Holden Roberto

1923 – 2007 Angolan Nationalist leader, founder of the FNLA

Founder of Angola's FNLA, backed by the US and Mobutu's Zaire.

Affiliations: FNLA

Holden Roberto founded the FNLA, one of the three main movements fighting Portuguese rule in Angola. During the Cold War his group was backed by the United States and by Mobutu's Zaire, to which he had family ties. The FNLA was largely defeated by the MPLA in the mid-1970s civil war, and Roberto's influence faded.