Daniel Chipenda (15 May 1931,

Lobito Lobito is a municipality in Angola. It is located in Benguela Province, on the Atlantic Coast north of the Catumbela Estuary. The Lobito municipality had a population of 393,079 in 2014. History The city was founded in 1843 and owes its existe ...

- 28 February 1996) fought in the

Angolan War of Independence The Angolan War of Independence (; 1961–1974), called in Angola the ("Armed Struggle of National Liberation"), began as an uprising against forced cultivation of cotton, and it became a multi-faction struggle for the control of Portugal ...

, serving as the

People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola The People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola ( pt, Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola, abbr. MPLA), for some years called the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola – Labour Party (), is an Angolan left-wing, social de ...

's (MPLA) field commander in the Eastern Front before founding and leading the

Eastern Revolt The Eastern Revolt ( pt, Revolta do Leste; RDL) is an Angolan nationalist organization that fought in the war for independence from Portugal under the leadership of Daniel Chipenda.

, a faction of the MPLA. He later joined the

National Liberation Front of Angola The National Front for the Liberation of Angola ( pt, Frente Nacional de Libertação de Angola; abbreviated FNLA) is a political party and former militant organisation that fought for Angolan independence from Portugal in the war of independe ...

(FNLA), but left, rejoined the MPLA, and left again in July 1992. He was an

Ovimbundu The Ovimbundu, also known as the Southern Mbundu, are a Bantu ethnic group who live on the Bié Plateau of central Angola and in the coastal strip west of these highlands. As the largest ethnic group in Angola, they make up 38 percent of t ...

. Chipenda, then a member of the MPLA, established the Eastern Front, significantly expanding the MPLA's reach, in May 1966. When the EF collapsed, Chipenda and MPLA leader

Agostinho Neto 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 from 1975 to 1979, having led the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) i ...

each blamed the other. In 1972 the Soviet Union allied with Chipenda's faction, giving him aid. 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 Lisb ...

in Portugal in 1974,

Joaquim Pinto de Andrade Joaquim Pinto de Andrade (July 22, 1926 – February 23, 2008) served as the first honorary President of the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), Chancellor of the Luanda Archdiocese, and as a member of the African Society of Cultu ...

, the President of the MPLA, organized an MPLA congress in

Lusaka Lusaka (; ) is the capital and largest city of Zambia. It is one of the fastest-developing cities in southern Africa. Lusaka is in the southern part of the central plateau at an elevation of about . , the city's population was about 3.3 millio ...

. Neto and Chipenda attended with 165 delegates respectively and

Mário Pinto de Andrade Mário Coelho Pinto de Andrade (21 August 1928 – 26 August 1990) was an Angolan poet and politician. Biography He was born in Golungo Alto, in Portuguese Angola, and studied philosophy at the University of Lisbon and sociology at the Sorbo ...

's Active Revolt faction had 70 delegates present. After several days of negotiations Neto's faction quit the congress, so that the MPLA remained split into three factions. Chipenda left the MPLA, although he arguably left it before the coup in Portugal, founding the Eastern Revolt with 1,500 former MPLA followers. He opposed the MPLA's leadership which he accused of being "creole" and was wary of the Soviet Union, despite its support.John Marcum, ''The Angolan Revolution'', vol. II, ''Exile Politics and Guerrilla Warfare (1962-1976)'', Cambridge/Mass. & London, MIT Press, 1978, ''passim'' In 1973 the government of the Soviet Union invited Neto to Moscow and told him Chipenda planned to assassinate him. The USSR resumed aid to the MPLA, Neto again firmly in control, in 1974. In September Chipenda joined the FNLA again, and returned to the MPLA only after the multiparty elections of 1992.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chipenda, Daniel Angolan military personnel MPLA politicians 1931 births 1996 deaths National Liberation Front of Angola politicians People from Benguela Province People of the Angolan Civil War 20th-century Angolan people