AntónioAgostinhoNeto

AntónioAgostinhoNeto was born on the 17^th September 1922; he died on the 10^th September 1979. He worked as the first President of Angola from the year 1975 to the year 1979, after he had led the popular movement for the liberation of the country MPLA in the war of independence from the year 1961 to the year 1974. Until his death, he led the MPLA in the civil war from the year 1975 to the year 2002. AntónioAgostinhoNeto is known for his literary activities, he is seen as the preeminent poet of the country.

source of picture: revistaliteratas.blogspot.com

Born at the Icolo e Bengo, in the Bengo region of the country, in the year 1922,Neto went to high school in the capital city, Luanda; his father known as Agostinho, was a pastor in the Methodist church.

Political Career

In December 1956, the Angolan Communist party PCA merged with the party of the United Struggle for the Africans in Angola, PLUA, to form the popular Movement for the Liberation of the Angola with Viriato da Cruz, the President of the PCA, asSecretary General and Neto as the President.

He was arrested by the Portuguese authority in Angola on the 8^th June 1960. His patients and supporters marched for his being released from the Bengo to Catete, but were obstructed when the Portuguese soldiers shot at them, killing the total of 30  and wounding about 200 in what turned out to become known as the Massacre of Icolo e Bengo. At first he was exiled by the Portuguese government to Cape Verde. Then he was sent to jail in Lisbon. After an international protest by the Salazar’s administration towards the release of Neto, he was released from the porison and put under house arrest. He escaped from this and fled first to morocco and then later moved to Zaire.

In the year 1962, Neto paid a visit to Washington DC and requested for aid from the Kennedy administration in the war against Portugal. The United State government turned his request down, because of their oil interests in the colonial Angola, and decided to assist the Holden Roberto’s comparatively anti-communist National Liberation Front of Angola.

Neto met with Che Guevara in the year 1965 and started getting aid from Cuba. He paid a visit to Havana several times and he and Fidel Castro had analogous ideological perceptions.

With the Carnation Revolution in Portugal on the April of the year 1974, which toppled the successor of Salazar, Marcelo Caetano, three political sections I the country vied for the power of the country. One of the three was MPLA, to which Neto was with. On the 11^th November 1975, Angola gained full independence from the Portuguese colonial masters and Neto became the ruler of the country after MPLA seized Luanda at the disbursement of other anti-colonial movements in the capital city. He developed close link with the Soviet Union and other nations in the Eastern bloc and his communist states, especially Cuba that helped MPLA in its war with the FNLA, UNITA and the South Africa. Neto declared Marxism-Leninism to be his official doctrine, as he did this; his position was to favor a socialist, and not a communist model. As a result, Neto violently stifled a movement that was later known as Fractionism that attempted a Coup in the 1977, which was masterminded by Organizacao dos Communist de Angola. Tens of thousands of his followers were killed in the aftermath of the attempted coup, within the period of two years.

In the year 1973, at the time of his few unofficial visits to Bulgaria, Neto met with a woman and had a daughter with her. The daughter, MihaelaMarinova was raised in orphanage in Bulgaria, and the family of Neto is yet to identify with the girl.

Neto died in a hospital in Moscow, while going through a surgery of cancer, shortly before his 57^th birthday. Jose Eduardo dos Santos replaced him as the president of the country. But the civil war of the country kept going on almost for three years.

Literary Career

Neto’s Poetic works were written chiefly between the year 1946 and the year 1960, mainly in Portugal. He published three books of poetry when he was living. Most of his poems became the national anthem of the country.

Legacy

Ø  Neto was given the award of the Lenin Peace Prize by the Soviet Union for 1975-76.

Ø  The public university of Luanda, the AgostinhoNeto University is named after him.

Ø  A poem written by Chinua Achebe called AgostinhoNeto was written to honor him.

Ø  An airport in Santo Antao Cape Verde is named after him, because of the great work he did their as a doctor.

Ø  For the same reason, a hospital of cape Verde in the capital city of the country is named Hospital AgostinhoNeto.

Ø  A Street in New Belgrade in Serbia is named after him, the Dr. AgostinhoNeto Street.