Tito Chingunji | |
---|---|
Born | Pedro Ngueve Jonatão Chingunji c. 1955 [1] |
Died | August 1991 Angola | (aged 36)
Spouse | Raquel "Romy" Matos [2] |
Children | 3 |
Parent(s) | Jonatao and Violeta Chingunji |
Relatives | David and Dinho (nephews) Kafundanga (brother) |
Pedro Ngueve Jonatão "Tito" Chingunji (c. 1955 - August 1991) [3] served as the foreign secretary of Angola's The National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) rebel movement in the 1980s and early 1990s. In the mid-1980s, he was UNITA's representative in Washington, D.C. [4] [5]
Chingunji was murdered in Angola in 1991 [6] under circumstances still not fully understood. Some blamed his murder on UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi, who purportedly viewed Chingunji as a political threat. Fred Bridgland Savimbi's biographer and longtime supporter claimed that between 60 and 70 of Chingunji's relatives were killed following his own execution, including his own children who were swung against trees. [7] Savimbi, however, suggested his killing was more likely the work of UNITA dissidents or the Central Intelligence Agency, which, Savimbi argued, had supported Chingunji in an effort to overthrow him. [8]
The National Union for the Total Independence of Angola is the second-largest political party in Angola. Founded in 1966, UNITA fought alongside the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) in the Angolan War for Independence (1961–1975) and then against the MPLA in the ensuing civil war (1975–2002). The war was one of the most prominent Cold War proxy wars, with UNITA receiving military aid initially from the People's Republic of China from 1966 until October 1975 and later from the United States and apartheid South Africa while the MPLA received support from the Soviet Union and its allies, especially Cuba.
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 waged a guerrilla war against Portuguese colonial rule from 1966 to 1974, then confronted the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) during the Angolan Civil War. Savimbi was killed in a clash with government troops in 2002.
José Eduardo 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.
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).
Luena, formerly known as Luso, is a city and municipality in eastern Angola, administrative capital of Moxico Province. The municipality had a population of 357,413 in 2014.
General António Sebastião Dembo served as Vice President (1992–2002) and later President (2002) of UNITA, an anti-Communist rebel group that fought against the MPLA in the Angolan Civil War.
Jeremias Kalandula Chitunda served as the Vice President of UNITA until his assassination in Luanda, as part of the Halloween Massacre shortly after the first round of the presidential election, held on September 29–30. He was UNITA's second in command, after UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi.
Elias Salupeto Pena served as the representative of The National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), an anti-Communist rebel group that fought against The People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) in the Angolan Civil War, to the Joint Military and Political Commission. Pena was a distant relative of UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi and a senior advisor to Savimbi.
In the 1980s in Angola, fighting spread outward from the southeast, where most of the fighting had taken place in the 1970s, as the African National Congress (ANC) and SWAPO increased their activity. The South African government responded by sending troops back into Angola, intervening in the war from 1981 to 1987, prompting the Soviet Union to deliver massive amounts of military aid from 1981 to 1986. The USSR gave the Angolan government over US$2 billion in aid in 1984. In 1981, newly elected United States President Ronald Reagan's U.S. assistant secretary of state for African affairs, Chester Crocker, developed a linkage policy, tying Namibian independence to Cuban withdrawal and peace in Angola.
Relations between Angola and South Africa in the post-apartheid era are quite strong as the ruling parties in both states, the African National Congress in South Africa and the MPLA in Angola, fought together during the Angolan Civil War and South African Border War. They fought against UNITA rebels, based in Angola, and the apartheid-era government in South Africa which supported them. Nelson Mandela mediated between the MPLA and UNITA during the final years of the Angolan Civil War. Although South Africa was preponderant in terms of relative capabilities during the late twentieth century, the recent growth of Angola has led to a more balanced relation.
David "Samwimbila" Chingunji served as a top commander in the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), who became pro-Western rebels in the subsequent Angolan Civil War (1975–2002). David Chingunji was the nephew of Tito Chingunji, served as the foreign secretary of Angola's UNITA rebel movement in the 1980s and early 1990s.
"Kafundanga" Chingunji served as the first Chief of Staff in the government of UNITA, pro-Western rebels, during the Angolan Civil War (1975–2002). As the patriarch of the Chingunji family he founded a political dynasty based in Angola's Central Highlands.
Fernando Wilson dos Santos served as the representative of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), a rebel group in Angola, to Portugal. His brother-in-law, Tito Chingunji, served as Foreign Secretary of UNITA, the principal rebel group that fought against the dos Santos government in Angola's civil war. He studied law at the University of Lisbon and the University of Coimbra in the late 1960s, and later at the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva.
António Fwaminy da Costa Fernandes aka Tony da Costa Fernandes is an Angolan politician. He served as UNITA's representative to the United Kingdom. Along with Jonas Savimbi, he was co-founder of UNITA. He has been Angola's ambassador to Egypt, the United Kingdom, and India, and non-resident ambassador to Thailand.
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.
The People's Republic of Angola was the self-declared socialist state which governed Angola from its independence in 1975 until 25 August 1992, during the Angolan Civil War.
Fred Bridgland is a British writer and biographer. During the Angolan Civil War, he wrote about South Africa's involvement in Angola and in the 1990s he revealed human rights abuses committed by UNITA rebels under the command of Jonas Savimbi. Critics have derided his biography of Savimbi, Jonas Savimbi: A Key to Africa, as the work of an apologist. Bridgland has denied this claim in interviews, saying rather he was just a biographer.
This article deals with the activities of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Angola. The list of activities may be incomplete due to the clandestine nature of the subject matter.
Florbela Catarina "Bela" Malaquias is an Angolan journalist, lawyer and politician who is leader of the Humanist Party of Angola.