Angolan nationalist and writer 'Uanhenga Xitu', a nursing auxiliary turned minister
His most widely read work, Mestre Tamoda (1974), made the verbose, colonially shaped title figure a byword in Angolan writing. In one interview he said: "what concerns me is the social situation of the people."
Angolan nursing auxiliary, nationalist and writer known by the pen name Uanhenga Xitu. Born on 29 August 1924 at Calomboloca, Ícolo e Bengo. He qualified as a nursing auxiliary in 1947, the same year he organized a strike for better conditions at Dinge, carried out clandestine activity for independence around Luanda from 1957 and joined the Angolan Liberation Army in 1958. Arrested by the PIDE in 1959 in the 'Processo dos 50', he was sentenced to twelve years' imprisonment and held at the Tarrafal camp in Cabo Verde from 1962 to 1970, where he began writing his stories. Paroled in 1970, he rejoined the MPLA and headed its municipal organization department in Luanda, sitting on the Central Committee from 1974 to 1988. After independence he served as Provincial Commissioner of Luanda (1979–1980) and Minister of Health (1980–1983). He died of illness in Luanda on 13 February 2014.
Career Timeline
- 1942–1970Worked as a sanitary agent at Catete-Luanda from 1942; after qualifying as a nursing auxiliary in 1947 he served in health posts at Dinge, Cuíto, Calumbo, Mungo, Cabiri and Bom Jesus do Cuanza and in the hospitals of Benguela and Lubango. He organized a strike for better working conditions at Dinge in 1947; arrested by the PIDE in 1959, he was tried and convicted and held at the Tarrafal camp in Cabo Verde from 1962 to 1970.
- 1957–1958Clandestine political activity for Angolan independence through pamphlet committees on the outskirts of Luanda linked to the then-embryonic MPLA and the Espalha Brasas group; joined the Angolan Liberation Army (ELA) in 1958.
- 1970–1988Rejoined the MPLA on parole in 1970 and headed its Municipal Organization Department (DOM) in Luanda the same year; became a Central Committee member in 1974, serving until 1988, and at one point chaired the party's Directive Commission; appointed to the Council of the Revolution after independence.
- 1979–1983Provincial Commissioner of Luanda 1979–1980; Minister of Health 1980–1983.
- 1983–2000sAmbassador of the People's Republic of Angola to Czechoslovakia, Poland and East Germany (where he also studied political science); a National Assembly deputy for the MPLA before being retired for reasons of age. In 2009 he was reported as the oldest member of parliament for the MPLA.