Colonel Almerindo Jaka Jamba (Jaka Jamba)

Permanent Representative to UNESCO

Date of Birth: 21/03/1949
Place of Birth: Dondi, Bela Vista

Career: Joined UNITA, 1973; UNITA delegate, Luso, Angola, 1974; UNITA nominee for Information Minister, Transitional government, January 1975; Dean of Huambo University, October 1975; Director of Education Services, Bie; UNITA Secretary for Information; Secretary for Foreign Affairs, 1979; UNITA Secretary for Culture, 1990-?; Permanent Representative to UNESCO, 2005 to date.

Commentary: Effective in winning over Western opinion, Jaka Jamba helped build an effective foreign affairs organisation for UNITA but is not influential in the leadership. A quietly spoken intellectual and polyglot, Jamba was better suited to the multi-party politics era after 1991; he lost out politically after the return to war in 1992. Although a movement loyalist, there were reports that he had been arrested by UNITA, but he eventually reappeared.