Agostinho Neto - The Poet of Freedom

«Daybreak

There is a warm whisper
over the earth;
light and darkness
are battling for
possession of the universe;
you can feel existence
penetrating your veins
coming from outside
through the window;

joy grows in the soul
Life whispers sweet fancies to us.

Bells ring at dawn
the sun will rise.»

Agostinho Neto

Politician, physician and poet, Agostinho Neto was one of the most distinguished figures in contemporary Angolan culture and literature. Patriot and nationalist, Agostinho Neto also became the supreme representative for the struggle for national liberation. In light of the celebrations of Angola's 50 years of independence, in this issue we take a look at the fascinating story of a man who was always guided by values of independence, freedom and equality, in a tribute to one of the figures who most contributed to making Angola the developed and free country it is today.
Born on September 17, 1922, in the province of Bengo, in Angola, Agostinho Neto inherited his name from his father, a catechist at an American mission in Luanda, who later became a pastor and teacher in Dembos, and from Maria da Silva Neto, a teacher. Growing up in an environment that always favoured teaching, the young Agostinho Neto completed his secondary education in Luanda, at the Liceu Salvador Correia, before travelling to Portugal to continue his studies at the Faculty of Medicine of Coimbra.
A man of many talents and passions, Agostinho Neto combined time studying medicine with political aspirations. In 1948, while still a student, he received a scholarship from the American Methodists and transferred to the Faculty of Medicine of Lisbon, the city where he would take up residence and where he would continue his cultural and political activity. Even though he was living in Portugal his connection to Angola never faded. A clear example of this is the partnership Agostinho Neto established with Amílcar Cabral, Mário de Andrade, Marcelino dos Santos and Francisco José Tenreiro to found the Centre for African Studies, with cultural and political objectives for the affirmation of African nationality. In parallel, and while still in Lisbon, Agostinho Neto founded the African Maritime Club, an institution that provided the basis for communication among Angolans who were in Portugal and those in Angola, who were preparing the foundations of the liberation movement.
His political activism caught the attention of the PIDE, the political police of the Portuguese fascist regime, to the point where in March 23, 1952, Agostinho Neto was arrested. This first episode of imprisonment would last three months and would be repeated in February 1955. However, on this second occasion Agostinho Neto was sentenced to 18 long months in prison.
Agostinho Neto was not alone however. Voices from abroad against his persecution by the Portuguese authorities were becoming more and more audible. In 1956 important names from the world of art and culture such as Simone de Beauvoir, François Mariac, Jean-Paul Sartre and Cuban poet Nicolás Guillén joined forces by signing a petition for Agostinho Neto’s release. He was finally released in 1957, shortly after the MPLA – the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola had been founded.

A year after his release from Lisbon prison, Agostinho Neto completed his degree in medicine and on the same day married Portuguese Maria Eugenia Silva.
A man without fear or prejudice, Agostinho Neto quickly returned to his political life, forming part of the founding group of the Anticolonial Movement, which brought together patriots from the various Portuguese colonies (Angola, Guinea, Cape Verde, Mozambique and São Tomé and Príncipe) and in which they had the intention of applying revolutionary actions. Demonstrations started to become more audible, as well as incidents of police violence and mass arrests.
At this time, in November 1958, Agostinho Neto’s first son, Mário Jorge Neto was born. Shortly after Mário turned one, Agostinho Neto and his family left Lisbon and returned to Luanda, where the doctor opened his own practice.
A few months after practicing medicine, Agostinho Neto was arrested again, this time in Luanda. Demonstrations in front of his doctor’s practice were becoming so intense that the Portuguese authorities were forced to transfer Agostinho Neto to Lisbon’s Aljube prison. Shortly afterwards, the doctor, politician and poet was deported to the archipelago of Cape Verde, and later he returned to Aljube prison, in Lisbon.
While still in prison, Agostinho Neto was elected Honorary President of the MPLA and, as had happened before, his case aroused international solidarity. In the respected The Times protests were published against his imprisonment signed by important figures such as historian Basil Davidson, novelists Day Lewis, Doris Lessing and Iris Murdoch, poet John Wain and playwrights John Osborne and Arnold Wesker. In 1961, Penguin Books published the book Persecution, written by Peter Benenson, denouncing the situation of nine political prisoners, among them Agostinho Neto.
In 1963, Agostinho Neto was finally released and, with his wife and two children (he has in the meantime become the father of a girl named Irene Alexandra) left Portugal and ran away to Leopoldville, in the Congo. They didn’t, however, remain for long in the country, as it gave its full support to the FNLA (National Liberation Front of Angola) and not to the MPLA. In 1968 he moved to Dar es Salaam, in Tanzania, where he would remain until 1975, the year in which Portugal recognised Angola’s independence.
Agostinho Neto returned to Angola on February 04, 1975. He became the first president of the Republic of Angola, a position he would occupy until the date of his death, September 10, 1979, in Moscow.
During the time he was in power he guided the country through its civil war, endeavouring continually to achieve peace, while never abandoning his passion for medicine or literature. Indeed, as early as 1975, Agostinho Neto was a founder of the Angolan Writers Union, an institution that prevails to this day as one of the most important in the Angolan arts. He was also the first chancellor of the university that would later bear his name, the most important institution of higher education in Angola.
His important legacy has not gone unnoticed, especially after his disappearance. In fact, there were many voices that rose up around the world to mourn the loss of one of the most important figures in Angolan and world history. The Soviet Union awarded him the Peace Prize 1975-1976. The Public University of Angola, where he had been chancellor, became the Agostinho Neto University; many poets, musicians and writers devoted lyrics, songs and public texts to him, streets were named after him and many monuments were built. More important than all this, to this day Agostinho Neto still has  a place in the heart of Angolans and admirers around the world as a man who always pursued peace, justice and freedom, a man who healed through his medicine, but especially through his words, whether political or literary. Angola would certainly not be the country it is today if a man such as Agostinho Neto had not been part of its history.

Text: Andreia Barros Ferreira 
Photos: All rights reserved

«Neto, I sing your passing, I,
Timid requisitioner of your vast
Armory's most congenial supply.
What shall I sing? A dirge answering
The gloom? No, I will sing tearful songs
Of joy; I will celebrate
The man who rode a trinity
Of awesome fates to the cause
Of our trampled race!
Thou Healer, Poet and Soldier! "

Chinua Achebe