Agostinho Neto: The MPLA's alchemist, between a rock and a hard place

Abstract

In contrast with a long track record of historical-political analysis that has resisted accepting interpretations based on the ability of post-colonial political systems in Africa to follow their own historical “homegrown” experience, and according to its elites’ agency to pursue its own goals, this paper takes the Angolan case to expose how the administration of the first president, Agostinho Neto, was able to structure on its own terms, assimilating and accommodating domestic and external constraints. It is here analysed how Agostinho Neto’s administration ended up adhering to socialism and to a left-wing rhetoric, while breeding a right-wing praxis in terms of political economy, political management and foreign policy. As we will see, such an achievement is even more astonishing if we consider the extremely constraining domestic and international context.