Angolan politics in the
Netherlands in 1975 in the White Villa, Brijuni Islands, during Neto's visit to
Yugoslavia in 1977 In December 1956, the
Angolan Communist Party (PCA) merged with the
Party of the United Struggle for Africans in Angola (PLUAA) to form the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola with
Viriato da Cruz, the President of the PCA, as Secretary General and Neto as president. The Portuguese authorities in Angola arrested Neto on 8 June 1960. His patients and supporters marched for his release from Bengo to Catete, but were stopped when Portuguese soldiers shot at them, killing 30 and wounding 200 in what became known as the Massacre of Ícolo e Bengo. During this period, he adopted his war name and pseudonym as a writer,
Manguxi Kilamba, a
Kimbundu language term meaning "immortal guide," "conductor of the spirit of the people," or "wisest among men". The name Kilamba would become part of his given name starting in 1976. In 1962, Neto visited
Washington, D.C., and asked the
Kennedy administration for aid in his war against Portugal. The U.S. government turned him down, because it had oil interests in colonial Angola, choosing instead to support
Holden Roberto's comparatively anti-Communist
National Liberation Front of Angola (FNLA). In 1965, Neto met
Che Guevara and began receiving support from
Cuba. He visited
Havana several times, and he and
Fidel Castro shared similar ideological views. In February 1973, Neto and MPLA visited
Romania to meet with President
Nicolae Ceaușescu on a four day official trip between the 12–16 February, to discuss political matters in Africa. On the 17th of February Neto visited
Bulgaria along with
Lucio Lara,
Ruth Neto and other party officials where he would also seek support from the Bulgarian authorities, as well meeting with some of the MPLA students in Bulgaria amongst them was also
Dino Matrosse – who later would become the MPLA General Secretary. The MPLA delegation will then continue with their official trip to
Yugoslavia on the 18–22 February to meet with President
Josip Broz Tito. Agostinho Neto spends most of his time in 1973 in Europe, where he visits Oslo, in Norway, and on the 2nd of July he is in Geneva. The same year on the 15–16 July 1973 Tito and Ceausescu meet in Yugoslavia to discuss the situation in Angola, whilst the leader of MPLA attended the 17–19 July 1973 for the
Bulgarian Communist Party Plenum Committee, joined by his sister
Ruth Neto and
Dino Matrosse, who was studying engineering in Bulgaria. Following the
Carnation Revolution in Portugal during April 1974 (which deposed Salazar's successor
Marcelo Caetano), three political factions vied for Angolan power. One of the three was the MPLA, to which Neto belonged. On 11 November 1975, Angola achieved full independence from the Portuguese, and Neto became the nation's ruler after the MPLA seized
Luanda at the expense of the other anti-colonial movements. He established a one-party state and his government developed close links with the
Soviet Union and other nations in the
Eastern Bloc and other
Communist states, particularly
Cuba, which aided the MPLA considerably in its war with the FNLA, the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (
UNITA) and
South Africa. Neto made the MPLA declare
Marxism-Leninism its official doctrine. As a consequence, he violently repressed a movement later called
Fractionism which in 1977 attempted a coup d'état inspired by the Organização dos Comunistas de Angola. In December 1977 at their first congress, they changed their name to MPLA-PT (MPLA Partido do Trabalho) officially adopting the Marxist-Leninist ideology, requested by Nito Alves. Tens of thousands of followers (or alleged followers) of
Nito Alves were executed in the aftermath of the attempted coup, over a period that lasted up to two years, although Agostinho Neto only ratified the death sentence of Nito Alves. After corresponding with several relatives of the disappeared, Neto decided to dissolve the
Directorate of Information and Security for the "excesses" they had committed. According to his sons, President Neto never assigned business or privileges to them, suggesting that despite a controversial presidency he never forgot his humble origins.
Author Agostinho Neto's poetic works were written chiefly between 1946 and 1960, largely in Portugal. He published three books of poetry during his lifetime. Several of his poems became national anthems. Poems included collections like
Sacred Hope, which was published in 1974 (Titled Dry Eyes in the Portuguese Version). He was also the first member voted into the Anglo Writers Union and The Center for African Studies in Lisbon. He was later awarded the Lotus Prize presented by the Conference of Afro-Asian Writers. ==Death==