Deolinda Rodrigues

Deolinda Rodrigues Francisco de Almeida was born on February 10, 1939, in Catete, the cousin of Agostinho Neto. Educated by Methodist missionaries, she won a scholarship to Drew University in New Jersey in 1959, before abandoning her studies to join the liberation struggle in Leopoldville (Kinshasa).

Rodrigues co-founded the Organização da Mulher de Angola (OMA) in 1962, running clinics, literacy courses, and refugee centers. In March 1967, while leading an overland medical mission to the First Military Region inside northern Angola, her guerrilla unit was ambushed and captured by rival FNLA forces; she was imprisoned at the Kinkuzu camp and executed. Angola celebrates National Women's Day on March 2 in her sacred memory.