Meet Graça Machel, The Only Woman in History to Marry Two Presidents

Who is Graça Machel?- In this article, we will discuss the life of the world’s first and only woman to marry two presidents. Machel broke the world record in 1998 when she married the president of South Africa at the time, Nelson Mandela. Before then, she was the widow of another African president who we will also discuss in this article.

Not only did Machel get married to two presidents, but she also got married to two presidents who were the first independent presidents of their countries. Although she served as First Lady of two countries, Graça Machel is originally from Mozambique. Now, let’s see who our record breaker really is!

Who is Graça Machel?

The table below contains basic data about Graça Machel, including her net worth.

Graça Machel was born on October 17, 1945, (17 days after her father’s death) in rural Incadine, Gaza Province, Mozambique. She attended Methodist mission schools before she bagged a scholarship to study at the University of Lisbon, Portugal. At the University, she studied German and became involved in independence issues. Due to her exposure to different territories, Machel speaks over five languages including Portuguese, English, Spanish, Italian, French, and her native Xitsonga language.

Career

Machel began her career as a schoolteacher in 1973 when she returned to her country to join the Mozambican Liberation Front (FRELIMO). After the country’s independence in 1975 however, her political career began as Mozambique’s first Minister of Education and Culture.

Her tenure in the Ministry of Education and Culture was recognized for bringing about an increase in the number of students enrolled in both primary and secondary institutions. The number reportedly rose from about 40 percent to over 90 percent for males and 75 percent for females.

Machel, who is on the top 10 list of Africa’s Most Influential Women, was also chancellor of the University of Cape Town from 1999 to 2019. Within that period, she bagged various appointments and awards as listed below.

• 2009- Appointment to the Commonwealth of Nations Eminent Persons Group.
• 2012- President of the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London.
• 2016-Chancellor of the African Leadership University.
• 2017- Elected as Honorary Fellow of the British Academy (HonFBA).
• 2018- Awarded by the World Health Organization for her contributions to the health and wellbeing of women, children, and adolescents.

After retiring from the Mozambique ministry, Machel was appointed as the expert in charge of producing the groundbreaking United Nations report on the impact of armed conflict on children. She is an international advocate for women’s and children’s rights and her works in various organizations and initiatives speak volumes about that. As a result of her humanitarian work in these areas, Machel was made an honorary British Dame by Queen Elizabeth II in 1997.

She is also a member of “The Elders”, an international NGO, made up of public figures (senior statesmen, peace activists, and human rights advocates) set up by Nelson Mandela in 2007. They are known as “global leaders working together for peace and human rights”. Their goal, as stipulated by Mandela is to use their “almost 1,000 years of collective experience” to proffer solutions to seemingly insurmountable problems such as HIV/AIDS, climate change, and poverty.

Meet Graça Machel’s Two Husbands

As stated earlier, Graça Machel is the first and only woman in the world’s history to marry two presidents from different countries.

In 1975, she married  Samora Machel, Mozambique’s first president, with whom she had two children (Josina and Malengane). Samora however died in office in 1986 when his aircraft crashed near the Mozambique-South Africa border.

Her second president-husband was Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s first post-apartheid president. They got married on Mandela’s 80th birthday on July 18, 1998. Mandela however died 15 years later in 2013 (December 5).

Graça Machel Net Worth

Graça Machel has an estimated net worth of $1.4 million. She is one of the most influential women in Africa with an outstanding track record in child and women’s rights advocacy as well as freedom activism.