Mondlane, Eduardo (1920-1969)

Mozambican nationalist, first president of Frelimo 1962-69, the group aiming to achieve independence for Mozambique from the Portuguese. He was assassinated by unknown assailants.

As a student at Witwatersrand University in Johannesburg, South Africa, he helped to organize a Mozambican Students' Association and was deported back to Mozambique where he came to the notice of the Portuguese police. He continued his studies in the USA and was employed as a research officer in the United Nations Department of Trusteeship. Returning to Mozambique in 1961 he left the UN and involved himself with the incipient resistance movements which he later welded into Frelimo.