Jonas Savimbi

Jonas Malheiro Savimbi (3 August 1934 – 22 February 2002) was an Angolan revolutionary, politician, and rebel military leader who founded and led the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA).

While there, probably in August 1960, he met Holden Roberto, who was already a rising star in émigré circles.

Roberto was a founding member of the UPA ( União das Populaçoes de Angola) and was already known for his efforts to promote Angolan independence at the United Nations.

He tried to recruit Savimbi who seems to have been undecided whether to commit himself to the cause of Angolan independence at this point in his life.

In late September 1960, Savimbi was asked to give a speech in Kampala, Uganda on behalf of the UDEAN (União Democrática dos Estudantes da Africa Negra), a student organization affiliated with the MPLA.

At this meeting he met Tom Mboya who took him to Kenya to see Jomo Kenyatta.

They both urged him to join the UPA.

He told French interviewers "J'ai été convaincu par Kenyatta" ("I was convinced by Kenyatta").

He immediately wrote a letter to Roberto putting himself at his service, which was taken in person to New York by Mboya.

Upon his return to Switzerland, Roberto telephoned him.

They met in Léopoldville (Kinshasa) in December 1960, and left immediately for the United States.

It was the first of many visits.

There are considerable differences in the source material about the date of Savimbi's official induction into the UPA.

Fred Bridgland, who wrote a much-cited biography of Savimbi, says that Savimbi was "inducted into the UPA" on 1 February 1961.

Nonetheless, he may not have officially joined the UPA until late 1961.

It certainly seems that Savimbi was not in the inner circle of UPA activists in early 1961.

He took no part in planning the uprising of March 1961, nor did he participate in it.

Savimbi stayed in Léopoldville until the end of March 1961, then went to Switzerland to prepare for examinations.

He may have failed, for he abandoned medical studies in Fribourg, and in December 1961 enrolled at Lausanne University in Law and International Politics.

By September 1961, Africans from the Portuguese colonies studying abroad formed the UGEAN (União Geral dos Estudantes da Africa Negra Sob Dominacão Colonial Portuguesa) at a meeting in Rabat, Morocco.

Again, this organization was affiliated with the MPLA.

Holden Roberto and the UPA wanted a student organization affiliated with their party.

In December 1961, Roberto chaired a meeting at Camp Green Lane near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Savimbi attended this meeting and became one of a number of organizers who created the UNEA, (União Nacional dos Estudantes Angolanos) in March 1962 at Lucerne, Switzerland.

Savimbi was elected Secretary-General.

Savimbi participated in UPA activities while continuing to study in Switzerland.

UNITA was one of several groups which waged a guerrilla war against Portuguese colonial rule from 1966 to 1974.

Once independence was achieved, it then became an anti-communist group which confronted the ruling People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) during the Angolan Civil War.

Savimbi had extensive contact with anti-communist activists in the United States, including Jack Abramoff and was one of the leading anti-communist voices in the world.

Savimbi was killed in a clash with government troops in 2002.

Jonas Malheiro Savimbi was born in Munhango, Bié Province, a small town on the Benguela Railway, and raised in Chilesso, in the same 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 (Evangelical Congregational Church of 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.

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.