Passion or Profession: President

Period: 1922–1979

Also a doctor and poet, Neto was the leader of the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), one of the three major nationalist groups that fought a war for independence against the Portuguese colonial government. He was imprisoned and exiled in the early 1960s. A civil war between the nationalist groups broke out following Portugal’s decision to grant independence in 1975, but the MPLA (with Neto as president) received broad international recognition as the nation's legitimate government by 1976.