Jonas Savimbi, or Dr. Jonas Savimbi as he actually was, is most famous for having founded UNITA. Although his ideals and goals might have been a little unrealistic he was an educated person. Savimbi have been a member of MPLA and FNLA before he at last formed UNITA.

Savimbi was born in 1934 by his mother, Helena Mbundu Sakato, and his father, a railway worker named Loth Malheiro Savimbi. He is from the Ovimbundo group of the Angolan highlands, where he later came to have a lot of activities. Savimbi was categorized as smart and hardworking by his teachers in high school to which he attended in Bie until he was passed twenty. 18 may 1958 he left for medical studies in Portugal which he quit two years after, this led him into an independence-movement for Portuguese colonies and further to prison for 15 days in Portugal. This was where he met Dr. Agostino Neto who later founded MPLA and became Angola's first president. In February 1960 he left for secret political studies in Switzerland where he got an Doctor degree. After this he preferred to be addressed as Dr. Savimbi.

In 1964 Savimbi allied with FNLA, and in March 1966 Savimbi founded UNITA. Although FNLA, MPLA and UNITA all officially fought against the Portuguese, UNITA spent most of their time fighting MPLA: Savimbi even gathered information about MPLA's activities for Portugal. In 1975 Angola got it's independence, and Savimbi allied with the South-African apartheid regime. Savimbi created a lot of alliances and gained much support among western, as well as African heads of states. In 1986 president Reagan of America invited Savimbi to the White House and talked about UNITA winning 'a victory that electrifies the world and brings great sympathy and assistance from other nations to those struggling for freedom'. Other supporters of Savimbi includes Felix Houphouet-Boigny of the Ivory Coast, Mobut Sese Seko of Zaire and, as mentioned above, the South African apartheid regime.

Savimbi often invited journalists and politicians to his bush headquarters where he impressed them with his great gift of talking. Many western heads of states saw Savimbi as a allied in the fight against communism (as MPLA was communist and had the power).

In 1983 Savimbi proved the cruel in him by burning a family (including children) after accusing them from witchcraft, according to two high-ranking defectors from UNITA in 1992. As far as I know, there are no sure sources of this. Savimbi committed and believed in several of the ancient African rituals, including worshipping spirits and witch hunts, therefore these traditions are important in order to understand (some of) his actions.

Savimbi rejected the results of the 1992 elections - or rather, he refused to see the results of the second polls. 'My people must not be humiliated,' he is supposed to have said as he rejected the results and his forces were withdrawn from the national military for new hostilities.

This war was by UN described as 'worst in the world' and resulted in huge loss in human lives and industry. In '94 Savimbi and President dos Santos signed the Lusaka protocol, and peace finally seemed to last. Savimbi lived in a government financed house in Luanda. In 1998 Savimbi again, without the reason being known, returned to war, and the country once again collapsed. From '98 till '02 there was war. On February 22. Savimbi was shot on an road in the Angolan highlands, close to where he was born and kept most of his activities, by fifteen shots, one in the throat, two in the head and the rest in the chest, legs and arms. The group of soldiers who shot him claim that their intention was not to kill, but to arrest, but as Savimbi opened fire they had to defend themselves. So, Savimbi, the intelligent and charismatic man ended his life on an African dirt road with bullets in his body.