Lina Magaia

Records of women writers in 19th-century Mozambique are extremely scarce. The Portuguese colonial context — marked by repression and the educational exclusion of the African population, especially women — hindered the emergence of female authors during that period. Mozambican literature began to take written form from the 1940s onwards, with the rise of a critical intellectual class and anti-colonial literary movements.

Lina Júlio Francisco Magaia was a Mozambican writer, activist, journalist, and political figure who played a key role in the country’s liberation struggle and the post-independence period. She was born in Maputo (then called Lourenço Marques), into an upper-middle-class family, and was the granddaughter of a king of the Marraquene people.

Lina had privileged access to education. She studied in good schools due to her father’s social position, Francisco Magaia, son of a local chief (régulo) from Marracuene. Her mother, Salina Fragoso, born in Manhiça, came from a family originally from Manjacaze, who had fled the ancestral wars that plagued that region. Lina’s father, a young teacher, was appointed to teach in Machava.

Régulo is a term used in some Portuguese-speaking African countries, especially in Mozambique and Angola, to refer to a traditional chief, a local leader, or an indigenous authority within certain communities.

Historically, during the colonial period, régulos were recognized (and sometimes co-opted) by the Portuguese colonial administration as representatives of the local populations. They exercised authority over ethnic or tribal groups, mediated conflicts, oversaw customary matters (traditions and customs), and played a key role in the social organization of villages or regions.

Manhiça, Manjacaze, and Machava are localities in southern Mozambique that mark the family trajectory of Lina Magaia. Manjacaze, located in Gaza Province, is a region with strong historical significance, known for its resistance during colonialism and for being the birthplace of important Mozambican leaders. Lina’s maternal family came from there, having fled the wars and instability that afflicted the region.

Her maternal family sought refuge in Manhiça, a town in Maputo Province, which became the new refuge and foundation for the family, their point of support and survival. Machava, an urban neighborhood in the municipality of Matola, near the capital Maputo, was where Lina’s father, then a young teacher, was assigned to teach. This marked the family’s first step into educational and urban environments of the country. These three places reflect the history of displacement, struggle, and reconstruction that run through both the family’s story and the broader national history of Mozambique.

Lina’s parents were married in 1942. The following year, their first daughter was born, who would become Lina’s older sister. Francisco, the father, had Professor Samuel Dabula as his best man. After some time, teaching at the Swiss Mission, Francisco decided to leave education and join the meteorological services — linked to the then Meteorological Service of Mozambique, a colonial institution responsible for weather observation and forecasting, crucial for navigation, agriculture, and administration.

With this career change, the family settled in Lourenço Marques (now Maputo), living in a modest house made of wood and tin. In 1947, the year her brother Albino was born, Lina's maternal grandmother, during a visit to the capital, took Lina back with her to Manhiça. The girl would live with her grandmother until the age of five.

Her grandmother owned a machamba — a small farm or plantation — and Lina often accompanied her to the fields, playing among the crops. This early experience with rural life would shape her social awareness and later feed her strong and enthusiastic commitment to defending Mozambican rural workers, who would come to occupy a principal place in her civic engagement and political activism.

"Machamba" is a word of African origin, used mainly in Mozambique, Angola, and other Portuguese-speaking African regions. It means farm, plantation, or small cultivated plot, usually tended manually and by family. It is a plot of land where crops like cassava, maize, beans, and sweet potatoes are grown for subsistence or local sale. In Brazil, the word is rarely used, but it may appear in literary contexts or texts dealing with African or Lusophone culture.

Upon returning with her family to the capital, Lina was enrolled by her father at the Swiss Mission School in Chamanculo, where her teacher was Marcelino Macome. Later, she also attended the School of the Black People's Associative Center, where she was a student of Professor Samuel Dabula — her father's best man and a close friend of the family. At the time, they lived in the Xipamanine neighborhood. Even then, Lina displayed a vibrant intelligence and early restlessness.

She refused to obey her father's orders to stay at home. Still a teenager, she began getting involved in activities related to the clandestine resistance movement. Among her schoolmates were Isabel Manuel (Honwana Munguambe), whose sister, Violante Manuel (Honwana), was a close friend of hers, as well as Eulália Muthemba. She spent long hours in conversation and coordination with Domingos Arouca.

Lina maintained a deep friendship with Armando Guebuza and an equally intense relationship with Cristina Tembe. They were all part of the Black People's Associative Center, a colonial-era organization that, despite being subordinate to the regime, became a fertile ground for the emergence of nationalist thought and political resistance.

In 1957, when her father was transferred to the Guijá district, Lina was twelve years old and already actively participating in the African Secondary Students’ Nucleus of Mozambique (NESAM), a space for reflection and debate where African youth sought to shape the country’s future. Within this group, figures such as Samuel Dabula stood out, exerting a formative and almost mentoring influence over the youth, as well as Joaquim Chissano, who led the organization with determination and political vision.

Lina stood out from an early age as a student of remarkable and visible intelligence, especially in Mathematics, where her results were consistently outstanding. This intellectual brilliance was not only a personal trait but also an act of affirmation and resistance within a deeply discriminatory and segregated school environment, where Black students were often stigmatized as intellectually inferior.

Lina’s academic excellence directly challenged the racist stereotypes perpetuated by the colonial regime—stereotypes whose legacy is still minimized by some and conveniently forgotten by others. Her powerful performance was therefore both academic and political.

Still in her student years, Lina Magaia joined the Mozambique Liberation Front (FRELIMO). Due to her involvement in political activities, she was imprisoned for three months. She became one of the first Mozambican women to be awarded a scholarship abroad. Thanks to this opportunity, she earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Lisbon. Later, she moved to Tanzania, where she received military training and, in 1975—the year Mozambique gained independence—joined FRELIMO's liberation army.

In 1980, she began working with the “Green Zones” project, promoted by the Organization of Mozambican Women, which aimed to ensure food supply for urban populations. Two years later, she moved to the Manhiça region, in Maputo Province, where she became deputy director of the state-owned Maragra sugar factory. In 1986, she was appointed director of agricultural development for the Manhiça district—a role that became a target of attacks by RENAMO, an armed opposition movement, in the context of the internal conflicts that followed independence.

Life and works of Lina Magaia

1945 – Maria Angelina Magaia is born in the city of Maputo (then Lourenço Marques), Mozambique.

1960s – Becomes involved with the Mozambique Liberation Front (FRELIMO) while still a student.

1960s–1970s – Imprisoned for political activities. She receives a scholarship and earns a bachelor’s degree in Natural Sciences from the University of Lisbon.

1970s – Receives military training in Tanzania. After independence, becomes a member of FRELIMO’s liberation army.

1980 – Joins the “Green Zones” project of the Organization of Mozambican Women (OMM), promoting urban agriculture to combat food shortages.

1982 – Becomes deputy director of the Maragra sugar factory in Manhiça.

1986 – Appointed director of agricultural development for the Manhiça district. Faces attacks from RENAMO during the civil war.

1987 – Publishes Dumba Nengue: Tragic Stories of Banditry, with real and brutal accounts of the civil war.

1989 – Releases Double Massacre in Mozambique, a continuation of Dumba Nengue, with new testimonies of violence.

1994 – Publishes Delehta: Leaps in Life, a novel addressing gender issues, inequality, and female resistance.

2000s – Remains active in politics, agriculture, and culture, promoting women’s and farmers’ rights.

2011 – Passes away in Maputo. Leaves behind a legacy as a fighter, intellectual, and unwavering voice against injustice.

History of Mozambique

Mozambique is in southeastern Africa and has a history marked by resistance and profound transformations. Before the arrival of Europeans, the territory was inhabited by Bantu peoples organized into agricultural and trading societies, which maintained contact with Arabs and Persians, especially along the coast. In 1498, Vasco da Gama arrived in the region, initiating Portuguese presence, which intensified over the following centuries through trading posts and exploitation systems such as the prazos da coroa (crown land leases). However, full colonial control was only consolidated at the end of the 19th century, after the Scramble for Africa.

Portuguese colonization was characterized by economic exploitation, racism, and repression. The struggle for independence gained strength in 1964, led by FRELIMO (Mozambique Liberation Front), and culminated in Mozambique's independence on June 25, 1975. The new socialist-oriented government soon faced a civil war against RENAMO, which was supported by external forces.

FRELIMO – Mozambique Liberation Front

FRELIMO was founded in 1962 as a national liberation movement with the goal of ending Portuguese colonial rule in Mozambique. Initially led by Eduardo Mondlane and later by Samora Machel after Mondlane’s death, FRELIMO launched an armed struggle against the colonial regime in 1964. Following the Carnation Revolution in Portugal in 1974, Mozambique achieved independence on June 25, 1975, and FRELIMO became the ruling party, establishing a socialist-oriented government.

RENAMO: Mozambican National Resistance

RENAMO emerged in the late 1970s as an armed opposition movement, initially supported by the Rhodesian regime (now Zimbabwe) and later by apartheid South Africa. It was created as a response to FRELIMO's hegemony, criticizing its centralized government and Marxist orientation. RENAMO led a long and violent civil war against the FRELIMO government from 1977 to 1992.

This conflict devastated the country, resulting in hundreds of thousands of deaths and millions of displaced people. The General Peace Agreement, signed in 1992, ended the civil war, and transformed RENAMO into a legalized political party.

The conflict lasted until 1992, causing immense destruction and suffering. Since then, Mozambique has lived under a multi-party regime, with economic progress but also ongoing challenges such as inequality, corruption, and armed insurgencies. Its history is marked by the struggle for self-determination and the resilience of its people in the face of numerous hardships.

Most important works by Lina Magaia

Dumba Nengue: Tragic Stories of Banditry (1987)A work based on testimonies collected during the Mozambican civil war, primarily from peasants who were victims of RENAMO (Mozambican National Resistance). The book was banned in several contexts due to its graphic and harsh descriptions of violence. The title, in Changana, can be translated as “man’s head” or “pig’s head,” referring to the horrors of war.

Double Massacre in Mozambique (1989)A thematic continuation of Dumba Nengue, even more explicit in its denunciation of violence and the rawness of its accounts. It contains testimonies from peasants and children who were victims of atrocities. A strong critique of the effects of war and the political manipulation of the poor.

Delehta: Leaps in Life (1994)A semi-autobiographical novel about a woman who tries to survive and assert herself in a context dominated by social and patriarchal conflicts. The novel also portrays the role of women in a changing Mozambican society.

Lina fell in love with a man named Messias, a football player, with whom she had her first child in 1972. However, their relationship was brief. During this period, Augusto and Judite Matine supported Lina. In 1972, Lina visited Mozambique, bringing her son with her. Upon returning to Portugal, her mother, Salina, insisted that she leave the grandson with her. Salina even claimed that if Lina took him back, she would not survive another year. In June 1973, on the eve of little Julinho’s first birthday, Salina passed away, as if confirming her own premonition.

Married to Carlos Laisse, with whom she had four children, Lina Magaia also adopted a boy whose parents were victims of atrocities committed during the Mozambican civil war. During the struggle for independence, she endured a painful loss: her first son, Julinho, died while she was in military training. Lina attributed this tragedy to colonialism, stating that had it not been for the war, her son would have survived.

Despite the challenges, she maintained an active family life. During the week, she lived in Manhiça due to her professional duties, but returned to Maputo on weekends to be with her family. Her individual experiences profoundly shaped her writing, marked by deep political and social engagement, especially in defense of Mozambican women, children, and peasants.

Political Involvement

Learning about Lina Magaia’s journey is a truly compelling experience. In 1965, she was imprisoned for three months after attempting to join FRELIMO’s armed struggle in Tanzania. In 1974, she underwent nine months of intensive training with FRELIMO in preparation to join Mozambique’s liberation army.

Her commitment was not limited to the military sphere: she also participated in the creation of the Organization of Mozambican Women (OMM), promoting agricultural cooperatives focused on women. In 1986, she was appointed Director of Agricultural Development for the Manhiça District. Researcher Hilary Owen dedicates a chapter to Lina Magaia’s life and work in the book Mother Africa, Father Marx: Women’s Writing of Mozambique, 1948–2002, offering a deep analysis of her political and literary contributions.

In her chapter on Magaia, Owen writes that Lina's involvement with the youth movement Núcleo dos Estudantes Secundários Africanos (NESAM), in 1957, eventually inspired her early oppositional writing in the 1960s, through short articles published in the press, such as O Brado Africano, A Voz Africana, Diário de Moçambique, and Tribuna.

From an early age, she participated in nationalist movements against Portuguese colonialism. At just seventeen, as a secondary student in NESAM, she wrote articles and chronicles for newspapers denouncing the colonial situation, at a time when doing so was extremely dangerous.

She was a member of FRELIMO (Front for the Liberation of Mozambique) and, after the country's independence in 1975, held important positions in the public administration, especially in the fields of education and rural development. She studied in South Africa, where she met the anti-apartheid movement, and later in other African and European countries.

In addition to her role in FRELIMO politics and agricultural development, Magaia continued writing a weekly column about Manhiça for the national newspaper Notícias (News), in the 1980s. She was popular for her attacks on incompetent officials and for a series of reports, chronicles, and travel accounts for Tempo, the government's weekly news magazine.

Her writings were published in two widely circulated newspapers, O Brado Africano and A Voz Africana, whose directors were arrested in 1965. It was then that she started pamphleteering and decided to join the armed struggle in Tanzania. Due to her activism, she was imprisoned for three months.

In 1967, she won a scholarship to study Economics in Lisbon. She returned to Africa in 1974, to Tanzania, where she received military training and participated in FRELIMO's women's platoon. Lina was part of the troops that took over Mozambique and declared its independence. 

“She was an impetuous woman, spoke with vehemence, argued passionately, captivated with her fervor and ideas. Her eyes challenged us. They inquired about us. She left no one indifferent. She said what she thought without dissimulation or concealment. She did not shy away from disagreeing with her own or diverging from her comrades when she thought differently. She was untamable against her adversaries. She had a brilliant pen. Her writing, equally vigorous, nimbada* with her ideas and beliefs, was penetrating. She wrote on the border between journalism and literature, between narrative and denunciation, between testimony and biography. Did she divide opinions? Of course. She was assertive and generous, humanly generous. She had causes. She fought for them. She was committed to the lives and destinies of others. She was a proponent of the truth. For this reason, she was also known for denouncing the genocide that tore the country apart in the 1980s. She was undoubtedly one of the women of 20th-century Mozambique.”

(in Dumba Nengue)

 *Nimbada is a rare and poetic word, meaning surrounded by a halo, or enveloped in a soft and diffuse light, as if sacred or illuminated. The term nimbo comes from the Latin nimbus, which originally meant cloud, but later came to denote the luminous halo that, in religious art, appears around the heads of holy figures.

Between May and June of 1975, she participated in a course for junior officers. In June, at the age of thirty, she returned to Mozambique. She went to the Boane barracks and later to the Military Hospital. On Independence Day, she went to the Machava Stadium, even though she was ill. It was her most anticipated day, for which she dedicated her youth.

She was a deputy and social activist in the years following independence.

Lina was married and a mother of four children. The first two passed away. She fought for the farmers, firmly advocated for a green revolution, and dreamed of land reform. In 1983, she moved to the district of Manhiça, remaining active and unwavering in her support for farmers. In 1986, she began to lead the Agricultural Development Region of Manhiça.

During this period, she experienced the brutal realities that would shape her book Dumba Nengue: Histórias Trágicas do Banditismo. She returned to writing for the press, especially for the magazine Tempo. As a young woman, particularly in the 1960s, she had contributed to Brado Africano(African Cry), A Voz Africana (The African Voice), Diário de Moçambique (Mozambique Diary), and A Tribuna (The Tribune), with reports, chronicles, and short stories. She wrote with fury, repulsion, and anger.

In 1987, the dreadful Homoíne massacre occurred. Lina recounts this horrific event in Duplo Massacre em Moçambique – Histórias Trágicas do Banditismo II. She writes, speaks, and rebels. She is the voice of those who have no voice. Her activism is vigorous. Her intervention is indomitable. She performs in Maputo Mulher (Maputo Woman). She is a stellar figure in the public space of Mozambique. She writes and publishes Delehta – Pulos da Vida (Delehta – Leaps of Life - 1994) and A Cobra de Olhos Verdes (The Green-Eyed Snake  -1997).

Shortly before her death, on June 27, 2011, she published Recordações da Vovó Marta (Memories of Grandma Marta) about the mother of her old friend Armando Guebuza. It was part of a project of memoirs and accounts about specific personalities or figures.

She was unable to continue with this purpose. Her voice continued to reverberate, her pen remained in the newspapers and books, and the memory of her gaze lingered in the pages of the press. Her imposing figure, worn down by her final illness. The memory of her legendary Basque beret. Her sharp accounts, her precise and refined prose.

"I read it again many years later and realize that my youthful boldness was not able to give it the importance it deserved in her literary writing. Before she passed away, I had the opportunity to make this remark to her. What seemed to me like pure journalistic reporting contains literary glimpses that reveal a beautiful prose writer. I recall that her brother Albino had an admiration for the remarkable Lina. I agree with him. She was an extraordinary woman. She left a legacy. Her name. Her activism. Her audacity, her fearlessness, her courage, her passion for social causes. The nobility of her ideas and actions. Her exuberance, her vastness. She was 66 years old and had a full, dignified, and honorable life. She was an unpretentious woman with a rare nobility. Like a few others. Until the end."

Nelson Saúte

https://cartamz.com/author/nelsosaute/

Lina Magaia, female writer

Much of Lina Magaia’s writing focused on the horrors of the Mozambican civil war. Her first book, Dumba Nengue: Tragic Stories of Banditry, published in 1987, was inspired “by her own experiences and those shared with her by peasants and plantation workers in Manhiça.” Owens further explains that the stories in the book came from a series of chronicles published under the title Aspects of the War in the magazine Tempo.

These chronicles, along with others that were not originally part of the series, were compiled into an expanded volume, Dumba Nengue, and published in 1987 in the testimonies or witness accounts book series by Tempo. The English edition was published in 1988 as Dumba Nengue: Run for Your Life. Peasant Tales of Tragedy in Mozambique, and "it remains one of the most internationally recognized Mozambican texts about the war."

Magaia’s second collection, also based on eyewitness accounts, as well as reports and photographs, was published in 1989 - Double Massacre in Mozambique: Tragic Stories of Banditry II. It specifically documents the massacre of 424 civilians by RENAMO in the town of Homoíne, in the south of the country, in 1987.

Lina Magaia also published two novels: Delehta: Leaps in Life, in 1994, and The Green-Eyed Snake, in 1997. Delehta is partly fictional and partly autobiographical, “a first-person account of the final years of the war, the preparation for the 1992 Rome Peace Accord, and a tentative vision of a postwar democracy.”

Recurring themes in Lina Magaia’s work

Violence of the Civil War

Condition of the African Woman

Collective Trauma

Patriarchy and Social Inequality

Resistance and Dignity of the Peasant People

Relationship Between the Individual and the State

Lina Magaia’s writing style

Testimonial and committed writing – Lina Magaia writes from direct experience with war and conflict in Mozambique. Her texts have a strong documentary character, often based on real accounts, letters, interviews, or her own experiences as a combatant and activist. She uses literature as a tool of denunciation, especially of the atrocities committed during the civil war (RENAMO vs. FRELIMO) and of colonial brutality.

Example: “Dumba Nengue – Tragic Stories of Banditry” – a collection of real, raw narratives about civilians who were victims of the war.

Direct, raw, and emotional language – Magaia’s language is strong, straightforward, and visceral. She avoids excessive literary embellishment. She prefers to expose pain, suffering, and resistance in clear and intense terms, often shocking the reader on purpose.

Popular and collective voices – Her writing gives space to the voices of the Mozambican people – peasants, women, children, guerrilla fighters. She values orality and popular modes of expression, incorporating traits of spoken language and local expressions into her texts.

Humanism and collective memory – Despite the violence portrayed, her work carries a powerful sense of humanism. There is empathy for the victims and a clear desire to preserve collective memory and the dignity of the marginalized. Her writing is a form of resistance and healing.

Comparison of Lina Magaia with other

African or African-Diaspora women writers

Lina Magaia (Mozambique)

Style: Testimonial, realistic, direct, political.

Themes: Civil war, colonialism, violence, popular resistance.

Language: Raw, marked by orality and emotion.

Paulina Chiziane (Mozambique)

Style: Narrative, symbolic, with African oral and mythical elements.

Themes: Polygamy, women’s condition, tradition vs. modernity, spirituality.

Language: Rich in rhythm, humor, and social critique.

Comparison: While Lina documents the violence of war, Paulina dives into the feminine soul of Mozambique and the conflicts between tradition and change.

Noémia de Sousa (Mozambique)

Style: Poetic, lyrical, Pan-Africanist.

Themes: Negritude, African identity, colonial oppression.

Language: Emotional, musical, combative.

Comparison: Both are politically engaged, but Noémia uses poetry as an aesthetic weapon; Lina uses documentary prose.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Nigeria)

Style: Literary, fictional, psychological, and historical.

Themes: Biafra war, feminism, immigration, racism.

Language: Refined, accessible, with emotional depth.

Comparison: Both address war and collective trauma, but Chimamanda builds psychologically complex fictional characters, while Lina is more direct and factual.

Conceição Evaristo (Brazil)

Style: “Escrevivência” – writing rooted in the lived experience of Black women.

Themes: Racism, poverty, memory, resistance.

Language: Poetic, with oral and emotional elements.

Comparison: Both denounce systems of violence (colonial, racial, class-based), but Evaristo focuses on emotional structures of everyday life; Lina on the brutality of war.

These authors share the use of literature as a tool for denunciation, memory, and resistance, though their styles vary in form (poetry, prose, fiction, testimony) and emphasis (psychological, political, cultural).

Literary Work

Lina Magaia is widely known for her engaged literature, with strong political and social content. Her works are based on real events, war accounts, and the suffering of the Mozambican people, especially during the civil war that ravaged the country from 1977 to 1992.

Dumba Nengue

A poignant, visceral, and politically engaged work. Published in 1987, during the turbulent post-independence period in Mozambique, the book presents a collection of real-life accounts gathered from peasants and civilians who suffered atrocities committed by RENAMO during the civil war (1977–1992).

The title, which means “man’s head” in Changana, already anticipates the brutal nature of the narratives. These are stories of torture, mutilation, rape, massacres — but also of resistance and resilience. Magaia acts not as a traditional fiction writer, but as a chronicler of collective pain, documenting the destruction caused by war, especially in rural areas.

Her writing is direct, emotional, and full of denunciation. Lina avoids aesthetic filters: her goal is to scream the horror so the world can hear it. Her often-raw language seeks to provoke indignation. There is no neutrality: the book takes a clear political stance against the "armed banditry," as FRELIMO referred to RENAMO.

More than a reportage book, Dumba Nengue is a literature of urgency and testimony that inscribes the war onto the body of the Mozambican nation, with a focus on the scars left on women, children, and rural communities.

Double massacre in Mozambique

In Double Massacre in Mozambique, Lina Magaia continues the literary-political project she started in Dumba Nengue, reinforcing her role as a chronicler of the Mozambican civil war. Published in 1989, the book portrays what the author calls the “double massacre”: the brutal violence inflicted upon the civilian population by RENAMO and the psychological and social consequences that persist over time, even after the attacks cease.

The work maintains the testimonial and direct style, blending oral accounts, official documents, interviews, and the author's personal experiences, as she worked in the agricultural sector and had close contact with affected communities. Magaia denounces not only the deaths and mutilations but also the massacre of dignity, childhood, and hope—hence the “double” in the title.

The language remains strong and unfiltered, focused on provoking the reader and denouncing the atrocities. The book provides a raw and realistic portrayal of the war that destabilized Mozambique for over a decade, with a particular emphasis on the suffering of women and children. More than literature, the work is a historical and political document, exposing the perversity of armed conflicts and the wounds they leave not only on bodies but on individual psyches.

Delehta: Hops in Life

Delehta: Hops in Life represents a turning point in Lina Magaia’s work, distancing itself from the exclusive focus on the violence of the civil war to delve into the individual and subjective experience of a Mozambican woman facing the challenges of daily life in a country under reconstruction.

The protagonist, Delehta, is an ordinary woman, but her life is marked by extraordinary episodes of pain, resistance, and reinvention. Magaia constructs a sensitive and complex portrait of the character, who lives in an environment of inequality, machismo, poverty, and social instability, yet does not lose hope or the capacity to respond. The “hops” in the title refer to the unpredictable and abrupt movements life imposes – falls, jumps, and new beginnings.

The language of the work is more intimate and literary than in the previous books, although it retains the strength and social commitment that characterize the author’s writing. Here, Lina explores more deeply the psychological and emotional aspects, revealing a more introspective dimension of Mozambican women in the post-war period.

Delehta embodies the spirit of African female resilience, facing the challenges of patriarchy, motherhood, and precariousness without resorting to victimhood. She is a character built with affection and courage, offering the reader a deeply human perspective on what it means to be a woman in Mozambique.

Delehta shows that the fight for dignity is not only on the battlefields but also in the silence of homes, in the bodies of women, and in the invisible journeys that need to be told. It is a book less political in its explicit tone, but equally revolutionary in its content.

Highlights:

Genre: novel / Social Fiction / Psychological Portrait

Themes: female condition, social inequality, daily struggle, post-war reconstruction

Style: narrative, more elaborate and sensitive, but still engaged

Importance: expands Lina Magaia's thematic range, humanizing her denunciations through personalized fiction.

It happened at night, as always. Like owls or hyenas, the bandits attacked a village in the Taninga region. They robbed, kidnapped, and then forced their victims to carry food, radios, batteries, and the sweat of their labor in the fields or in the mines of Johannesburg, where many of these goods had come from. Among the kidnapped were pregnant women and small children. Among the children was a little girl of almost eight years old... And the hours passed, dawn broke and finally there was a halt. They dropped their loads, and the bandits selected who could go home and who should continue. Of those who had to continue, many were boys between twelve and fifteen years old. Their destiny was the school of murder - they would be transformed into armed bandits after training and a poisoning of their consciences. Others were girls between ten and fourteen years old, who would become women after being raped by the bandits. Others were women who were being stolen from their husbands and children. To demonstrate the fate of the girls to those who were returning, the leader of the bandits in the group chose one, a little girl who was less than eight years old. In front of everyone, he tried to rape her. The child's vagina was small, and he could not penetrate her. On impulse, he took a sharp knife and opened her with a violent blow. He took her blood. The child died.

Excerpt from Dumba Nengue, a relentless account of the terror of war.

Death

Magaia passed away in 2011, but her last publication, Recordações da Vovó Marta (Grandma Marta's Memories), published the same year, was based on interviews with one of the oldest women in Mozambique, Marta Mbcota Guebuza, 99, mother of former Mozambican president Armando Guebuza.

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

Importance and legacy

Lina Magaia was one of the first Mozambican women to write with her own voice on topics traditionally dominated by men, such as war, politics, and oppression. Her writing combines historical testimony with the strength of literary narrative and reveals the silenced pains of a nation. Lina also acted in documentaries and historical memory initiatives and is remembered as a firm and courageous voice against injustice and oblivion ֎

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