Maria Eugénia Neto

Maria Eugénia "Jenny" da Silva Neto (born 8 March 1934) is a Portuguese-Angolan writer. She was the inaugural first lady of Angola. Born in Montalegre, she was educated in Lisbon, studying languages and music. She met Angolan medical student Agostinho Neto in 1948 and ten years later the couple married. Because of his anti-colonial activities, he was jailed multiple times, causing the family to move to Angola, Portugal, Cape Verde, and eventually in 1962 to orchestrate an escape on Moroccan passports to Léopoldville, now in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In Léopoldville, he became the head of the Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola (People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola, MPLA), but the following year, the family moved again to Brazzaville, when the MPLA was ousted. They relocated again to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, in 1968, where Neto began working with the (Organization of Angolan Women, OMA), publishing the organization's bulletins and writing radio broadcasts for the MPLA. She also began writing children's stories, but her works were not published at the time.

In 1975, Angola gained its independence from Portugal, Agostinho became President of Angola, and Neto became the inaugural First Lady of Angola. Besides serving as hostess of the nation, she was one of the founders of the (Union of Angolan Writers) in 1975, and worked with foreign museums to recover Angolan records from abroad. She also began publishing her children's literature. Her book (''In the Forest the Animals Spoke'', 1977) received the UNESCO honorary prize at the Leipzig Book Fair in 1978. According to the Union of Angolan writers, this made her the first Angolan writer to gain international recognition.

After her husband's death in 1979, Neto focused on publishing his previously unpublished works and preserving his legacy. In addition to her own writing, she worked with other founders of the Children's Fund for Southern Africa to assist mothers and children in Southern Africa. She founded and became president of the (Antonio Agostinho Neto Foundation, FAAN) in 2007. Through the foundation, she pushed for completion of the Memorial Antonio Agostinho Neto in 2012. She has received numerous honors for her dedication to Angola's independence and for her writing, including Cape Verde's highest honour, the Order of Amílcar Cabral in 2023, and the National Prize for Culture and Arts from the Union of Angolan Writers in 2011. In 2017, she was inducted into the (Angolan Academy of Letters). Provided by Wikipedia