Luanda, Angola – Mozambican social activist Graça Machel has been awarded the Lusophone Personality 2026 prize by Forbes África Lusófona in recognition of her decades-long contribution to the promotion of human rights and development on the African continent.
The award was announced by the Foundation for Community Development, known as FDC, which Machel leads. According to the foundation, the prize recognises “a career spanning several decades dedicated to the promotion of education, the defence of the rights of women and children, as well as sustainable development in the Lusophone space and on the African continent.”
The ceremony took place in Luanda, where Machel, 80, received the award alongside Cape Verdean statesman Pedro Pires, a historical figure of Cape Verdean nationalism who served as President of the Republic between 2001 and 2011, and who was also distinguished with the Lusophone Personality 2026 prize on the same occasion. Among those present at the ceremony were fellow liberation struggle figures including Maria Eugénia Neto, widow of Angola’s first president Agostinho Neto. 
Speaking during her acceptance speech, Machel reflected on a lifetime of service rooted in the liberation struggle. “At a certain point in our lives, we decided that we did not belong to ourselves. We dedicated ourselves to the national liberation struggle and, at that moment, I recall many, in particular Agostinho Neto, Aristides Pereira and Samora Machel, just to name a few who walked with us,” she said.
Machel served as the first Minister of Education of Mozambique in 1975 and is the widow of historic former Mozambican President Samora Machel, who died in 1986. She founded the Graça Machel Trust in 2010, an organisation that supports women entrepreneurs across Africa while advocating for good governance and democracy.
The Lusophone Personality prize is not the first major international recognition Machel has received this year. Earlier in January, she was awarded the Indira Gandhi Peace Prize 2025 for her humanitarian work in education, health and nutrition. “The Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development 2025 is awarded to Mrs Graça Machel for her pioneering work in the fields of education, health and nutrition, economic empowerment and humanitarian work in difficult circumstances,” read a statement from the Indira Gandhi Memorial Trust at the time.
