Florbela Malaquias

You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Portuguese. (November 2022) Click [show] for important translation instructions. View a machine-translated version of the Portuguese article. Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Portuguese Wikipedia article at [[:pt:Florbela Malaquias]]; see its history for attribution. You may also add the template {{Translated|pt|Florbela Malaquias}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

Florbela Catarina "Bela" Malaquias (born 26 January 1959)^[1] is an Angolan journalist, lawyer and politician who is leader of the Humanist Party of Angola.^[2]

Malaquias was born in Luso, Portuguese Angola. Despite growing up during a turbulent time in Angolan and African history, given the rise of several national liberation movements, she described her childhood as generally "very quiet" and "happy." Her father, Nelson, was a railway clerk for Benguela railway and was a supporter of Angolan independence. He was arrested several times by the colonial police, PIDE-DGS, for expressing these views, and was part of one of the first cells of UNITA in what is now Moxico Province. As her father was transferred from jail to jail, passing through Nova Lisboa and Missombo, Malaquias, her five brothers, and her mother, Amelia, eventually followed him when he was transferred to the open-air St. Nicholas prison centre in Namibe Province, a site often used to torture pro-independence activists and militants. Malaquias would also join UNITA early on in its history.^[1]

Malaquias fought for UNITA during the Angolan Civil War, even authoring the anthem of the Angolan Women's League, UNITA's women's wing. However, she later came to hold a strong negative opinion of UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi starting in the 1980s, whom she later stated was a "tyrant and murderer" for orchestrating "Red September", overseeing the torture and killing of dozens of people, including many of his own officers, their wives and children, in an anti-witchcraft ritual.^[3] She was the only female candidate for President of Angola in the 2022 Angolan general election.^[4][5] She came in 5th place, but was elected a member of the National Assembly.^[6] Malaquias has a degree in law from Agostinho Neto University.^[7]

This article about an Angolan politician is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

• v
• t
• e