Daniel Chipenda fought in the Angolan War of Independence

Angolan War of Independence

The Angolan War of Independence began as an uprising against forced cotton cultivation, and became a multi-faction struggle for control of Portugal's Overseas Province of Angola with three nationalist movements and a separatist movement...

, serving as the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola

Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola

The People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola - Labour Party is a political party that has ruled Angola since the country's independence from Portugal in 1975...

's (MPLA) field commander in the Eastern Front before founding and leading the Eastern Revolt

Eastern Revolt

The Eastern Revolt is an Angolan nationalist organization that fought in the war for independence from Portugal under the leadership of Daniel Chipenda. The RDL drew its support from the Ovimbundu ethnic group....

, a faction of the MPLA. He later joined the National Liberation Front of Angola

National Liberation Front of Angola

The National Front for the Liberation of Angola was a militant organization that fought for Angolan independence from Portugal in the war of independence under the leadership of Holden Roberto. The FNLA became a political party in 1992....

 (FNLA), but left, rejoined the MPLA, and left again in July 1992. He was an Ocimbundu

Ovimbundu

The Southern Mbundu, now generally called Ovimbundu , are an ethnic group who lives on the Bié Plateau of central Angola and in the coastal strip west of these highlands. As the largest ethnic group in Angola, they make up almost 40 percent of the country's population...

.

Chipenda, then a member of the MPLA, established the Eastern Front, significantly expanding the MPLA's reach, in May 1966. When the EF collapsed, Chipenda and MPLA leader Agostinho Neto

Agostinho Neto

António Agostinho Neto served as the first President of Angola , leading the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola in the war for independence and the civil war...

 each blamed the other. In 1972 the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

 allied with Chipenda's faction, giving him aid. Following the Carnation Revolution

Carnation Revolution

The Carnation Revolution , also referred to as the 25 de Abril , was a military coup started on 25 April 1974, in Lisbon, Portugal, coupled with an unanticipated and extensive campaign of civil resistance...

 in Portugal

Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

 in 1974, Joaquim Pinto de Andrade

Joaquim Pinto de Andrade

Joaquim Pinto de Andrade served as the first honorary President of the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola , Chancellor of the Luanda Archdiocese, and as a member of the African Society of Culture. He died on February 23, 2008 following a long illness, the same day as fellow MPLA...

, the President of the MPLA, organized an MPLA congress in Lusaka

Lusaka

Lusaka is the capital and largest city of Zambia. It is located in the southern part of the central plateau, at an elevation of about 1,300 metres . It has a population of about 1.7 million . It is a commercial centre as well as the centre of government, and the four main highways of Zambia head...

. Neto and Chipenda attended with 165 delegates respectively and Mário Pinto de Andrade

Mário Pinto de Andrade

Mário Coelho Pinto de Andrade was an Angolan poet and politician.He was born in Golungo-Alto, in Portuguese Angola, and studied philology at the University of Lisbon and sociology at the Sorbonne in Paris...

's Active Revolt faction had 70 delegates present. After several days of negotiations Neto's faction quit the congress, so that the MPLA remained split into three factions . Chipenda left the MPLA, although he arguably left it before the coup in Portugal, founding the Eastern Revolt with (allegedly) 1,500 former MPLA followers. He opposed the MPLA's leadership which he accused to be "creole" (i.e. culturally too much Europeanized, and including many "mestiços") and was wary of the Soviet Union, despite its support.

In 1973 the government of the Soviet Union invited Neto to Moscow

Moscow

Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

and told him Chipenda planned to assassinate him. The USSR resumed aid to the MPLA, Neto again firmly in control, in 1974. In September Chipenda joined the FNLA again, and returned to the MPLA only after the multiparty elections of 1992.