Photo: Louise Redvers/IPS

Recently re-elected President of Angola’ Jose Eduardo dos Santos during campaigns (file photo).

Rome — The book on "Agostinho Neto e a libertaçao de Angola, 1949-1974, Arquivos da PIDE-DGS" was presented on Monday at Roma Sapienza University , as part of the celebrations of the 90th birthday of the father of Angola's independence.

The book presentation ceremony, sponsored by the Embassy of Angola to the European country, as part of the celebrations of the National Hero's Day activities, was chaired by gen. Mbeto Monteiro Traça of the Agostinho Neto Foundation.

Gen.Monteiro Traça was assisted by the Italian professors Simone Celani, of the Sapienza University and Alessandro Seixas (Florence University), who delivered the topic "The Angolan literature in the Italian academic environment."

Monteiro Traça, a former bodyguard and secretary to Agostinho Neto, said that the history on Agostinho Neto has no corrected versions.

According to him, despite his political ideological convictions, Neto had always maintained his independence and of the movement that he led.

Mbeto Traça noted that the book is a comprehensive study carried out by researchers who resorted to PIDE-DGS (colonial Portuguese political police) documents deposited in the "Torre do Tombo" files in Lisbon (Portugal). The work comprises five volumes, with a total of 900 pages, containing documents compiled from 1949 to 1974.

On the occasion, the ambassador Florencio de Almeida made the symbolic offer of some copies of the work to the universities of Sapienza of Rome, Florence and Viterbo, as well as to the ambassadors of Brazil, Cape Verde, and other personalities and Italian institutions.

The release of the book marked the closing of the activity organised by the Embassy.