António Agostinho da Silva Neto (17 September 1922 – 10 September 1979) was an
Angolan politician and poet. He served as the first
president of Angola
The president of Angola () is both head of state and head of government in Angola. According to the constitution adopted in 2010, the post of prime minister is abolished; executive authority belongs to the president who has also a degree of leg ...
from 1975 to 1979, having led the
Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) in the
war for independence (1961–1974). Until his death, he led the MPLA in the
civil war (1975–2002). Known also for his literary activities, he is considered Angola's preeminent poet. His birthday is celebrated as
National Heroes' Day, a
public holiday in Angola.
Early life
Neto was born at
Ícolo e Bengo
Ícolo e Bengo (English: Icolo and Bengo)
is a city council (''município''
or municipality) in the province of Luanda in Angola. It had a population of 81,144 in 2014.
History
As per decree 29/11, of 1 September 2011, which moved this municipali ...
, in
Bengo Province
Bengo is a province of Angola. Its capital is Caxito. It has an area of 31,371 square kilometres, and its population as of the 2014 Census was 356,641. The province was created in 1980 by dividing the original province of Luanda into Bengo and ...
,
Angola, in 1922. Neto attended high school in the capital city,
Luanda; his parents were both school teachers and Methodists; his father, also called Agostinho Neto, was a
Methodist pastor. After secondary school he worked in the colonial health services before going on to university. The younger Neto left Angola for
Portugal, and studied medicine at the universities of
Coimbra and
Lisbon
Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...
. He combined his academic life with covert political activity of a revolutionary sort; and
PIDE, the security police force of the
Estado Novo regime headed by Portuguese Prime Minister
Salazar, arrested him in 1951 for three months for his separatist activism. He was arrested again in 1952 for joining the Portuguese Movement for Democratic Youth Unity. He was arrested again in 1955 and held until 1957. He finished his studies, marrying a 23-year-old Portuguese woman who was born in
Trás-os-Montes
Trás-os-Montes () is a geographical, historical and cultural region of Portugal.
Portuguese for "behind the mountains", Trás-os-Montes is located northeast of the country in an upland area, landlocked by the Douro and Tâmega rivers to south a ...
, Maria Eugénia da Silva, the same day he graduated. He returned to Angola in 1959, was arrested again in 1960, and escaped to assume leadership of the armed struggle against colonial rule. When Angola gained independence in 1975 he became president and held the position until his death in 1979.
Political career
In December 1956, the
Angolan Communist Party (PCA) merged with the
Party of the United Struggle for Africans in Angola
Party of the United Struggle for Africans in Angola (in Portuguese: ''Partido da Luta Unida dos Africanos de Angola''; abbreviated: PLUA) is the first political party in Angola to advocate Angolan independence from Portugal, campaigning from its fo ...
(PLUA) to form the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola with
Viriato da Cruz
Viriato Clemente da Cruz (25 March 1928 – 13 June 1973) was an Angolan poet and politician, who was born in Kikuvo, Porto Amboim, Portuguese Angola, and died in Beijing, People's Republic of China. He is considered one of the most important Angol ...
, the President of the PCA, as Secretary General and Neto as president.
The Portuguese authorities in Angola arrested Neto on 8 June 1960. His patients and supporters marched for his release from Bengo to Catete, but were stopped when Portuguese soldiers shot at them, killing 30 and wounding 200 in what became known as the
Massacre of Icolo e Bengo
A massacre is the killing of a large number of people or animals, especially those who are not involved in any fighting or have no way of defending themselves. A massacre is generally considered to be moral judgement, morally unacceptable, esp ...
.
At first Portugal's government exiled Neto to
Cape Verde
, national_anthem = ()
, official_languages = Portuguese
, national_languages = Cape Verdean Creole
, capital = Praia
, coordinates =
, largest_city = capital
, demonym ...
. Then, once more, he was sent to jail in Lisbon. After international protests were made to Salazar's administration urging Neto's release, Neto was freed from prison and put under
house arrest
In justice and law, house arrest (also called home confinement, home detention, or, in modern times, electronic monitoring) is a measure by which a person is confined by the authorities to their residence. Travel is usually restricted, if all ...
. From this he escaped, going first to
Morocco and then to
Congo-Léopoldville.
In 1962 Neto visited
Washington, D.C., and asked the
Kennedy administration for aid in his war against Portugal. The U.S. government turned him down, because it had oil interests in colonial Angola, choosing instead to support
Holden Roberto's comparatively anti-Communist
National Liberation Front of Angola (FNLA).
Neto met
Che Guevara in 1965 and began receiving support from
Cuba.
He visited Havana many times, and he and
Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (; ; 13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban revolutionary and politician who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and president from 1976 to 200 ...
shared similar ideological views.
Following the
Carnation Revolution
The Carnation Revolution ( pt, Revolução dos Cravos), also known as the 25 April ( pt, 25 de Abril, links=no), was a military coup by left-leaning military officers that overthrew the authoritarian Estado Novo regime on 25 April 1974 in Lisbo ...
in Portugal during April 1974 (which deposed Salazar's successor
Marcelo Caetano), three political factions vied for Angolan power. One of the three was the MPLA, to which Neto belonged. On 11 November 1975, Angola achieved full independence from the Portuguese, and Neto became the nation's ruler after the MPLA seized
Luanda at the expense of the other anti-colonial movements. He established a one-party state and his government developed close links with the
Soviet Union and other nations in the
Eastern Bloc
The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc and the Soviet Bloc, was the group of socialist states of Central and Eastern Europe, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America under the influence of the Soviet Union that existed du ...
and other
Communist states, particularly
Cuba, which aided the MPLA considerably in its war with the FNLA, the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (
UNITA) and
South Africa. Neto made the MPLA declare
Marxism-Leninism its official doctrine. As a consequence, he violently repressed a movement later called
Fractionism which in 1977 attempted a coup d'état inspired by the Organização dos Comunistas de Angola. In December 1977 at their first congress, they changed their name to MPLA-PT (MPLA Partido do Trabalho) officially adopting the Marxist-Leninist ideology, requested by Nito Alves. Tens of thousands of followers (or alleged followers) of
Nito Alves
Nito Alves (1945Fauvet, Paul. "Angola: The Rise and Fall of Nito Alves". ''Review of African Political Economy'', No. 9, Southern Africa. (May – Aug., 1977), pp. 88–104.–1977) was an Angolan politician who served as the interior minister o ...
were executed in the aftermath of the attempted coup, over a period that lasted up to two years, although Agostinho Neto only ratified the death sentence of Nito Alves. After corresponding with several relatives of the disappeared, Neto decided to dissolve DISA for the "excesses" they had committed.
According to his sons, the president Neto never assigned business or privileges to them, suggesting that despite a controversial presidency he never forgot his humble origins.
Neto died in a hospital in
Moscow, while undergoing surgery for cancer, shortly before his 57th birthday.
José Eduardo dos Santos succeeded him as president. The
Angolan Civil War continued to rage for almost a quarter of a century more.
Literary career
Agostinho Neto's poetic works were written chiefly between 1946 and 1960, largely in Portugal. He published three books of poetry during his lifetime. Several of his poems became national anthems. Poems included collections like ''Sacred Hope'', which was published in 1974 (Titled Dry Eyes in the Portuguese Version). Also, he was the first member voted into the Anglo Writers Union and The Center for African Studies in Lisbon. He was later awarded the Lotus Prize presented by the Conference of Afro-Asian Writers'
Death
Agostinho Neto died on Monday, 10 September 1979 in
Moscow after travelling to the
Soviet Union to undergo surgery for cancer and hepatitis. He was a week shy of his 57th birthday at the time of his death. Neto had a long battle with
pancreatic cancer
Pancreatic cancer arises when cell (biology), cells in the pancreas, a glandular organ behind the stomach, begin to multiply out of control and form a Neoplasm, mass. These cancerous cells have the malignant, ability to invade other parts of t ...
, as well as chronic
hepatitis that ultimately took his life. Neto had been to the Soviet Union multiple times for treatment because of the high level of medical professionals there. Few people knew about his failing health because he and his colleagues thought it was better to hide this information, as to not show weakness.
Legacy
The
Soviet Union awarded Neto the
Lenin Peace Prize
The International Lenin Peace Prize (russian: международная Ленинская премия мира, ''mezhdunarodnaya Leninskaya premiya mira)'' was a Soviet Union award named in honor of Vladimir Lenin. It was awarded by a pane ...
for 1975–76.
The public university of Luanda, the
Agostinho Neto University, is named after him. A poem by
Chinua Achebe entitled ''Agostinho Neto'' was written in his honor.
[
] An
airport in
Santo Antão, Cape Verde
Santo Antão (Portuguese for " Saint Anthony") is the westernmost island of Cape Verde. At , it is the largest of the Barlavento Islands group, and the second largest island of Cape Verde.[Praia
Praia (, Portuguese language, Portuguese for "beach") is the capital and largest city of Cape Verde.] is named "Hospital Agostinho Neto" (HAN). There is also a
morna dedicated to him. A street in
New Belgrade in
Serbia is named after him, the Dr Agostina Neta street.
A street in Ghana (Agostinho Neto Road), which can be found in Airport City in the capital, is named after him.
In 1973, during one of his few unofficial visits to Bulgaria, Neto met a woman with whom he had a daughter, Mihaela Radkova Marinova, who was raised in orphanages in Bulgaria. Neto's family has not recognised the child. A DNA test performed in 2013 concluded with 95% confidence that she is Neto's daughter.
Foreign honours
*
**
Order of Amílcar Cabral, First Class
*
**
Recipient of the
Order of Playa Girón
The Order of Playa Girón is a national order conferred by the Council of State of Cuba on Cubans or foreigners. It was established in 1961 and is named after the Playa Girón (Girón beach), site of the Cuban victory in the Bay of Pigs Invasion.
...
*
**
Grand Cross of the
National Order of Merit An order of merit is conferred by a state, government or royal family on an individual in recognition of military or civil merit.
Order of merit may also refer to:
* FIFA Order of Merit, for significant contribution to association football
* PDC O ...
*
**
Order of the Most Ancient Welwitschia Mirabilis
*
**
Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland
The Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland ( pl, Order Zasługi Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej) is a Polish order of merit created in 1974, awarded to persons who have rendered great service to Poland. It is granted to foreigners or Poles resident ab ...
, First Class
*
**
Supreme Commander of the
Order of the Companions of O. R. Tambo
The Order of the Companions of O. R. Tambo is a South African honour. It was instituted on 6 December 2002, and is granted by the President of South Africa to foreign citizens who have promoted South African interests and aspirations through co ...
*
**
Lenin Peace Prize
The International Lenin Peace Prize (russian: международная Ленинская премия мира, ''mezhdunarodnaya Leninskaya premiya mira)'' was a Soviet Union award named in honor of Vladimir Lenin. It was awarded by a pane ...
*
**
Order of the Yugoslav Star
The Order of the Yugoslav Star sr, Орден југословенске звезде, ''Orden jugoslovenske zvezde'' sl, Red jugoslovanske zvezde mk, Орден на југословенската ѕвезда, ''Orden na jugoslovenskata zvezda'' ...
*
** Recipient of the
Royal Order of Munhumutapa
The Royal Order of Munhumutapa, named after the Kingdom of Mutapa, is a national order in Zimbabwe. The Order is conferred upon national citizens and foreign former leaders of the Frontline States in recognition of exemplary support of the independ ...
References
External links
Encyclopedia
{{DEFAULTSORT:Neto, Agostinho
Angolan revolutionaries
Presidents of Angola
1922 births
1979 deaths
People from Bengo Province
Angolan communists
Angolan escapees
Lenin Peace Prize recipients
Angolan writers
Communist rulers
Escapees from Portuguese detention
Lenin Prize winners
Portuguese-language writers
MPLA politicians
University of Coimbra alumni
University of Lisbon alumni
Communism in Angola
20th-century Angolan people
20th-century politicians
Angolan independence activists
Angolan expatriates in Portugal