The Re-Discovery of Feminist Freedom in Modern-Day Angola

Were the Angolan War for Independence (1961-1974) a screenplay, Irene Cohen would be the sensitive supporting actress, overshadowed by the more boisterous lead, Deolinda Rodrigues. And that, in fact, is how she was portrayed in the 2019 theatrical release, ‘Esquadrão Kamy’, which depicted the historical experience of five female Angolan freedom fighters who formed part of the Esquadrão Camy (Camy Squadron) that trekked from Congo Brazzaville to Angola from January 12 to February 17, 1967 (Rodriguez: 136). The play draws heavily on the 2003 release of Deolinda Rodrigues’ personal diary from 1956 to 1967, Diário de um Exílio sem Regresso, hence Deolinda’s prominence. It is a re-enactment that highlights the brief and tortuous weeks before the women’s capture and assumed execution by opposition forces in 1967.

I learned about Irene Cohen side-by-side with an entire generation of Angolans who were also discovering her for themselves.

Irene is one of five women who died during military combat in the fight for independence. The martyred group has a certain mythology. They are the only known women to have taken up arms and to have joined an otherwise all-male military detachment tasked with entering Angola crossing both Congos. Aside from a few articles and Deolinda’s diaries, very few facts are known about these women’s actual lives. What we do know is that Irene and Deolinda’s activism began in the church. Both women studied abroad, and more importantly, both were driven by the cruel hypocrisy of Portuguese colonialism to use their relatively privileged positions among Angola’s assimilated class to join the anti-colonial movement, the People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA). Annually, they are eulogized on Angolan Women’s Day on March 2; their short and tragic lives are made emblematic of African feminism and national pride...