Jonas Savimbi
| Jonas Savimbi | |
|---|---|
Jonas Savimbi in 1989
|
|
| Birth name | Jonas Malheiro Savimbi |
| Born |
3 August 1934 Munhango, Moxico Province |
| Died | 22 February 2002 (aged 67) Lucusse, Moxico Province |
| Allegiance |
 FNLA 1964–66 UNITA 1966–02 |
| Years of service | 1964–2002 |
| Rank | General |
| Commands held | president and supreme commander of UNITA |
| Battles/wars |
Angolan War of Independence Angolan Civil War |
Jonas Malheiro Savimbi (3 August 1934 – 22 February 2002) was an Angolan political and military leader who founded and led the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA).
UNITA first waged a guerrilla war against Portuguese colonial rule, 1966–74, then confronted the rival People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) during the decolonization conflict, 1974–75, and after independence in 1975 fought the ruling MPLA in the Angolan Civil War until his death in a clash with government troops in 2002.
Savimbi was born on 3 August 1934, in Munhango, Moxico Province, a small town on the Benguela Railway, and raised in Bié Province. Savimbi's father, Lote, was a stationmaster on Angola's Benguela railway line and a preacher of the Protestant Igreja Evangélica Congregacional de Angola, founded and maintained by American missionaries. Both his parents were members of the Bieno group of the Ovimbundu, the people who later served as Savimbi's major political base.
In his early years, Savimbi was educated mainly in Protestant schools, but also attended Roman Catholic schools. At the age of 24, he received a scholarship to study in Portugal. There he finished his secondary studies, with the exception of the subject "political organization" that was compulsory during the regime established by António de Oliveira Salazar, so that he was unable to start studying medicine as originally intended.
Instead he became associated with students from Angola and other Portuguese colonies who were preparing themselves for anti-colonial resistance and had contacts with the clandestine Portuguese Communist Party. He knew Agostinho Neto, who was at that time studying medicine and who later went on to become president of the MPLA and Angola's first state President. Under increasing pressure from the Portuguese secret police (PIDE), Savimbi left Portugal for Switzerland with the assistance of Portuguese and French communists and other sympathizers, and eventually wound up in Lausanne. There he was able to obtain a new scholarship from American missionaries and studied social sciences. He then went on to the University at Fribourg for further studies.
...
Wikipedia