Mário Pinto de Andrade
Mário Coelho Pinto de Andrade was an Angolan poet and politician.
He was born in Golungo Alto, in Portuguese Angola, and studied philosophy at the University of Lisbon and sociology at the Sorbonne in Paris. While there, he became active in opposing Portuguese colonial rule of Angola, and wrote anti-colonial poetry.
In 1955 he took part in the founding of the Angolan Communist Party. In 1956 he was the founder of the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola and was elected its first President in 1960. His brother, Joaquim Pinto de Andrade, was made the MPLA's first honorary President.
He married the French filmmaker Sarah Maldoror and worked with her on Sambizanga, a 1972 film about the Angolan liberation movement.
He clashed with his successor, Agostinho Neto, and in 1974 founded within the MPLA a group called Revolta Activa. Angola became independent on November 11, 1975, but Andrade continued to live in exile in Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde and Mozambique. He died in London in 1990.
His publications included the anthologies Letteratura Negra and La Poésie Africaine d'Espression Portugaise.
