Uria Simango

Who is Uria Simango?

The reverend Uria Timoteo Simango was a Mozambican Presbyterian minister and prominent leader of the Mozambique Liberation Front FRELIMO during the liberation struggle against Portuguese colonial rule. His precise date of death is unknown as he was extrajudicially executed by the post-independence government of Samora Machel. A biography of Simango was published in 2004.

Simango was a founder member of FRELIMO, serving as Vice-President from its formation in 1962 until the time of the assassination of its first leader Eduardo Mondlane, in February 1969. Simango succeeded Mondlane as FRELIMO's president but, in the power-struggle following Mondlane's death, his presidency was contested. In April 1969 his leadership was replaced by a triumvirate comprising the Marxist hardliners Samora Machel and Marcelino dos Santos as well as Simango. The late 1960s FRELIMO was blighted by fratricidal infighting with a number of party members dying of unnatural causes. See also.

The triumvirate did not last; Simango was expelled from the Central Committee in November 1969, and Samora Machel and Marcelino dos Santos assumed total control. In April 1970, Simango left for Egypt where, with other dissidents like Paulo Gumane, he became a leader of COREMO, another small liberation movement.