Holden Roberto - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Holden Álvaro Roberto founded and led the National Liberation Front of Angola

National Liberation Front of Angola

The National Front for the Liberation of Angola was a militant organization that fought for Angolan independence from Portugal in the war of independence under the leadership of Holden Roberto. The FNLA became a political party in 1992....

(FNLA) from 1962 to 1999. His memoirs are unfinished.

Early life

Roberto, son of Garci'a Diasiwa Roberto and Joana Lala Nekaka (and a descendant of the monarchy of the Kongo Kingdom

Kingdom of Kongo

The Kingdom of Kongo was an African kingdom located in west central Africa in what are now northern Angola, Cabinda, the Republic of the Congo, and the western portion of the Democratic Republic of the Congo...

.), was born in São Salvador, Angola. His family moved to Léopoldville

Leopoldville

Leopoldville may refer to:* The capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, today known as Kinshasa* SS Leopoldville, a troopship sunk in 1944...

, Belgian Congo

Belgian Congo

The Belgian Congo was the formal title of present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo between King Leopold II's formal relinquishment of his personal control over the state to Belgium on 15 November 1908, and Congolese independence on 30 June 1960.-Congo Free State, 1884–1908:Until the latter...

in 1925. In 1940 he graduated from a Baptist

Baptist

Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...

mission school. He worked for the Belgian Finance Ministry in Léopoldville, Bukavu

Bukavu

Bukavu is a city in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo , lying at the extreme south-eastern extent of Lake Kivu, west of Cyangugu in Rwanda, and separated from it by the outlet of the Ruzizi River. It is the capital of the Sud-Kivu province and as of 2009 it had an estimated population of...

, and Stanleyville

Kisangani

Kisangani is the capital of Orientale Province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is the 3rd largest urbanized city in the country and the largest of the cities that lie in the tropical woodlands of the Congo....

for eight years. In 1951 he visited Angola and witnessed Portuguese officials abusing an old man, inspiring him to begin his political career.

Political career

Roberto and Barros Necaca founded the Union of Peoples of Northern Angola, later renamed the Union of Peoples of Angola, on July 14, 1956. Roberto, serving as UPA President, represented Angola in the All-African Peoples Congress of Ghana which he secretly attended in Accra

Accra

Accra is the capital and largest city of Ghana, with an urban population of 1,658,937 according to the 2000 census. Accra is also the capital of the Greater Accra Region and of the Accra Metropolitan District, with which it is coterminous...

, Ghana

Ghana

Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...

in December 1958. There he met Patrice Lumumba

Patrice Lumumba

Patrice Émery Lumumba was a Congolese independence leader and the first legally elected Prime Minister of the Republic of the Congo after he helped win its independence from Belgium in June 1960. Only ten weeks later, Lumumba's government was deposed in a coup during the Congo Crisis...

, the future Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo

The Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo , is Congo's Head of Government.-History:The current Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo is Adolphe Muzito...

, Kenneth Kaunda

Kenneth Kaunda

Kenneth David Kaunda, known as KK, served as the first President of Zambia, from 1964 to 1991.-Early life:Kaunda was the youngest of eight children. He was born at Lubwa Mission in Chinsali, Northern Province of Northern Rhodesia, now Zambia...

, the future President of Zambia, and Kenya

Kenya

Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...

n nationalist Tom Mboya

Tom Mboya

Thomas Joseph Odhiambo Mboya was a prominent Kenyan politician during Jomo Kenyatta's government. He was founder of the Nairobi People's Congress Party, a key figure in the formation of the Kenya African National Union , and the Minister of Economic Planning and Development at the time of his death...

. He acquired a Guinea

Guinea

Guinea , officially the Republic of Guinea , is a country in West Africa. Formerly known as French Guinea , it is today sometimes called Guinea-Conakry to distinguish it from its neighbour Guinea-Bissau. Guinea is divided into eight administrative regions and subdivided into thirty-three prefectures...

n passport and visited the United Nations

United Nations

The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...

. Jonas Savimbi

Jonas Savimbi

Jonas Malheiro Savimbi was an Angolan political leader. He founded and led UNITA, a movement that first waged a guerrilla war against Portuguese colonial rule, 1966–1974, then confronted the rival MPLA during the decolonization conflict, 1974/75, and after independence in 1975 fought the ruling...

, the future leader of UNITA

UNITA

The National Union for the Total Independence of Angola is the second-largest political party in Angola. Founded in 1966, UNITA fought with the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola in the Angolan War for Independence and then against the MPLA in the ensuing civil war .The war was one...

, joined the UPA in February 1961 at the urging of Mboya and Kenyan Prime Minister Jomo Kenyatta

Jomo Kenyatta

Jomo Kenyattapron.] served as the first Prime Minister and President of Kenya. He is considered the founding father of the Kenyan nation....

. Later that year Roberto appointed Savimbi Secretary-General of the UPA.

The United States National Security Council

United States National Security Council

The White House National Security Council in the United States is the principal forum used by the President of the United States for considering national security and foreign policy matters with his senior national security advisors and Cabinet officials and is part of the Executive Office of the...

began giving Roberto aid in the 1950s, paying him $6,000 annually until 1962 when the NSC increased his salary to $10,000 for intelligence-gathering.

National Liberation Front of Angola

After visiting the United Nations he returned to Kinshasa and organized Bakongo militants. He launched an incursion into Angola on March 15, 1961, leading 4,000 to 5,000 militants. His forces took farms, government outposts, and trading centers, killing everyone they encountered. At least 1,000 whites and an unknown number of natives were killed. Commenting on the incursion, Roberto said, This time the slaves did not cower. They massacred everything.

Roberto met with United States President John F. Kennedy

John F. Kennedy

John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....

on April 25, 1961. When he applied for aid later that year from the Ghanaian government, President Kwame Nkrumah

Kwame Nkrumah

Kwame Nkrumah was the leader of Ghana and its predecessor state, the Gold Coast, from 1952 to 1966. Overseeing the nation's independence from British colonial rule in 1957, Nkrumah was the first President of Ghana and the first Prime Minister of Ghana...

turned him down on the grounds that the U.S. government was already paying him. Roberto merged the UPA with the Democratic Party of Angola to form the FNLA in March 1962 and a few weeks later established the Revolutionary Government of Angola in Exile

Revolutionary Government of Angola in Exile

The Revolutionary Government of Angola in Exile was a government-in-exile led by the National Liberation Front of Angola , based in Kinshasa, Congo-Kinshasa. Holden Roberto was the president of GRAE. GRAE was founded in April 1962...

(GRAE) on March 27, appointing Savimbi to the position of Foreign Minister

Foreign minister

A Minister of Foreign Affairs, or foreign minister, is a cabinet minister who helps form the foreign policy of a sovereign state. The foreign minister is often regarded as the most senior ministerial position below that of the head of government . It is often granted to the deputy prime minister in...

. Roberto established a political alliance with Zairian President

Heads of state of the Democratic Republic of the Congo

This is the list of the Heads of State of the Democratic Republic of the Congo since independence in 1960. The current head of state is President Joseph Kabila, since 26 January 2001.-Heads of State:-Affiliations:...

Mobutu Sese Seko

Mobutu Sese Seko Nkuku Ngbendu wa Za Banga , commonly known as Mobutu or Mobutu Sese Seko , born Joseph-Désiré Mobutu, was the President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1965 to 1997...

by divorcing his wife and marrying a woman from Mobutu's wife's village. Roberto visited Israel in the 1960s and received aid from the Israeli government from 1963 to 1969.

Savimbi left the FNLA in 1964 and founded UNITA in response to Roberto's unwillingness to spread the war

Angolan War of Independence

The Angolan War of Independence began as an uprising against forced cotton cultivation, and became a multi-faction struggle for control of Portugal's Overseas Province of Angola with three nationalist movements and a separatist movement...

outside the traditional Kingdom of Kongo

Kingdom of Kongo

.

Zhou Enlai

Zhou Enlai

Zhou Enlai was the first Premier of the People's Republic of China, serving from October 1949 until his death in January 1976...

, Premier of the People's Republic of China

Premier of the People's Republic of China

The Premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China , sometimes also referred to as the "Prime Minister" informally, is the Leader of the State Council of the People's Republic of China , who is the head of government and holds the highest-ranking of the Civil service of the...

, invited Roberto to visit the PRC in 1964. Roberto did not go because Moise Tshombe

Moise Tshombe

Moïse Kapenda Tshombe was a Congolese politician.- Biography :He was the son of a successful Congolese businessman and was born in Musumba, Congo. He received his education from an American missionary school and later trained as an accountant...

, the President of Katanga

State of Katanga

Katanga was a breakaway state proclaimed on 11 July 1960 separating itself from the newly independent Democratic Republic of the Congo. In revolt against the new government of Patrice Lumumba in July, Katanga declared independence under Moise Tshombe, leader of the local CONAKAT party...

, told him he would not be allowed to return to the Congo.

On the eve of Angola's independence from Portugal, Zaire, in a bid to install a pro-Kinshasa

Kinshasa

Kinshasa is the capital and largest city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The city is located on the Congo River....

government and thwart the MPLA's drive for power, deployed armored car units, paratroops, and three battalions to Angola. However, the FNLA and Zaire's victory was narrowly averted by a massive influx of Cuba

Cuba

The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...

n forces, who resoundingly defeated them.

In 1976 the MPLA defeated the FNLA in the Battle of Dead Road and the FNLA retreated to Zaire.

While Roberto and Agostinho Neto

Agostinho Neto

António Agostinho Neto served as the first President of Angola , leading the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola in the war for independence and the civil war...

's proposed policies for an independent Angola were similar, Roberto drew support from western Angola and Neto drew from eastern Angola. Neto, under the banner of nationalism and Communism

Communism

Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...

, received support from the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

while Roberto, under the banner of nationalism and anti-Communism

Anti-communism

Anti-communism is opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed in reaction to the rise of communism, especially after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia and the beginning of the Cold War in 1947.-Objections to communist theory:...

, received support from the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

, and Zaire

Zaire

The Republic of Zaire was the name of the present Democratic Republic of the Congo between 27 October 1971 and 17 May 1997. The name of Zaire derives from the , itself an adaptation of the Kongo word nzere or nzadi, or "the river that swallows all rivers".-Self-proclaimed Father of the Nation:In...

. Roberto staunchly opposed Neto's drive to unite the Angolan rebel groups in opposition to Portugal because Roberto believed the FNLA would be absorbed by the MPLA. The FNLA abducted MPLA members, deported them to Kinshasa, and killed them.

In 1991 the FNLA and MPLA agreed to the Bicesse Accords

Bicesse Accords

The Bicesse Accords, also known as the Estoril Accords, laid out a transition to multi-party democracy in Angola under the supervision of the United Nations' UNAVEM II mission. President José Eduardo dos Santos of the MPLA and Jonas Savimbi of UNITA signed the accord in Lisbon, Portugal on May 31,...

, allowing Roberto to return to Angola. He ran unsuccessfully for President, receiving only 2.1% of the vote. The FNLA won five seats in Parliament but refused to participate in the government.

Roberto died on August 2, 2007 at his home in Luanda. After Roberto's death, President José Eduardo dos Santos

José Eduardo dos Santos

José Eduardo dos Santos is an Angolan politician who has been the second and current President of Angola since 1979. As President, José Eduardo dos Santos is also the commander in chief of the Angolan Armed Forces and president of the MPLA , the party that has been ruling Angola since...

eulogized, "Holden Roberto was one of the pioneers of national liberation struggle, whose name encouraged a generation of Angolans to opt for resistance and combat for the country's independence," and released a decree appointing a commission to arrange for a funeral ceremony.

Early life

Political career

National Liberation Front of Angola

Further reading