The sons of former Angolan President José Eduardo dos Santos agreed on Tuesday that their father be buried in Luanda, but only after the general elections on August 24.
Dos Santos passed away on July 8 at the age of 79, having made history by assuming the presidency at age 37, and leaving the seat in 2017, 38 years later. However, the family has discussed with the Angolan authorities whether he should be buried in Angola or in Barcelona, where he lived. The family had previously said that his father wanted to be buried in Spain.
But in a letter signed by five children of the former leader, they also expressed “deep gratitude to the people of Angola” and to all those who share their sadness and call for respect for the mourning.
“Us, [the] sons of engineer José Eduardo dos Santos, we call on everyone to respect our customs, our ancestral values and our religious beliefs,” the letter says.
“Our father has this right, and no one can contest it. In the African tradition, the time of mourning is a time of reflection and reconciliation.
Street vendors at the Arreiou do Sao Paulo market mourn former Angolan President Jose Eduardo Dos Santos in Luanda July 8, 2022. He died in a hospital in Barcelona, Spain. PHOTO | AFP
The letter, signed by Isabel, José Filomeno Zenú, Welwitschia Tchizé, Joess and José Eduardo Paulino Coreon Dú, adds that they also want a mausoleum to house the mortal remains of their father.
Read: Angola declares week of national mourning for Eduardo dos Santos
The letter could allow authorities to now organize his state funeral. But it also indicates that the family wants guarantees that the government will not attack them after the burial. Some of dos Santos’s sons had stayed away from Angola, like their father, after the new government of Joao Lourenco opened corruption investigations into how they amassed wealth.
Isabel, for example, once the director of Sonangol, the Angolan state oil company, is wanted in her country to answer charges related to hiding public wealth in her pockets. The state froze most of its local accounts and has stayed out of Angola since 2017.
“Whatever the result of the next elections, in the future the family, together with the institutions and the president-elect, will collaborate in the union of the Nation and, with the necessary time, we will organize the conditions for the homage and the national funeral. of the Father of the Nation, our father, José Eduardo dos Santos”.
“…so that one day he may rest in peace, with dignity and respect, in the land of his ancestors”, the children promised in the letter.
Dos Santos’ tenure in power was shrouded in mystery. It is not known that he gives interviews to international media, the exact size of his family is unknown. There is talk in the bars of Luanda that he is survived by ten children by five women. Last week, a state television channel interviewed a woman from the Democratic Republic of Congo who claims to be his daughter.
Read: Angola’s longest-serving ruler who made peace and scandal
Earlier, TV Palanca also found another man, along with his mother, who was said to be one of the former president’s sons. In public, dos Santos had a wife, former first lady Ana Paula dos Santos, with whom he had four children.
