Josina Z. Machel

Josina Ziyaya Machel is a Mozambican human rights activist. She featured in the BBC's 100 Women in 2020.

Biography

Machel was born in Maputo in April 1976. She is the daughter of former Mozambican President Samora Machel and Mozambican politician and social activist Graça Machel, who later married South African politician Nelson Mandela. Her father had chosen the name of his first wife, the feminist activist Josina Machel, as a tribute to her. Machel's father died in a plane crash, which some consider to have been murder, when she was 10 years old. After her mother and Nelson Mandela began a relationship, Machel moved to South Africa and, following their marriage, became Mandela's stepdaughter.
Machel studied Sociology and Political Science at the University of Cape Town, then studied for an MSc from the London School of Economics, in the same discipline. Her MSc dissertation was entitled 'AIDS: Disease of Poverty or Patriarchy'. One output of her research was the publication of the article 'Unsafe sexual behaviour among schoolgirls in Mozambique: a matter of gender and class', which was published in the journal ''Reproductive Health Matters.''

Machel has been nominated for several awards and honours, including: