Daniel Chipenda (15 May 1931,

Lobito Lobito is a Municipalities of Angola, 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 ...

- 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's (MPLA) field commander in the Eastern Front before founding and leading the Eastern Revolt, 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 independen ...

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

each blamed the other. In 1972 the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

allied with Chipenda's faction, giving him aid. Following the Carnation Revolution in

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

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 Cult ...

, the President of the MPLA, organized an MPLA congress in Lusaka. 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 Sorb ...

Active Revolt Active may refer to: Music * ''Active'' (album), a 1992 album by Casiopea * Active Records, a record label Ships * ''Active'' (ship), several commercial ships by that name * HMS ''Active'', the name of various ships of the British Royal ...

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 Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...

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