João Manuel Gonçalves LourençoGColIH (Portuguese pronunciation:[ˈʒwɐ̃w̃mɐˈnwɛlɡõˈsal.vɨʒlo(w)ˈɾẽsu]; born 5 March 1954) is an Angolan politician who is currently serving as the thirdpresident of Angola since 26 September 2017.[3] Previously, he was the minister of defence from 2014 to 2017. In September 2018, he became the chairman of thePeople's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), the ruling party. He was the party's secretary-general from 1998 to 2003.
João Lourenço was designated in December 2016 to occupy the party's number one position in theAugust 2017 legislative election. In terms of the 2010 constitution, "the individual heading the national list of the political party or coalition of political parties which receives the most votes in general elections ... shall be elected President of the Republic and Head of the Executive" (Article 109).[4][5] As the MPLA won a majority of 150 seats, Lourenço automatically became President of Angola, succeedingJosé Eduardo dos Santos, who had been in power for 38 years. Lourenço was officially sworn into office on 26 September 2017.[6]
Born in 1954, Lourenço grew up in a politically engaged family of ten children. His father, Sequeira João Lourenço (1923–1999),[7] a native ofMalanje, was a doctor and nationalist, who served three years of imprisonment inPortuguese Angola for illegal political activity.[8] His mother, Josefa Gonçalves Cipriano Lourenço (1928–1997),[9] a seamstress, was a native ofNamibe.[10] He received both a primary and secondary Portuguese-language education inBié Province andLuanda.[11]
Lourenço studied at the Industrial Institute of Luanda and later participated in the liberation struggle in Ponta Negra,[12] in August 1974, where he was part of the first group of MPLA soldiers to enter Angolan territory via Miconge, towards the city ofCabinda after the fall of the Portuguese colonial regime.[13]
He began his military career fighting against thePortuguese in theAngolan War of Independence and fought as a member of the MPLA in theAngolan Civil War.[14] Lourenço conducted his training in artillery and then became a political officer in the MPLA. In 1978, Lourenço traveled to theSoviet Union and studied at theLenin Military-Political Academy, where he furthered his military training and completed a master's degree in Historical Sciences.[13] He later returned to Angola in 1982. Now an artillery general, Lourenço turned towards politics and in 1984 was appointed as Governor ofMoxico Province.[15]
Lourenço with Russian presidentVladimir Putin in 2018Lourenço with Indian prime ministerNarendra Modi in 2018Lourenço with Japanese prime ministerShinzo Abe in 2019
Lourenço's early politics were mainly confined within the MPLA as an officer responsible for keeping guerrilla soldiers' morale high. Following his appointment as Governor ofMoxico Province in 1984, he continued to rise through the ranks of the ruling party.[14][16] He also served as the provincial commissioner of Moxico Province for the MPLA, president of the Regional Military Council of the 3rd Military Political Region, First Secretary of MPLA and Provincial Commissioner of Benguela Province.[13] He was the MPLA's Secretary for Information from 1992 to 1997 and President of the MPLA Parliamentary Group in theNational Assembly from 1993 to 1998.[17]
At a party congress, he was elected as Secretary-General of the MPLA on 12 December 1998. His election was said to be linked to the favour of PresidentJosé Eduardo dos Santos and it was thought that Lourenço could potentially succeed the long-ruling dos Santos at some point.[18] However, after dos Santos said in 2001 that he would not seek re-election as president,[19] Lourenço openly expressed an interest in becoming the MPLA's presidential candidate and thereby damaged his standing with dos Santos, who apparently had no real intention of leaving office, but had sought to expose political rivals.[14][20][21]Juilão Mateus Paulo succeeded him as MPLA Secretary-General at a December 2003 party congress.[20]
Lourenço was First Vice-president of the National Assembly from 2003 to 2014.[17] He was appointed as Minister of Defense in April 2014,[22] and he was designated as vice-president of the MPLA in August 2016.[23] In September 2018, he became the Chairman of the MPLA, replacingJosé Eduardo dos Santos.[24]
Circinus LLC, aVirginia-basedOSINT services provider, allegedly received $6 million in January 2017 for lobbying on behalf of the interests of Angola by arranging meetings with Angolans and severalRepublican United States Senators includingRon Johnson andTom Cotton, fostering a closer relationship betweenWashington, and Luanda, attempting to arrange meetings among Lourenço andMike Pence andDonald Trump and allowing Lourenço to attend a September 2017 event at Trump'sMar-a-Lago club, however, Lourenço did not attend.[25][26]
In December 2016, the MPLA designated Lourenço as the party's top candidate in the2017 legislative election.[27] He was elected president of Angola on 23 August 2017 and took office on 26 September becoming the third president in the country's history. On 8 September 2018, he was elected president of the MPLA, Angola's ruling party since 1975, becoming its 5th party leader.
In June 2018, Lourenço legalised Angola's firstLGBT collective. The following January, he replaced the 1886 colonial law banning homosexual acts, and prohibited discrimination against LGBT people. The reforms also permittedabortion in cases of rape or danger to mother or fetus.[28][29][30]
He has served as President of the African Union since February 15, 2025.[31] Prior to this, he served as a mediator in resolving the conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.[32] Lourenço also mediated an agreement with Gabonese presidentBrice Oligui Nguema that allowed for the latter's predecessor,Ali Bongo, whom he had overthrown and imprisoned in the2023 Gabonese coup d'état, to go into exile in Angola.[33]
In 2025 Lourenço was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.[34][35]
He is married to Ana Afonso Dias Lourenço, a Member of Parliament of the MPLA and former Minister of Planning, who held a position at theWorld Bank in Washington D.C. until October 2016. They have six children, all of whom are currently active in the MPLA.[21] Apart from his indigenousUmbundu language[citation needed] and Portuguese, he speaks Russian, Spanish, and English.[36] He is popularly nicknamed "Ti Mimoso"[1] and "JLo".[2]
^"Angola's Constitution of 2010"(PDF). Oxford Constitutional Law (Oxford University Press). 6 June 2017.Archived(PDF) from the original on 1 October 2018. Retrieved27 September 2017.
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