The central activities of the date will take place in the province of Bié (centre) under the motto “Together for the development of Angola”.
Campaigns for the well-being of the population, food production and other basic goods in the region, such as coffee and cotton, marked the start of the event.
In the province of Benguela (West), the final phase of the national competition Singing Agostinho Neto, organized by the National Union of Artists and Composers-Society of Authors (Unacsa), will take place this Sunday.
The aim of the competition is to honor and highlight the personality of the man considered the founder of the nation, a man who has always been linked to culture, especially literature, which earned him the status of a major poet.
This is the second edition of the prize, whose annual call for proposals aims to honor the musicalization of Neto’s poems as well as the compositions of free songs that represent his life and work.
Neto, doctor, politician, poet and president of the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA, 1962–1979), was born on September 17, 1922 in the village of Caxicane, Icolo e Bengo, now part of the province of Luanda.
In 1959, after graduating as a doctor and having been imprisoned several times, he returned to the country and upon his arrival met various groups of patriots whose goal was the liberation of the Portuguese colony.
In 1960 he was appointed head of the newly formed MPLA in Angola, a task that took him to prison and exile and visited numerous countries to drum up support for the national cause and lead the struggle.
After the signing of the Alvor Agreement in 1975, signed by the MPLA, the National Liberation Front of Angola (FNLA) and the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (Unita), as well as representatives of the Portuguese Provisional Government, he returned to Luanda on February 4 back where he was warmly welcomed.
However, in August of the same year, the interim government collapsed and the three movements merged in their spheres of influence: the MPLA in Luanda, the FNLA in the north, supported by the Zairian forces, and UNITA in the south, supported by South Africans.
On November 11, he proclaimed national independence and was sworn in as President of the People’s Republic of Angola.
At the head of his country, he led the fight to preserve independence until his last moment of life on September 10, 1979.
In December 1977, the MPLA’s First Congress awarded him the title of National Hero, while his work as a poet was recognized by intellectuals around the world and translated several times.
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