Paulo Jorge
Paulo Teixeira Jorge
MPLA diplomat and Angola's second foreign minister, a leading figure of the party's left wing
Angolan chemical engineer, diplomat and politician. While studying in Lisbon he signed the 'Manifesto de 1956', the MPLA's founding document, was monitored by PIDE from 1961, and left Portugal in 1962 to handle the MPLA's diplomacy from Conakry. He served as representative in Egypt and Algeria, representative-general for Congo-Brazzaville and head of the MPLA's information department, then as foreign minister from 1976 to 1984. A leading figure of the party's left wing, he argued in a 1998 interview that top party and state posts should be filled by Marxist-Leninist vanguard criteria rather than ethno-regional demographic weight. He died in Luanda on 26 June 2010 aged 76.
Career timeline
- 1956–1962Studied chemical engineering at the University of Lisbon, lived at the Casa dos Estudantes do Império, signed the Manifesto de 1956; monitored by PIDE from 1961
- 1962–1976MPLA diplomatic work from Conakry; representative in Egypt and Algeria, representative-general for Congo-Brazzaville, head of the MPLA information department
- 1975Negotiated the Lusaka ceasefire and Mombasa conference with Lúcio Lara, groundwork for the Alvor Accord; sent by Neto to Havana for Cuban aid
- 1976–1984Foreign minister of Angola, 28 November 1976 to 21 October 1984; a leading figure of the party's left wing
- 1977–1995Elected Central Committee member and Secretary for Cooperation at the MPLA's 1st Congress; Bié Provincial People's Assembly deputy; People's Assembly deputy from 1986; Governor of Cuanza Norte 1986–1989 and of Benguela 1989–1994; MPLA Political Bureau secretary for international relations from 1995
- 1992–2010National Assembly deputy from 1992, re-elected 2008; still an MPLA Bureau member and deputy at his death