Library weekly: Lina Magaia

On 27 June 2011, Mozambican writer, journalist and political activist Lina Júlia Francisco Magaia died in Maputo.

Lina Magaia was born in Maputo in 1940. While still at school she joined the Mozambican Liberation Front and was imprisoned for three months for political activities. She was one of the first Mozambican women to receive a scholarship to study abroad, earning a BSc degree from the University of Lisbon; she subsequently went to Tanzania for military training and in 1975 became a member of the FRELIMO liberation army. In 1980, she was involved with the "Green Zones" project of the Organization of Mozambican Women that was aimed at supplying food to the urban areas. Two years later she went to Manhiça in Maputo Province, where she became deputy director for the Maragra state sugar farm. In 1986, she became director of agricultural development for Manhiça District, but her work was to come under attack by the militant resistant movement RENAMO during the post-Independence internal conflicts. Read more