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Josina Abiathar Muthemba Machel (1945–1971) was a Mozambican revolutionary and anti-colonial fighter who played a significant role in the struggle for Mozambique's independence from the Portuguese rule. She joined the Mozambique Liberation Front (FRELIMO) in the 1960s, becoming one of its most prominent female members, contributing to the movement as a guerrilla fighter, organizer, and advocate for women's empowerment within the liberation struggle.

Translated here for the first time from Portuguese to English, in her 1970 article The Role of Women in the Revolution, Machel highlights the critical contributions of Mozambican women in FRELIMO's liberation struggle. She emphasizes their success in military combat, political mobilization, and social care, challenging traditional gender roles and proving women's indispensable role in achieving independence and societal transformation.

This text has been translated by Cris Silva, who is a Research Fellow at the Federal University of Bahia.

In October 1966, at a Central Committee meeting, FRELIMO (Mozambique Liberation Front) decided that Mozambican women should participate more actively in the National Liberation Struggle at all levels. It was agreed that they should receive political and military training, to be able to carry out all the tasks required by the revolution. Thus, a few months later, at the beginning of January 1967, the first group of girls from Cabo Delgado and Niassa began their training. At first, it was just an "experiment" to see to what extent women would be able to contribute to the revolution—how they would use their initiative and whether they would actually be able to perform certain tasks. The “experiment” was a great success, and the girls from this first group became founding members of the Women’s Brigade. They were placed in various places throughout our country, each with specific functions. It was soon proven that they were capable of playing a very important role in the revolution, both in the military and political fields, but especially in the latter.

One of the main functions of the Women's Brigade is, naturally, as is the case with military units composed of men, to participate in combat. In Mozambique, women's military activities are generally, together with the militias, concentrated on the defence of liberated areas. In this way, men are partly freed from this defensive task and can focus on the offensive, in the advancing zones. However, some women prefer to participate in more active combat in the advancing zones, and they fight side-by-side with men in ambushes, mine operations, etc. They have proven themselves to be as capable and brave as their male comrades. In another aspect of this same military function, we also have women working in the Security Department, alerting against enemy infiltration.

Although women are very efficient in the military, their contribution has been more prominent in politics. Since 1967, women have played a fundamental role in the mobilization and political education of the people and the guerrilla soldiers. In this work, we explain to the people the need to fight, what kind of struggle we are waging, who we are fighting against, the reasons for our struggle, our objectives, why we have chosen armed struggle as the only path to independence, who our enemies are, who our true friends are, etc. We explain our work and the results we have already achieved. We also explain how we depend to a certain extent on foreign aid; which countries and organisations provide us with assistance, and that, despite this assistance, we must rely as much as possible on our own strengths.

In this regard, we emphasise that the revolution's success depends on the combined efforts of all of us; no one can be dismissed, and so the traditionally "passive" role of women must change so that their abilities can be used in the service of the revolution. Women are encouraged to speak, express their opinions in meetings, participate in committees, etc. Here, we are generally faced with the difficult task of fighting against old prejudices, which say that women's functions are only to cook and take care of the house, the children, and little else. And precisely, our experience has proven that we women can carry out this work of mobilisation and education much better than men for two reasons: Firstly, it is much easier for us to approach other women, and secondly, men are more easily convinced of the important role of women when they have militant and capable women in front of them, who are living examples of what they preach. Furthermore, our activities are also aimed at men, and the presence of women with weapons is a very important element in mobilising men: they feel embarrassed and do not dare to refuse what the women themselves are doing.

To achieve our goal of being self-sufficient in the liberated areas, we have explained to our people that agricultural production must be increased in order to feed not only the people but also the guerrilla soldiers since the main task of the guerrillas is to fight and so they often do not have time to produce enough food to feed their bases. We also need to feed our comrades in advance, where military activity is constant, and the presence of enemy troops makes regular agricultural production very difficult. It is not a question of convincing the people to participate in the war: this is not necessary, all the people are ready to fight. But they must exposed to the political theses and the implications of the revolution. Although everyone knows they have a responsibility in the revolution, they need to be instructed on which task they will work on. Once they are aware of the situation, the people act without hesitation. In addition to their role in production, the people help transport the wounded and the sick, as well as transport war supplies.

It is also the people, obviously, who provide the elements of our armed forces.

In addition to its political work, the Women's Brigade also has enormous responsibilities in the field of social care. We help and comfort families who have lost relatives in the war. This work is extremely delicate and requires a lot of patience. We also take care of the FRELIMO orphanage, which gives shelter not only to orphans but also to children who have been separated from their parents due to the war. Some of our female comrades receive first aid training and can, therefore, assist nurses in the Health Centres. Many of our female comrades also work in the Department of Education, in the adult education programme and in primary schools. Here, once more, we have to overcome the prejudices of parents and husbands, who believe that women do not need to go to school. But little by little, we are winning the battle against these conservative parents and husbands: they are getting convinced that an educated woman can contribute much more to the revolution than an ignorant woman. Consequently, we already have many girls in our schools. In some schools, women teach both children and adults. It is clear, therefore, that on top of its strictly military functions, the Women's Brigade has important political responsibilities on two levels.

At the first level, the Women's Brigade is responsible for mobilising and educating the people, increasing their participation in the struggle and developing their political understanding of the war. We carry out this activity in relation to everyone, men and women, although our action is particularly effective to women, whom our male comrades have more difficulty in approaching.

Once this has been achieved, our action moves to the second level: encouraging the people to participate even more actively, inviting them to follow our example, to leave their homes and train as guerrilla soldiers, nurses, teachers, etc. In this way, the size of the Women's Brigade has increased considerably since that first "experience" group. We have now reached the point where some of these comrades from the very first group have gained enough experience and knowledge to become political and military instructors in their own unit and have helped their male colleagues at the base to train members of the population.

At the last meeting of the Central Committee in April 1969, it was decided that the Women's League of Mozambique (LIFEMO) should merge entirely with the Women's Brigade. We are currently in the process of integrating all the activities previously carried out by LIFEMO into the army. During its existence, LIFEMO did its job. Still, the development of the struggle requires that all efforts and all work be located in the interior of Mozambique and, therefore, carried out by the Women's Detachment.

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