Janet Rae Johnson Mondlane is an American-born Mozambican activist. Together with her husband, Eduardo Chivambo Mondlane, she founded

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 firs ...

and helped organize the liberation of

Mozambique Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi ...

from the

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

colonialists. Janet Rae Johnson was born in 1934 in

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rockf ...

, and was raised in a middle-upper class American family. In 1951 at the age of 17, she attended a church camp in

Geneva, Wisconsin Geneva is a town in Walworth County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 5,390 at the 2020 census. The census-designated place of Como is located in the town. The unincorporated community of Lake Como is also located in the town. Geog ...

where she met the 31 year old Eduardo Mondlane, who was giving a speech about the future of

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

. In 1956, five years later, they married after she received her B.A. and he his M.A. At the time of their marriage, Janet was 22 and Eduardo was 36. They later had three children, Eduardo, Jr., Chude, and Nyeleti. In 1963 the Mondlanes moved with their family to Dar es Salaam,

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 ...

in order to organize the liberation factions fighting the Portuguese in

. Together they helped form Frelimo, and Mondlane was the director of the Mozambique Institute, the nonmilitary branch of Frelimo. The Institute organized health care and secondary education and raised funds for scholarships abroad for Mozambicans. After independence in 1975 she held positions within the Mozambican government, and was general secretary of the National AIDS council from 2000 to 2003. She established the Eduardo Chivambo Mondlane Foundation in 1996. In 2011 she received an honorary doctorate in Education Sciences from

Universidade Eduardo Mondlane The Eduardo Mondlane University ( pt, Universidade Eduardo Mondlane; UEM) is the oldest and largest university in Mozambique. The UEM is located in Maputo and has about 40,000 students enrolled. History The institution was set up as a center for ...

Maputo Maputo (), formerly named Lourenço Marques until 1976, is the capital, and largest city of Mozambique. Located near the southern end of the country, it is within of the borders with Eswatini and South Africa. The city has a population of 1,0 ...

, Mozambique.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mondlane, Janet 1934 births Living people American emigrants to Mozambique American expatriates in Tanzania FRELIMO politicians Mozambican independence activists Mozambican politicians Mozambican people of American descent Naturalized citizens of Mozambique People from Illinois