1. Son of Roberto Garcia Diasiwa and Ana Joana Helena Lala Necaca, and a descendant of the royal family of the Kongo Kingdom, Alvaro Holden Necaca Roberto Diasiwa was born in Sao Salvador in the far north of Angola.
17 Facts About Holden Roberto
1. 2.
Holden Roberto's family moved to Leopoldville, in the Belgian Congo, in 1925.
3.
Holden Roberto worked for the Belgian Finance Ministry in Leopoldville, Costermansville, and Stanleyville for eight years.
4.
In 1949, Roberto moved back to Leopoldville, where he joined his uncle in playing for the local "Nomads" football side.
5.
Holden Roberto went on to play for Daring Club Motema Pembe, alongside the later Congolese Prime Minister, Cyrille Adoula.
6.
Holden Roberto, serving as UPA President, represented Angola in the All-African Peoples Congress of Ghana which he secretly attended in Accra, Ghana in December 1958.
7.
Holden Roberto acquired a Guinean passport and visited the United Nations.
8.
Later that year Holden Roberto appointed Savimbi Secretary-General of the UPA.
9.
Holden Roberto launched an incursion into Angola on March 15,1961, leading 4,000 to 5,000 militants.
10.
Holden Roberto's forces took farms, government outposts, and trading centers, killing everyone they encountered.
11.
Holden Roberto merged the UPA with the Democratic Party of Angola to form the FNLA in March 1962, and a few weeks later established the Revolutionary Government of Angola in Exile on March 27, appointing Savimbi to the position of Foreign Minister.
12.
Holden Roberto established a political alliance with Zairian President Mobutu Sese Seko by divorcing his wife and marrying a woman from Mobutu's wife's village.
13.
Holden Roberto visited Israel in the 1960s and received aid from the Israeli government from 1963 to 1969.
14.
Zhou Enlai, Premier of the People's Republic of China, invited Holden Roberto to visit the PRC in 1964.
15.
Holden Roberto did not go because Moise Tshombe, the President of Katanga, told him he would not be allowed to return to the Congo.
16.
Holden Roberto staunchly opposed Neto's drive to unite the Angolan rebel groups in opposition to Portugal because Holden Roberto believed the FNLA would be absorbed by the MPLA.
17.
Holden Roberto died on August 2,2007, at his home in Luanda.