Viriato da Cruz and His Chinese Exile: A Biographical Approach

Existing analyses of China's involvement in late colonial Angola have an overwhelming focus on military support for competing independence movements. However, Maoism as an ideology had a more personal impact on Angolan elites in their struggle to define Angolan nationalism. Among them was Viriato da Cruz, an Angolan poet and nationalist who served as the secretary general of the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) between 1962 and 1964. As a result of both ideological alignment and personal circumstances, Cruz lived in exile in the People's Republic of China from 1966 until his death in 1973. Drawing on original archival, newspaper and oral sources, this article employs a biographical approach to analyse the connections between Angolan nationalism and Communist China through Viriato da Cruz's life story. His intellectual and life adventures, played out beyond the confines of national borders and nationalist structures, reveal the mobile and transnational nature of southern African liberation. The article's biographical approach also offers a unique opportunity to understand African history through the interaction between historical context and individuals.