September 17 – National Heroes Day in Angola

nPosted on September 17, 2019

Key points

nToday is the birthday of the arguably most important “Founding Father.”

nI’m not talking about Thomas Jefferson or Benjamin Franklin or any other luminary from the founding of the United States. Instead, I’m talking about a Founding Father of the African nation of Angola.

Agostinho Neto was born in an Angolan village on this date in 1922. This was back when Angola was a Portuguese colony. Neto was one of the people who, in the 1960s and 1970s, led guerrilla efforts with the hope of ousting the Portuguese. The Carnation Revolution in Portugal ended up creating an opportunity for Angola to gain its independence in 1975 – and Neto became the nation’s first president.

nUnfortunately, the newly independent Angola wasn’t a bastion of freedom and democracy. And I am sort of surprised that, all these years later, Neto is still considered a hero. His tenure over Angola was marred by a civil war he helped to create; he established a one-party state, so voters had no real choices during elections; he was horrific in his repression of political enemies. Like, killing tens of thousands of his own citizens, because he thought they favored another leader??? Yikes!

Neto died in 1979. After he died, the Angolan civil war continued to cause enormous problems for the nation for more than two decades. Peace was finally reached in 2002, but although Angola is fairly stable now, most of the population lives in poverty.

nBut check out some of the loveliness of the nation: