Father Jorge Casimiro Congo, the champion of the independence of the Angolan enclave of Cabinda, died this morning in the general hospital of that province, a victim of the disease, announced by several information organs in Angola, Lusa is progressing.
Jorge Casimiro Kongo, 71 years old, was born in Landana, Kakongo Municipality, Cabinda Province, and was one of the most important activists for the separation of Cabinda from Angola, for which he was detained on several occasions. by the authorities.
His struggle against what he characterized as first Portuguese and then Angolan colonialism led him to join the Front for the Liberation of Kabinda (FLEC) at a young age.
Jorge Casimiro Congo, who graduated in theology and ancient languages from the Urbaniana University in Rome, was the parish priest of the Immaculada Conceico church in Cabinda, where he instilled Cabinda freedom with his sermons.
Along with other Cabinda priests, he questioned and opposed the appointment of Bishop Filomeno Vieira Diaz to replace Bishop Paulino Mateca, which resulted in his removal from the Catholic Church by the Vatican.
His reaction was to join the Catholic Church in America, eventually being named bishop of this denomination, a position he held until the end.
Former Secretary of Education, Science and Technology of Cabinda Provincial Government, this earned him criticism from independent sectors, but he justified it as an opportunity to fight in Cabinda, until the date of death of Casimiro Congo, Bishop of the American Catholic Church. In Angola.
He was Professor of Portuguese and Methodology at the University of Louisiana.
In 2003 he participated in the constitution of Cabinda’s civil association “Mpalabanda”, which would be extinguished two years later by the Angolan justice for disrupting the constitutional order and attacking the unity of the state.