Jonas Malheiro Savimbi was an Angolan revolutionary,politician,and rebel military leader who founded and led the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA). UNITA was one of several groups which waged a guerrilla war against Portuguese colonial rule from 1966 to 1974. Once independence was achieved,it then became an anti-communist group which confronted the ruling People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) during the Angolan Civil War. Savimbi had extensive contact with anti-communist activists in the United States,including Jack Abramoff and was one of the leading anti-communist voices in the world. Savimbi was killed in a clash with government troops in 2002.
JoséEduardo dos Santos was the president of Angola from 1979 to 2017. As president,dos Santos was also the commander-in-chief of the Angolan Armed Forces (FAA) and president of the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA),the party that has ruled Angola since it won independence in 1975. By the time he stepped down in 2017,he was the second-longest-serving president in Africa,surpassed only by Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea.
Fernando da Piedade Dias dos Santos,known as Nandó,is an Angolan politician who was the first vice president of Angola from February 2010 to September 2012. He was the prime minister of Angola from 2002 to 2008 and president of the National Assembly of Angola from 2008 to 2010. He has again served as president of the National Assembly from 2012 to 2022.
The National Front for the Liberation of Angola is a political party and former militant organisation that fought for Angolan independence from Portugal in the war of independence,under the leadership of Holden Roberto.
Dr. Fernando Joséde França Dias Van-Dúnem is an Angolan political figure who was the First Vice-President of the African Union's Pan-African Parliament. He is a member of the ruling Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) and served as Prime Minister of Angola twice during the 1990s.
The Angolan Civil War was a civil war in Angola,beginning in 1975 and continuing,with interludes,until 2002. The war began immediately after Angola became independent from Portugal in November 1975. It was a power struggle between two former anti-colonial guerrilla movements,the communist People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) and the anti-communist National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA).
Lúcio Rodrigo Leite Barreto de Lara,also known by the pseudonym Tchiweka,was a physicist-mathematician,politician,professor,anti-colonial ideologist and one of the founding members of the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA). He served as General Secretary of the MPLA during the Angolan War of Independence and Angolan Civil War. Lara,a founding member of the MPLA,led the first MPLA members into Luanda on 8 November 1974. He swore in Agostinho Neto as the first president of the country.
Parliamentary elections were held in Angola on 5 and 6 September 2008,as announced by President JoséEduardo dos Santos on 27 December 2007. They were the first since the 1992 general elections,which had led to the outbreak of the second phase of the Angolan Civil War,which continued until 2002.
António Domingos Pitra Costa Neto is an Angolan politician,professor and lawyer. Neto joined the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) in 1974. He has been a member of the MPLA's central committee since 1998. Since joining the party Neto has been involved in the legal system,both in the civilian and military systems as well as assistant lecturer in law. In 1991 Neto was involved in the negotiations that preceded the Bicesse Accords,which temporarily ended the Angolan civil war. Since 1992,Neto has been the Minister of Public Administration,Employment and Social Security.
Maria Mambo Café was an Angolan economist and politician. She was a career member of the Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola –Partido do Trabalho (MPLA).
Kundi Paihama was an Angolan politician who served as Angola's Minister of Defense from 2002 to 2010. He served subsequently as Minister for War Veterans.
Soviet–Angolan relations were close until the Angolan government renounced Marxist-Leninism in 1990 and adopted a pro-Western foreign policy. The close,personal relationship between President Agostinho Neto and Cuban leader Fidel Castro complicated the Soviet Union's involvement in the Angolan Civil War and foiled several assassination attempts against Neto.
In the 1990s in Angola,the last decade of the Angolan Civil War (1975–2002),the Angolan government transitioned from a nominally communist state to a nominally democratic one,a move made possible by political changes abroad and military victories at home. Namibia's declaration of independence,internationally recognized on April 1,eliminated the southwestern front of combat as South African forces withdrew to the east. The MPLA abolished the one-party system in June and rejected Marxist-Leninism at the MPLA's third Congress in December,formally changing the party's name from the MPLA-PT to the MPLA. The National Assembly passed law 12/91 in May 1991,coinciding with the withdrawal of the last Cuban troops,defining Angola as a "democratic state based on the rule of law" with a multi-party system.
António Paulo Kassoma is an Angolan politician. He was named Prime Minister of Angola in September 2008 and remained in office until the new constitution replaced this function in February 2010. Kassoma then served as President of the National Assembly of Angola from 2010 to 2012. On August 27,2016 Kassoma was named Party Secretary of the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola.
Fractionism was a political movement in Angola during the 1970s.
Manuel Domingos Vicente is an Angolan politician who served as the vice president of Angola between September 2012 and September 2017. He was chief executive officer of Sonangol,Angola's state oil company,from 1999 to 2012,and he briefly served in the government as the minister of State for Economic Coordination in 2012. Vicente was the mastermind of a triumvirate alongside Leopoldino Fragoso do Nascimento and Manuel Hélder Vieira Dias Junior,who built a secret banking network Banco Africano de Investimentos to transfer millions of dollars out of Angola from 1996 onward. While the US Treasury sanctioned the latter two in 2020 for misappropriating funds for personal benefit,they did not sanction Vicente.
João Manuel Gonçalves Lourenço is an Angolan politician who has served as the 3rd president of Angola since 26 September 2017. Previously,he was Minister of Defence from 2014 to 2017. In September 2018,he became the Chairman of the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA),the ruling party. He was the party's Secretary-General from 1998 to 2003.
Bornito de Sousa Baltazar Diogo is an Angolan politician who was the vice president of Angola,from 2017 to 2022. He was the vice presidential candidate for the MPLA in the 2017 Angolan general election,running alongside João Lourenço and a member of the Constituent Assembly since 2010. He was officially sworn in as vice president on 26 September 2017.
Eugenio César Laborinho is an Angolan Lieutenant General and politician of the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA);Governor of Cabinda Province;Minister of Interior of Angola since 2019.
