Havana, ANGOLA, July 2 - The Angolan President, João Lourenço, on Monday in Havana, Cuba, paid tribute to the founder of the Angolan nation, António Agostinho Neto, with the laying of a wreath on the bust erected in his memory.,

After hearing the national anthems of Angola and Cuba and after bowing before the bust of Neto, João Lourenço thanked the altruistic spirit of Cuba in aiding several peoples, like Angolan, in the difficult moments.

The Angolan statesman said the homage was extended to all African founding leaders.

In their message, the Cuban authorities said they remember Agostinho Neto as a poet and doctor of the poor, who fought for the liberation of his people from the colonial yoke.

 

At the Próceres Africanos park in the municipality of Playa, Agostinho Neto is between Marien Ngouabi of Congo and Eduardo Chivambo Mondlane, the founder of the Mozambican FRELIMO party.

There are also other African distinctions, namely the effigies of Oliver Tambo, prominent figure of the ANC of South Africa, Nkwame Nkruma of Ghana, Amílcar Cabral of Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde.

The busts of Sekou Toure, Guinea Conakry, Patrice Emery Lumumba of the DRC, Abdelkader El Djazaire of Algeria, Gamel Abdel Nasser of Egypt and Seretse Khama of Botswana appear in the park of the Proceres as well.

Born in Icolo e Bengo locality (now part of Luanda), António Agostinho Neto proclaimed the independence of Angola from the Portuguese colonial yoke on November 11, 1975.

Agostinho Neto died on 10 September 1979 in Moscow.

President João Lourenço also traveled to the Cemetery of Colón, where he paid homage to the Cuban internationalist fighters.

The statesman reaffirmed the gratitude of the Angolan people to the Cubans who sacrificed their lives in defence of the Angolan sovereignty and the liberation of Southern Africa from the apartheid segregationist regime, then in force in South Africa.

The mentioned cemetery has become a place of pilgrimage for Cuban citizens and tourists of various nationalities, who can behold photos of Cubans who have fallen in several countries, most of them in Angola, as well as their tombs.

 

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