Maria Ruth da Silva Chela Neto (born 1936) is a former Angolan independence activist, political organizer, and women's rights campaigner.
Fearing retaliation from the Polícia Internacional e de Defesa do Estado (International and State Defense Police, PIDE), she lived abroad in Germany, Tanzania and Zambia until 1975, when independence was achieved.
OMA was an affiliate of the Women's International Democratic Federation (WIDF) and from 1976 she served as a vice president on their executive committee and attended and spoke at many of the organization's conferences and seminars over the next decades.
[2] Their father, Agostinho Pedro Neto, was a Methodist minister, who worked at an American mission in Luanda,[3][4] and their mother, Maria da Silva, was a school teacher.
[4] In response, large numbers of Angolan students studying in Portugal at Carcavelos and Lumiar gathered in a protest at Lisbon Airport in December 1960, and were assisted in leaving by the World Council of Churches and the Comité inter-mouvements auprès des évacués (Inter-Movement Committee for Evacuees).
[13] Fearing persecution from the Polícia Internacional e de Defesa do Estado (International and State Defense Police, PIDE) Neto felt she could not return to Angola and moved to Frankfurt.
[16] In 1971 in Tanzania, Neto met with members of the Chicago Committee for the Liberation of Angola, Mozambique and Guinea, hoping to strengthen ties between the OMA and international women's groups.
[24] Among the many programs she fostered within the OMA were initiatives to organize laborers and teach them self-help processes to fight for equal pay of black and white workers.
They organized village committees to tackle adult illiteracy, distribution problems for food and water,[25] and in rural areas they also held courses on new methods of agriculture and hygiene.
[17] During the 1977 Congress of the MPLA, Neto was one of three women, including Maria Mambo Café and Rodeth Gil, elected to serve on the Central Committee.
[30] Neto expressed concerns that insufficient sex and family planning education and punishments for abortion led to the deaths of women and children, and that health institutions should make such programs a priority.
[44][Note 2] PAWO is an umbrella organization, which was designed to create a platform for women to become political activists in the African nationalist movements, through opposition to colonialism and racist policies and in favor of equality.
[46] When African countries gained their independence and the Cold War and Apartheid ended, the focus of PAWO shifted toward peace activism and the human rights of women and girls.
[49] During the 1990 Congress of the MLPA, Neto chastised President José Eduardo dos Santos, who had succeeded her brother upon his death in 1979,[50] for the lack of women in his administration.
[60] In 2017, the Rádio e Televisão de Portugal (Portuguese Radio and Television Service)'s program Rostos (Faces) aired a 30-minute episode titled "Ruth Neto", presenting her biography.