Eng. José Eduardo dos Santos (in childhood known as “Viajante”) is a rare figure in the history of Angola and the African continent. Born in Luanda in 1942, son of Eduardo Avelino dos Santos and Jacinta José Paulino (both deceased), he descends from the paternal side of Pereira dos Santos Van-Dunem, his father was an employee of the Luanda Chamber.
He studied at the Liceu Salvor Correia and in September 1961, he fled clandestinely to the Democratic Republic of Congo to fight colonialism, having been sent to the former Soviet Union in 1963 where he graduated in Petroleum Engineering at the Institute of Baku, Azerbaijan.
JES, as he is also referred to, also trained in military communications, after completing his degree in Engineering.
Eng. José Eduardo dos Santos was the first citizen to be Minister of Foreign Affairs of our country and was the one who represented the then People’s Republic of Angola at the time of its accession to the United Nations. He was Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Planning until 1979, when he was elected in his party’s Central Committee to be the successor of President António Agostinho Neto, 1st President of ANGOLA.
President José Eduardo dos Santos takes power at just 37 years old, after a conflict between cadres called “Fracísmo”, in a Socialist State in civil war and with the MPLA party divided because of the failed coup attempt and the thousands of deaths in a row. .
With all the possibilities to destroy the legacy of his predecessor, President Agostinho Neto, using the internal divisions in the MPLA caused by the 27th of May, José Eduardo dos
Santos did the opposite: he called him the Founder of the Nation, placed his statue in the square where independence was proclaimed, marked the 17th of September, the date of his predecessor’s birthday as the National Hero’s Day holiday, and built a Mausoleum is a memorial in honor of Agostinho Neto, managed by the Agostinho Neto Foundation, whose Board of Directors is chaired by the family of his predecessor.
When JES took office in 1979 to exercise the function of President of the Republic, the one-party system prevailed and there was a law according to which it was the President of the MPLA who decided on the death penalty, a law that dos Santos decided to repeal with immediate effect. .
The first order issued by José Eduardo dos Santos as President of the Republic of Angola was the abolition of the death penalty.
José Eduardo dos Santos instituted parliament and courts with judges to decide the verdicts. With this measure, JES succeeds in banning shootings and begins a policy of ratification and reintegration.
After 1981, the incursions or the South African invasion in Cunene, JES initiates in the years 84/86, an Amnesty and National Harmonization Policy with former FNLA soldiers and while Commander-in-Chief maintained direct support to the ANC and SWAPO that lived Apartheid discrimination and oppression in their countries, costing them dearly with the North American and South African support to the internal rebellion with the argument of fighting Socialism.
JES, it is stated in the confrontation that took place from 1987 to 88, called “Battle of Cuito Cuanaval” that forced the South African invader to sign in December 1988 the New York Accords for the withdrawal of the South African Army demanding in exchange Cuban withdrawal. This fact indelibly marked the History of Southern Africa, creating the conditions to make Angola a military and security power in Southern Africa, enabling the Independence of Namibia in 1990 and the Liberation of Nelson Mandela.
Having removed the external factor of the conflict, JES turned to reform the State with the Constitutional Revision of 1992, Law n°12\91, of 6 May and the negotiations for peace in Angola in GBadolite, ending with the signing of the Agreement of Bissece: a General Peace Agreement with Jonas Savimbi on May 31, 1991, thus creating the conditions to create a single FAA Army that would unite in a single army, soldiers from forces that once fought each other: the FAPLA of the MPLA and the UNITA TALK.
Jose Eduardo dos Santos organizes the multiparty elections preceded by the Constitutional Revision Law 23/92, of 16 September.
The elections took place on September 29 and 30, 1992, opening a new era for the beginning of the implementation of democratic multipartyism.
With the fall of the Berlin Wall and Perestroika, José Eduardo dos Santos quickly interpreted the signs of the times and promoted a change in the state system, moving Angola from a centralized economy to a market economy, in which, thanks to this decision by José Eduardo dos Santos, Angolans finally had the right to private property and to acquire and register land, houses or other properties in their name, as well as Angolans began to have the right to free enterprise and conduct business in the private sector, being that when dos Santos assumed the presidency of the republic, all property and businesses were mandatorily owned and managed by the state and the holding of private property by Angolan citizens was prohibited.
With this measure, JES created conditions for millions of Angolans to have their own home that their descendants could inherit.
With the new market economy instituted by JES, which began at the end of the 80’s, the stratification of society emerged, passing Angola from a communist system to a system of Social Democracy and market economy, with a class of property owners, entrepreneurs national bodies made up of men and women from all regions of Angola and a national economic elite.
JES, always maintained serenity, used legal and international norms to denounce the violation of International Law and gave amnesty to his political opponents without triumphalism or justicialism that he could use to limit or extinguish the exercise of the political rights of those who had followed Savimbi. However, JES opted for another path: he reintegrated them into the Government of National Unity and Reconciliation (GURN) appointing UNITA members to the Health, Hospitality and Tourism and Commerce portfolios, Ambassadors, in the Army and National Police, integrated 22 thousand technicians in health and in education.
It is this dimension of statesmanship that in José Eduardo dos Santos stands out, without vanity or revenge, allowing the demining of railroads, roads, reconstruction of roads, bridges, dams and construction of new centralities throughout the country creating a new image of an Angola in peace.
President JES reformed the system of government in 2009/2010, proposing to Parliament to approve a Constitution of the Republic that resulted in a presidential-parliamentary system of government.
JES, is a rare, enigmatic leader, with a quick understanding of phenomena.
Tolerant, from humble beginnings, he never publicly insulted anyone, much less insulted an opponent.
In 2017, he decided not to run for President of the Republic and he was one of the few African leaders who left power on his own feet, leaving a socially stable country and having his party elected for another term for the 2017/2022 legislature before to definitively abandon the Presidency of the MPLA party in 2018 and active political life.
He left power with a Government Program and, before his departure, created the slogan “Improve what is good and correct what is wrong”, which aimed to correct mistakes that only a new generation can do without interruptions to moralize society.
José Eduardo dos Santos showed that he was up to the task of taking Angola to the level of reform, not having nominated any of his relatives for the presidential succession, contradicting all analyzes on the African continent and all predictions about this chapter of history.
JES, overcame the history and challenges of his time on the African continent and in the world.
The trajectory and political career of José Eduardo dos Santos is a case study of political science of international interest, his greatest work being the effective PAZ that lasts from 2002 until today, an indelible feat in the history of Africa and the world.