Book Chapter

The Political Sublime: Reading Kok Nam, Mozambican Photographer, 1939–2012

Assubuji, Rui

2023

Overview

KOK NAM AND THE PRESIDENTThe portrait of Samora Machel at Nachingwea in 1974 (in Figure 14.1) was the first photograph taken of the Frelimo leader by Kok Nam. Machel was a guerrilla commander of Frelimo (Frente de Libertação de Moçambique, Liberation Front of Mozambique) who became first president of the new Popular Republic of Mozambique after independence in 1975. The portrait comes from an early visit by the Mozambican press to the northern liberated zone after the Lusaka Accord between the Portuguese government and Frelimo in September 1974, and before the movement came south to the capital, prior to independence. On this occasion, Kok Nam was apparently filled with many varying emotions. Everything was on a new footing and he was not sure if he was permitted to take pictures of Machel, whom he admired. He ended up secretly stealing this shot. In the image, Machel's face has a remarkable clarity to it. This might be due to the fine tonal range, but perhaps it was also because the future lay completely open. Kok Nam's account describes the natural light conditions at Nachingwea in terms that are photographically almost divine, as if the heavens conspired for the revelation of the leader's face:It was the first time I saw Samora. The light was fantastic, for me the most fantastic light … it is when after a great burst of rain the sun explodes, and a cloud comes and covers the sun but the light becomes bright and translucent; that was the situation with the light on his face. That is the portrait Graça and Mandela have in their house in Maputo … It resulted from one, two shots, no more, I was afraid (Nam 2010, 36).The clarity of the stolen portrait drew the attention of Frelimo, and the party requested the negative for reproduction purposes. However, as Kok Nam (2010, 36) explains, ‘Unfortunately, the negative disappeared because the guys from the party asked for it to make a quantity of copies for display in army facilities and offices of state institutions. The negative disappeared and the person held responsible was in prison for fifteen days.’As Secretary of the Defence Department, Samora Machel organised visits for press, researchers and strategic guests to the camps and the liberated zones from the early stages of the struggle as part of the external policy of the movement.