Agostinho Neto

António Agostinho Neto (Ícolo e Bengo, 17 September 1922 – Moscow, 10 September 1979) was an Angolan physician, writer and politician, the country’s leading figure in the 20th century.

He was President of the People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola and in 1975 became the first President of Angola, serving until 1979. In 1975–1976 he was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize.

He was part of the generation of African students who would play a decisive role in the independence of their countries in what came to be known as the Portuguese Colonial War. He was arrested by the International and State Defence Police (PIDE), the political police of the Salazar regime then in force in Portugal, and deported to Tarrafal, a political prison in Cape Verde, and was later placed under residence in Portugal, from where he fled into exile. There he took over the leadership of the People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), of which he had been honorary president since 1960. At the same time, he developed a remarkable literary activity, writing poems in particular.

On 17 September, Angola celebrates National Hero’s Day, commemorating the day Agostinho Neto was born.^[5][6]