Cristina Jeremias Tembe (died 24 June 2017) was a Mozambican independence activist and politician. In 1977 she was one of the first group of women elected to the People's Assembly.

Biography

During her youth, Tembe was involved with the

Igreja Presbiteriana de Moçambique Igreja Presbiteriana de Moçambique is one of the largest Protestant denominations of Mozambique. History The Presbyterian Church in Mozambique was started by Mozambicans, who heard the gospel in South Africa. Yosefa Mhalamhala converted to the ...

. A student activist, she joined

FRELIMO FRELIMO (; from the Portuguese , ) is a democratic socialist political party in Mozambique. It is the dominant party in Mozambique and has won a majority of the seats in the Assembly of the Republic in every election since the country's first ...

and in 1964 was one of a group that attempted to go into exile in

Tanzania Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands and ...

to avoid the PIDE. However, she was arrested while travelling through

Rhodesia Rhodesia (, ), officially from 1970 the Republic of Rhodesia, was an unrecognised state in Southern Africa from 1965 to 1979, equivalent in territory to modern Zimbabwe. Rhodesia was the ''de facto'' successor state to the British colony of S ...

and deported back to Mozambique, where she was detained by the PIDE. She rose to become a member of the party's central committee. Following independence in 1975, she was a FRELIMO candidate in the 1977 parliamentary elections, and was one of the first group of 27 women elected to the People's Assembly. Re-elected in

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. **Spain and Portugal ente ...

, she also served on the Maputo secretariat of the party, and as secretary of the Maputo branch of the

Organization of Mozambican Women The Organization of Mozambican Women ( ''OMM'') is the women's section of FRELIMO. Founded in 1973, during the Mozambican War of Independence, in recognition of women's growing roles in the conflict against Portuguese colonialism, the OMM was creat ...

. In 1992 she was a founder of SPI, the unofficial financial arm of FRELIMO.China International Fund-SPI: the chinese Frelimo connection
IESE She died in June 2017.De vez em quando - Cristina Tembe: Quando falar dos mortos é reivindicar a histórias
Noticias Online, 30 June 2017

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tembe, Cristina Date of birth unknown Mozambican independence activists FRELIMO politicians Members of the Assembly of the Republic (Mozambique) 2017 deaths 20th-century Mozambican politicians 20th-century Mozambican women politicians