By Sifelani Tsiko
Harare, Zimbabwe (December 28 2006)
ZIMBABWEAN film makers recently signed a deal with WK Kellogg Foundation to develop a feature film script and documentary on the life of one of Africa's revered heroes and former Mozambican president Samora Machel who was killed in a plane crash by apartheid agents 20 years ago.

Producers of Zimbabwe's first feature film 'Neria' John and Louise Riber, renowned actress Jesesi Mungoshi and script writer Mosco Kamwendo will team up to develop a feature film on the charismatic leader who led the liberation struggle from the battle front and later accommodated freedom fighters from Zimbabwe in their fight against the Ian Smith regime.

The film, driven by a strong pan Africanist motive, aims to illustrate how Mozambique, Zimbabwe and South Africa are not only geographically connected, but also how interdependent their political history and struggle for independence was," the project organisers said in a report.

"The project goal is for filmmakers from southern Africa to make a feature film on the life of Samora Machel from a truly African perspective.

Kellogg Foundation agreed to fund the film project with a US$362 000 grant through a leadership programme.
Organisers say the research and script development phase of the project includes the production of a documentary film on Samora Machel, the challenges Machel faced when dealing with the two hostile neighbours -Rhodesia and apartheid South Africa as well as civil war at home when his government battled against Renamo bandits sponsored by South Africa.

The WKKF grant will be managed by the Media for Development International run by Ribers who relocated to Tanzania from Harare last year to open a branch office of  the MDFI.

The creative aspect of the script will be handled by Mungoshi and Kamwendo who will spend a year in Mozambique rsearching on the life and experiences of Samora Machel.

In October this year, Mozambican president Armando Guebuza and his South African counterpart Thabo Mbeki and the widow of Samora Machel, Graca unveiled a memorial site built on the hill at Mbuzini where Machel died 20 years ago in a plane crash.

Machel will be remembered for his high profile stance against colonialism and white minority rule and for supporting freedom fighters from Zimbabwe, Namibia and South Africa in their struggle for independence.

He was born on 29 September 1933 in the village of Chilembene in the Chokwe district of Gaza province to peasant parents. He took over the leadership of the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (Frelimo) from Eduardo Chivambo Mondlane who was assassinated by Portuguese agents in 1969. He spearheaded the armed struggle against Portuguese colonialism until victory was achieved in 1975 when Machel became the first president of independent Mozambique.

The late president of the People's Republic of Mozambique, Samora Moises Machel and others who have been murdered by the Pretoria regime and its agents will forever remain examples of that steadfast refusal of the peoples of our region to surrender to racial and colonial domination, fascist tyranny and state terrorism," said the late veteran nationalist and ANC stalwart Oliver Tambo in a statement made on January 8 1987.

"Samora Machel was a towering giant of the African Revolution. He dedicated his life to our own liberation. His ideas and his deeds are a material force in the struggle for our emancipation. The blood he shed on our soil is and will forever be a fountain of freedom for all our people.

This film will certainly keep the legacy of Machel -a far sighted leader and visionary politician alive and for future generations to see and learn the heroic deeds of a man who now symbolises the common suffering of the people in southern Africa in their struggle for freedom and self-determination.