Graca Machel: on her work, her grief and her love for Nelson Mandela - Interview

Ebony, May, 1997 by Vukani Magubane

When Graca Machel talks about her work, the passion is all-consuming. You see it in her eyes. It engulfs her total being. Her commitment to create a better world for the poor comes from the heart. Her enthusiasm is infectious. It's easy to see why the former first lady of Mozambique has captured the attention and love of one of the world's most loved and admired bachelors, South Africa's President Nelson Mandela.

To understand Machel you have to understand the dedication she has ship. When a reporter asked the president about his marriage plans, he said: "My cultural background does not permit me to answer questions of this nature from someone younger than my grandchildren."

Despite the pomp and speculation, Machel continues her long-standing campaign against poverty. As head of the Foundation Community Development that she runs from a simple office in Maputo, the Mozambican capital, she helps individuals and communities help themselves.

Until this exclusive EBONY SOUTH AFRICA interview, her feelings about President Mandela have largely been hearsay, and she has remained mum, leaving the rumor mill to churn out its own version of the love-match that has attracted worldwide attention.

Yes, she does love him, and yes, she is enjoying her newfound love. Sometimes blushing and laughing, Machel says it's a love that needs no explaining. "I can't deny it. It did happen," she says. The tall and striking widow says that after suffering so much grief over the death of her husband she is experiencing a happiness she thought she would never feel again.

"People may not understand why being what I am [always strong] and where I am today why I need a relationship. I have to continue being the pillar of my two families [her family and her late husband's family], but I am also weak," she says. "There are times when I need to lean on somebody else, and I have found that shoulder to cry on-that strong person to lean on. It is just human; isn't it?" she asks. Machel says the support and love she shares with Mandela (whom she calls by his nickname, Madiba) is a two-way street.

"A head of state can be very lonely. As I told you, I have a shoulder to lean on. It's good for him to have a shoulder to lean on," she says. "You may think he doesn't need it, but he does. Because, ultimately, he is a human being. He is not a saint as people try to portray him; he is a human being. And at the end of the day, he wants to lean on somebody and feel that he is loved by someone he trusts. It's good for him. It is good for both of us."

Machel understands why people are so preoccupied with the relationship. "People worry about Madiba. They love him. They worry that he is very slow. It took her a long time to realize that things could change for her. Blessed with a dazzling smile, Machel says she thought that it would be difficult to ever smile again. And to love again was the farthest thing from her mind.

After Samora's death, she says she felt a deep, deep sense of loss and emptiness. The two had shared a very close and loving partnership. They had fought together to liberate their beloved Mozambique, had worked together in the new government and were raising a family together.

"It [the pain] was so deep and so big that you felt almost lost in it. His death was so unexpected, and it was in such a violent way," she says wiping away tears. "It was also humiliating in the sense you always ask why should it be like this, and you never find the right answer for that."

The 51-year-old widow says even today she cannot accept that it had to he like this. "Why?" she asks, her voice rising. "Why should it?" She says what makes it so difficult for the family is not knowing the truth about what happened when the plane carrying one of Africa's most celebrated freedom fighters and heroes crashed just inside South Africa. The mystery surrounding the crash still remains a decade after tht tragedy.

Last October at a ceremony to mark the 10th anniversary of the crash, President Mandela vowed to uncover the truth surrounding the crash in Mbuzini. "It's a human need to know what happened," Machel says. "You can follow with the Truth Commission. People don't claim those who did it should be punished. They just want to know."

Machel firmly believes that the former apartheid regime is responsible for her husband's death. She says what she knows for sure is that her husband's plane was diverted, and she believes that the plan was to have the plane crash inside Mozambique to make it Mozambique's problem. "The crash was meant to have occurred close enough to South Africa so that the regime could monitor what was happening," she says."The plane fell in South Africa. I'm sorry. They could not deny it. I have no doubt they [the apartheid regime] did it."

She says she may die not having any evidence, but she knows it was the former apartheid regime's dirty tricks that killed President Machel, whose death was not just a loss for Mozambique but for the entire African continent.

Many perpetrators are coming before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa seeking forgiveness, but Machel is not sure she can forgive her husband's assassins. "Even with my sense of Christianity, to tell you frankly, I want to know the truth. I am not sure I can forgive," says Machel, who grew up in a devout Methodist home. "But I want to know. It doesn't necessarily mean I will take them to court. [But] I don't know if I can forgive them."