politician.  His biography has been translated into 21 different languages.

Pascoal Manuel Mocumbi (10 April 1941 – 25 March 2023) was a Mozambican politician who served as Prime Minister from 1994 until 2004. His traditional name was Mahykete.

Photo of Luísa Diogo

9. Luísa Diogo (b. 1958)

With an HPI of 47.02, Luísa Diogo is the 9th most famous Mozambican Politician.  Her biography has been translated into 43 different languages.

Luísa Dias Diogo (born 11 April 1958) is a Mozambican politician who served as 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. Diogo represents the party FRELIMO, which has ruled the country since independence in 1975.

Photo of Marcelino dos Santos

10. Marcelino dos Santos (1929 - 2020)

With an HPI of 46.05, Marcelino dos Santos is the 10th most famous Mozambican Politician.  His biography has been translated into 15 different languages.

Marcelino dos Santos (20 May 1929 – 11 February 2020) 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 (FRELIMO—Mozambican Liberation Front), 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. Under the pseudonyms Kalungano and Lilinho Micaia, he published his early poems in O Brado Africano, and his work appeared in two anthologies produced by the Casa dos Estudantes do Imperio in Lisbon. Under the pen-name Lilinho Micaia, a collection of his poetry was published in the Soviet Union. Under his real name, he had a book published by the Associação dos Escritores Moçambicanos (Mozambican Writers' Association) in 1987, entitled Canto do Amor Natural.

People

Pantheon has 13 people classified as Mozambican politicians born between 1920 and 1961. Of these 13, 7 (53.85%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living Mozambican politicians include Graça Machel, Joaquim Chissano, and Armando Guebuza. The most famous deceased Mozambican politicians include Samora Machel, Eduardo Mondlane, and Pascoal Mocumbi. As of April 2024, 1 new Mozambican politicians have been added to Pantheon including Mário da Graça Machungo.

Living Mozambican Politicians

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Deceased Mozambican Politicians

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Newly Added Mozambican Politicians (2024)

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Overlapping Lives

Which Politicians were alive at the same time? This visualization shows the lifespans of the 5 most globally memorable Politicians since 1700.