The Sun Rose in the Third Region, 2021-ongoing



Ngangula on the Wall, 2022
aquatint, hardground and softground etching on fabriano



Ngangula in the Flesh, 2022
aquatint, hardground and softground etching on fabriano



A Mirage at a Distance, 2022
colour reductive woodcut on munken


Ngangula, the Matrix, 2021
cut and inked up linoblock






Untitled (unfinished painting), 2021
oil pastels on malgrey board






the story goes that on december 1st 1968, Augusto Ngangula- a child frequenting the MPLA school (CIR)- was on his way to class after a long break when he was approached by colonial troops. they questioned the child on the location of the MPLA base and school nearby. Ngangula refused to disclose of such, which resulted in him being brutally beaten and murdered by the troops.

this story, the bravery and devotion of Ngangula, along with the MPLA school system  (where children learned to read and write and were introduced to the ideology) served as models to the foundation of Organização dos Pioneiros de Agostinho Neto (Organization of the Pioneers of Agostinho Neto) OPA*, a children’s youth league- which in some ways assimilates to children scout associations but with MPLA principles and ideology. the story was used as a role model story for children to initiate them into patriotic ideals and encourage identify fusion, to live and die for Patria.
there has been much contestation on the story, as many claim it untrue. members of the MPLA have come out as a response, asserting its supposed veracity.

this work studies such phenomena, along with the controversy around the dissemination of the story of Augusto Ngangula

*more recently also named Organização dos Pioneiros de Angola, often used interchangebly

            
©Raul Jorge Gourgel