[3] Captured in the process of the repression of an attempted coup d'état of the Angolan state, he was killed along with his wife Sita Valles.
[2] He moved to Luanda and went to live with his uncle[2] so he could study at the Liceu Nacional Paulo Dias de Novais (currently the Escola Angola Quiluanje).
[2] From the middle of the 1960s, due to family influences, he became a part of the anticolonial struggle with the Marxist movement MPLA, leaving his studies at the Faculty of Medicine.
[2] Despite being imprisoned due to his attempt to obtain weapons for armed rebellion, he gained notoreity and respect among the EPLA troops for his personal courage and adventurous inclination to take risks.
[2] Van-Dúnem was freed, and he became, along with Nito Alves and Daniel Chipenda, the most influential figures in the MPLA for their participation and leadership in the fight for independence.
[2] He became a member of the MPLA's delegation to the 25th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, held from 24 February to 5 March 1976, led by Nito Alves.
[2] From March 1976 onwards, Van-Dúnem began to criticize influential leaders of the party and of the Angolan state, especially rallying against a supposed "white-mestiço elite",[3] purportedly exemplified by now Minister of Defense Iko Carreira, as well as MPLA vice-president and president of the Revolutionary Council Lúcio Lara.