He was born in Golungo Alto, in Portuguese Angola, and studied philosophy at the University of Lisbon and sociology at the Sorbonne in Paris.

[1] He married the French filmmaker Sarah Maldoror and worked with her on Sambizanga, a 1972 film about the Angolan liberation movement.

)[3] He clashed with his successor, Agostinho Neto, and in 1974 founded within the MPLA a group called Revolta Activa (Active Revolt).

Angola became independent on November 11, 1975, but Andrade continued to live in exile in Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde and Mozambique.

[1] His publications included the anthologies Letteratura Negra (1961) and La Poésie Africaine d'Espression Portugaise (1969).