Africa-Press – Angola. Due to his tenacity and active participation in student movements, he was arrested several times by the PIDE (Portuguese Political Police), giving rise to international solidarity campaigns for his release.
The first Angolan President, António Agostinho Neto, proclaimer of National Independence, on 11 November 1975, died on a day like today, 10 September 1979, in Moscow, in the then Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), after being undergoing surgery.
Due to his tenacity and active participation in student movements, he was arrested several times by the PIDE (Portuguese Political Police), giving rise to international solidarity campaigns for his release. International influence grows in the 60’s and participates in different conferences.
He was born at five o’clock on September 17, 1922, in the village of Kaxicane, parish of S. José, municipality of Icolo e Bengo, in the district of Luanda, the son of evangelist pastor Agostinho Pedro Neto and primary school teacher Maria da Silva Neto . In 1930, he accompanied his parents in moving to Luanda and in 1933 he finished his primary education, which his parents had given him, having been approved with distinction. And in 1934, he enrolled, on February 14, at Liceu Salvador Correia (today called Magisterium Mutu ya Kevela).
In 1936, he gives the first public prayer, during a funeral ceremony in honor of the Methodist missionary Robert Shields, organized by evangelists in the African National League. And in 1938, he was awarded the 1st prize in a poetry competition promoted by the Portuguese Lusitana Church. In the newspaper O Estudante, an organ for students at Liceu Salvador Correia, it publishes an article entitled “Heroes”, in which it refers to the heroes of good and evil and criticizes the despots, urging colleagues to solidarity.
In 1942, he began to collaborate in the newspapers O Estandarte, of the Igreja Metodista, and O Farolim. He founded, in 1943, the Evangelical Center for Angolan Youth (CEJA), with the aim of supporting primary school students with learning difficulties, especially in the Portuguese language. He is part of the editorial staff of O Estudante. With a high ranking, he concluded, in January 1944, the high school course, a course that he suspended for three academic years, in order to, by the parents’ wishes, accompany his older brother who had been late in his studies. He will live for six months with his parents in the Piri region, Dembos, where the peasants inspire him with some poems that he would later destroy, considering them incipient. Through a competition, he joins the administrative staff of the Health and Hygiene Services of Angola, being placed in Malanje.
Some curiosities
1974 In February, the English version of his poetry book A Sagrada Esperança is published in Dar-es-Salam, Tanzania, with a translation by Marga Holness. Following the revolutionary coup of 25 April in Portugal and the recognition, by the new Portuguese regime, of the colonies’ right to independence, in October he signed a ceasefire in the Lunhameje villages, Moxico. 1975
On 5 January, in Nakuru, Kenya, an agreement of principles was signed between the MPLA, the FNLA and UNITA, for the establishment of joint talks with the Portuguese Government. He travels to Portugal, where he signs, on 15 January, the Alvor Accords, signed by the MPLA, FNLA and UNITA, as well as by representatives of the Portuguese provisional government. On 4 February, he returned to Luanda, where he received a triumphant popular reception, unprecedented in the history of Angola. In August, the transitional government disbanded and the three movements settled in their areas of influence, MPLA in Luanda, FNLA in the North, with the support of Zairean forces, and UNITA in the South, supported by the South Africans, by the which launches the slogan “Generalized Popular Resistance”. On 11 November, with the power of the MPLA practically confined to Luanda,
1976Thanks to the support it requested and received from socialist countries, especially from Cuban fighters and Soviet advisers and material, MPLA forces reached the Zaire River in February and the Cunene River in March, defeating the FNLA and UNITA armies and expelling the Zairean and South African invaders, and therefore orders the celebration of the «Carnaval da Vitória». It participates in the Conference of Heads of State and Government of the Non-Aligned Movement, in Sri Lanka, and in the Summit of Frontline Countries, in Dar-es-Salam, Tanzania. He takes office as president of the General Assembly of the Union of Angolan Writers (UEA). He presides over the VI Conference of Afro-Asian Writers, in Luanda. On 25 April, he receives the City of Belgrade Gold Medal, the highest decoration of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. On the 27th of April, receives the Grand Sash of the Order of Merits, awarded by the Polish People’s Republic. On 28 April, he received the Joliot Curie Gold Medal from the World Peace Council. On May 1, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR awarded him the International Lenin Prize. In June, he receives the Dimitrof Prize, awarded by the Council of State of the People’s Republic of Bulgaria. In July, he visits Havana and receives the Gold Medal of the Playa Giron Order, awarded by the Council of State of the Socialist Republic of Cuba. On August 1, he proclaims the FAPLA-People’s Armed Forces for the Liberation of Angola. receives the Dimitrof Prize, awarded by the Council of State of the People’s Republic of Bulgaria. In July, he visits Havana and receives the Gold Medal of the Playa Giron Order, awarded by the Council of State of the Socialist Republic of Cuba. On August 1, he proclaims the FAPLA-People’s Armed Forces for the Liberation of Angola. receives the Dimitrof Prize, awarded by the Council of State of the People’s Republic of Bulgaria. In July, he visits Havana and receives the Gold Medal of the Playa Giron Order, awarded by the Council of State of the Socialist Republic of Cuba. On August 1, he proclaims the FAPLA-People’s Armed Forces for the Liberation of Angola.
1977 On 27 May, it faces the biggest crisis in the history of independent Angola, with the coup d’état unleashed by a faction of the MPLA led by Nito Alves, a situation that generates a bloodbath with profound repercussions in all sectors of Angolan society. In December, he was awarded the title of National Hero by the 1st Congress of the MPLA, in which the Labor Party was created. 1978
Proclaims the “Year of Agriculture”. On 19 January, he is awarded the title of Doctor Honoris Causa by the University of Lagos, Nigeria. He receives, in Luanda, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kurt Waldheim, in addition to several party leaders and presidents of African countries. Receives, in Luanda, the Cuban President, Fidel Castro. On 25 and 26 June, he met in Bissau with the President of the Portuguese Republic, General Ramalho Eanes, with the aim of regularizing relations between Angola and Portugal. He participates, in Khartoum, in the 15th Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), in which Angola is admitted as a member. On 20 August, in order to put an end to hostilities on Angola’s northern border, he met President Mobutu in Kinshasa, then received him in Luanda on 15 October.
1979 Proclaims the “Year of Staff Training”. On 8 January, he presides over the inauguration ceremony of the leaders of the Union of Angolan Writers. On the 4th of February, he was awarded the Medal «November 17th» by the International Union of Students. He presides over the closing of the VI Conference of Afro-Asian Writers, held from June 26 to July 3. He delivers his last speech in Uíge, on 22 August, in which he regrets “it cannot be longer because my voice is not clear, not very good”. Emergency transfer to Moscow to undergo surgery, he dies on 10 September.
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