Africa-Press – Angola. A bust of the first President of Angola, António Agostinho Neto, was installed this Tuesday (27th) in one of the gardens of the capital city of Italy, Rome.
Neto’s bust is also a tribute to all Italians who contributed to the fight against colonialism on the African continent.
The bust unveiling ceremony had as its central figure the writer Maria Eugenia Neto, president of the Agostinho Neto Foundation (FAN) and widow of the father of the Angolan nation, who died in 1979 in Moscow.
In the place chosen for setting up the statue of Neto, close to the Papal Basilica of São Paulo Outside the Walls (so called because it was built outside the walls of ancient Rome), the young Italian Piero Bruno was murdered in 1975, when he was in favor of the independence of Angola.
On the occasion, Maria Eugénia Neto said that for President Neto “relations with Italy were of particular importance, both in terms of political and cultural rapprochement”, recalling that it was in this country where his second book of poetry entitled “Com Occhi” was published. Asciutti” (with dry eyes), in 1963, in Milan, by the still existing Editora Mondadori, currently among the largest in Italy.
According to the president of FAN, “Italy was one of the European countries where African liberation movements found human affinities and the solidarity of people from all social and political strata”, which deepened friendship with this nation.
Agostinho Neto’s widow observed, on the other hand, that in 1970, from the 27th of June to the 1st of July, Rome hosted the Conference of Solidarity with the Peoples of the Portuguese Colonies, which culminated in the reception of Pope Paul VI to the leaders of the three liberation movements in Angola, Cape Verde and Guinea Bissau and Mozambique, namely Agostinho Neto, Amílcar Cabral and Marcelino dos Santos, the act gave greater diplomatic impetus and international support to the liberation movements.
In turn, the Minister of Culture and Tourism, Filipe Zau, who represented the Angolan Government at the act, said that the city of Rome, in the early 1970s, expressed its full support for the “just rights to dignity and self-determination of African peoples”.
Taking a historical look at Neto, the minister expressed, at the end of his speech, his “deep satisfaction at being able to attend this important and significant ceremony, which, without a doubt, will strengthen the friendship and cooperation between our two countries and peoples”.
At the opening of the act, the Angolan ambassador to Italy, Maria de Fátima Jardim, thanked the Italian authorities for making this moment possible after long negotiations involving the commune of Rome, the University of International Studies (UNINT) of Rome and other institutions.
The president of the VIII municipality of Rome, Amadeo Ciaccheri, and the cultural adviser to the municipal government of Rome, Andrea Catarci, were unanimous in considering that this act reinforces the already solid friendship and brotherhood between Italians and Angolans.
The ceremony was attended by the ambassadors of Cape Verde and Mozambique, as well as representatives of the Portuguese embassy, the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Roma Tre University, UNINT, diplomats, the Angolan community in Rome and Italian friends of Angola.
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