Janet Mondlane and her husband, Eduardo Chivambo Mondlane were the founders of Frelimo and helped organize the liberation of Mozambique from the Portuguese colonialists.
Janet was born in 1935 in Illinois, 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 where she met Eduardo Mondlane, who was giving a speech about the future of Africa. 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.
In 1963 Janet and Eduardo returned to Eduardo's home, Mozambique, in order to organize the liberation factions fighting the Portuguese. Together they helped form Frelimo, and Janet was the director of the Mozambique Institute, the nonmilitary branch of Frelimo.