Chissano, Joaquim Alberto (1939– )

Mozambique nationalist politician, president 1986–2004; foreign minister 1975–86. In October 1992 he signed a peace accord with the leader of the rebel Mozambique National Resistance (MNR) party, bringing to an end 16 years of civil war. In 1994 he won the country's first free presidential elections, and was re-elected in 1999. A pragmatic Marxist, his governments have implemented economic reforms, and he took Mozambique into the Commonwealth in 1995.

He was secretary to Samora Machel, who led the National Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (Frelimo) during the guerrilla campaign for independence from Portugal in the early 1960s. When Mozambique achieved internal self-government in 1974, Chissano was appointed prime minister. After independence in 1975 he served under Machel as foreign minister, developing a flexible foreign policy which enabled Frelimo to develop good relations with China, the USSR, and Western countries. On Machel's death in 1986, Chissano succeeded him as president.