João Manuel Ferreira Simões

João Manuel Ferreira Simões is a Portuguese journalist (born September 3, 1932) known for founding the journalist's union in Mozambique, he has worked in "Diário de Notícias" and "Diário Popular" and is presently retired.

Early Life

Born at the small village of Ota, county of Alenquer, about 45 km north of Lisbon, Portugal, he soon was to become an orphan of both parents. During World War II, in which Portugal maintained a neutral position, life within the middle and lower classes had become extremely difficult, and no in his family could support neither him nor his two sisters. This would determine his departure for Lisbon at the age of six. In February, 1940, he was enrolled at the Pina Manique section of Casa Pia de Lisboa, a boarding school for children at peril.

Casa Pia de Lisboa

At the Casa Pia he participated in a boys's choir which intervened in several Italian opera shows at the "Coliseu dos Recreios" and the National Theatre of São Carlos. It was in those times that he personally met famous opera singers like Tito Schippa, Benjamino Gigli, Gino Bechi, Iolanda Gardino, Renata Tebaldi, and the Portuguese Tomás Alcaide and Guilhermo Kjolner.He proceeded his studies till 1951 when he finished his course, but one night, after a rehearsal of the opera "Cecília" by Licino Refice, at the National Theatre of São Carlos, he was overrun by a car and fractured his left leg. The driver was Manuel Simões Vaz, a captain of the Army and publisher and editor of the most important and influential newspaper in Lourenzo Marques, capital of Mozambique. In due of their acquaintance, Captain Vaz invited Ferreira Simões for a job in Africa in his newspaper.

Lourenzo Marques

He accepted the job and embarked on August, 1951, on ocean liner "Pátria" for Lourenzo Marques, Mozambique, a former Portuguese colony in southeastern Africa. After working in the publicity section of the newspaper, his writing skills were soon to be unveiled and captain Vaz would personally invite him to join the editorial staff of the "Notícias", thus starting his career in journalism.

As a journalist there he visited amongst other countries the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland (on 1953-07-14, Nyasaland (Malawi) joined with Northern Rhodesia (Zambia) and Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) to form the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland), being Sir Roy Wellensky the Governor.Also as a journalist, he was part of the committee which accompanied the President of the Portuguese Republic, Admiral Américo Thomaz, on his visit to Angola.In Mozambique he achieved a high reputation for his skills as a writer and founded the journalist's union in Mozambique, which resulted in various benefits for the professional class.He was editor in chief of daily newspaper "Notícias da Tarde" and weekly magazine "Tempo". Also performed the functions of head of the delegation in Lourenzo Marques of daily newspaper "Notícias da Beira", and of Lisbon's "Agência Noticiosa Lusitana" (a Portuguese international news agency).He married twice, firstly with Maria Helena da Silva, latterly with Maria do Carmo Alves Lopes with whom he has two sons.

Although Ferreira Simões did not see himself as a supporter of the political regime which ran the country for almost 40 years (a right-wing dictatorship known as "Estado Novo", in English "New State"), as a journalist he was never hassled by the secret police PIDE, in a way also because he did not involve himself in any suspicious activities. The PIDE police called him twice to their headquarters, however, to ascertain why would Ferreira Simoes send and receive frequent mail from Eastern European countries (communists at the time). The reason was simple: he had learned Esperanto, an artificial international language with a regularized system of pronunciation and a vocabulary etymologically common to many European languages, and he sought pals to exchange mails. In spite of this, some of the mail was seized and he was asked to translate its contents by the secrete police. The political regime had enforced the so-called "Censura" (censorship) and wanted to make sure Ferreira Simoes was not a communist.The only political persecution which he felt was perpetrated not by the secret police, but instead by the last Governor-General of Mozambique, eng. Pimentel dos Santos. The governor-general was the highest political rank in the political hierarchy, equivalent to the president of the Republic, and by law the president of the Legislative Council. The Legislative Council was the political body equivalent to a parliament or a congress, where its representatives discussed and approved the laws which would be promulgated and govern the Portuguese colony of Mozambique. It was the year of 1973, Ferreira Simões was a union leader, and after a meeting of several unions, they appointed him to become a representative for the "Conselho Legislativo" or Legislative Council. The list of the representatives elected and appointed by several social parties was then appreciated by a representative of the "Acção Nacional Popular", the only legal political party which ruled the country, and by the governor-general. It so happened that the governor-general did not sympathize with Ferreira Simões, with whom he had had an instance of divergence due to some news sent by the latter to be printed in Lisbon. As a consequence of this, the governor-general ordered that Ferreira Simoes's name be unwritten of the record of the unions's meeting, and that his name be substituted for that of a black man from the Monapo region, called Assael Jonassane Mazula, who had already been elected for previous Legislative Council's periods. This council would not last long, however, since one year later, in April 1974, the dictatorship would fall during the military revolution in Lisbon, dissolving the council and putting and end to the governor-general's functions.

Return to Portugal

After the Portuguese revolution of April 25, 1974, a left-wing military coup which deposed a dictatorship that ran the country for almost four decades, Ferreira Simões was forced to abandon Mozambique due to political persecutions and for believing that Mozambique should be entitled to free and democratic general elections instead of the predicted handover of the country to Marxist party Frelimo. Leaving all his belongings behind, he sought refuge in Johannesburg, South Africa, where he stayed for almost two years, and in the Spring of 1976 returned to Portugal. The country was facing very difficult times, plunged in social chaos with workers's demonstrations and a strong political influence from the Communist Party. Over half a million Portuguese citizens living in the colonies (mostly Angola and Mozambique) had returned home.

In Lisbon he restarted his work as a copy desk and editor in "Diário de Notícias" and later worked as editor and main reporter in "Diário Popular", two of Lisbon's major daily papers.