By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
The following is an updated version of the story moved on June 27. - The Editor.
NEW YORK | LUANDA (IDN) — Colonial powers from east to west all played a role in subjugating the southern African nation of Angola over a stretch of 500 years until independence was achieved on November 5, 1975. Agostinho Neto, a politician, physician and poet, was the first to hold the presidency. After his death in 1979, Jose Eduardo dos Santos assumed the post. He stepped down five years ago and has been in intensive care since 2019. Aged 79, he died on July 18.
His successor, President Joao Lourenco, declared five days of national mourning and described dos Santos as a "unique figure of the Angolan homeland."
Dos Santos ruled Africa's second-biggest oil producer for nearly four decades. He received many international awards for his commitment to anti-colonialism and for negotiating with rebel groups but he was also criticized as a dictator, accused of creating one of the most corrupt regimes in Africa with a deeply-entrenched patronage network.
News reports from the Portuguese agency Lusa have described him as the “African Machiavelli”, whose rule was marked by a brutal civil war lasting nearly three decades against U.S.-backed UNITA rebels—who were defeated in 2002.
Under President dos Santos, the economy of the war-scarred nation soared between 2002 and 2014. Prices boomed and Angola’s economy expanded tenfold, from $12.4 billion to $126 billion. But little of that wealth trickled down to the poor, while those closest to dos Santos became super-rich - including his daughter, Isabel, whom Forbes labelled Africa's richest woman and youngest billionaire, worth about $3 billion.
Last month a Dutch court ruled that a half-billion-dollar stake in the Portuguese oil company Galp linked to Isabel must be handed over to Angola since its acquisition was "tainted by illegality".
Dos Santos was replaced in 2017 by President Joao Lourenco who swiftly moved to probe allegations of multi-billion dollar corruption during the dos Santos era, targeting the former leader's children. Dos Santos, meanwhile, has managed to escape prosecution over his government’s many corruption crimes. [IDN-InDepthNews – 08 July 2022]
Photo: Ex-Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos. Source: Tagesschau
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