Mozambique occupies a frontline position in the southern African struggle against apartheid. Graça Machel has played a prominent role in this struggle. After receiving an advanced degree in Lisbon in the early 1970s, she became a leading member of FRELIMO, the movement struggling for Mozambican independence. A participant in negotiations for independence, she was appointed Minister of Education and Culture at the moment of independence in 1975. She remained Minister of Education until early this year. President Samora Moises Machel, whom she married in 1975, was killed in a mysterious plane crash on South African soil in October 1986.