The Minister of Culture, Filipe Zau, said this Tuesday, in Dundo, Lunda-Norte province, that ‘men of the temper of Agostinho Neto, both in Africa and even planetary, there were few’.
Speaking at the central act of the National Hero’s Day, he stressed that the political, cultural and patriotic path of Agostinho Neto should be remembered with the dignity that will always be necessary, so that his memory is perpetuated forever in the hearts of Angolans.
According to the famous words of Agostinho Neto, such as ‘The most important thing is to solve the problems of the people’, ‘Africa seems like an inert body where each vulture comes to dedicate its piece’ and ‘Angola is and will always be, of its own volition, a firm trench of the revolution in Africa’, should inspire Angolans to participate in the socio-economic development of the country.
He pointed out that by leading the process of ‘Popular Resistance’ and the general mobilization of the people, following the clashes in Luanda and the invasion of the coun
try, to the north and south, by regular foreign troops from the Republic of Zaire and the South African Republic, of the apartheid regime, reinforced by mercenaries, Agostinho Neto demonstrated his love for the Angolan homeland.
‘Despite the beginning of the civil war with evident internationalization of armed conflicts, António Agostinho Neto, on behalf of the Central Committee of the MPLA and the Angolan People, proclaims, on November 11, 1975, the independence of Angola, a demonstration of courage, bravery and selfless love for the homeland’, he stressed.
According to Filipe Zau, Agostinho Neto was a leader of his time, of an Angola that, in the context of the cold war, fought tenaciously for the political self-determination of Angolans.
António Agostinho Neto was born on September 17, 1922 – 102 years ago – in the village of Caxicane, municipality of Icolo e Bengo, province of Luanda. He died of illness in Moscow on September 10, 1979.
He took over the leadership of the MPLA, of which he had been hono
rary president since 1960, and proclaimed National Independence on November 11, 1975, thus becoming the highest representative of the nation.
Source: Angola Press News Agency
