Sita Valles: A Revolutionary Until Death SITA VALLES' story is little-known back in Goa itself. She was a 26-year-old doctor when she was executed in Angola without a trial, on the charge of being one of the masterminds of the alleged putsch of 27 May 1977. She had a short but intense life, at a time when few women engaged in politics, let alone revolution. This is a fascinating story that would surely surprise Goa. An excerpt from a just-released book.
By Leonor Figueiredo (marialeonor...@gmail.com) Translated by D.A. Smith (dave.addison.sm...@gmail.com) SEVERAL EXECUTIONS It is said that Sita Valles was shot at five in the morning on 1 August 1977, one shot in each leg, one shot in each arm. Her body fell into the ditch that had been dug for the purpose before the fatal shot struck her, or what was left of her, after being tortured and raped by the men of the Directorate of Information and Security of Angola (DISA), the political police of the MPLA regime. A tractor leveled the site. It is also said that the beautiful, elegant, intelligent communist of Goan origin -- a Portuguese woman with an African heart -- remained rebellious until her final moment. She said that she was not afraid, and that the sooner they killed her the better. By refusing to be blindfolded, she forced the men of the firing squad to look her in the eye before pulling the trigger. In another version of her death, it is said that after two months in captivity, Sita was shot in the vagina after being shot in the head. Which story is the real one? What really happened may be made up of part of each version. What matters is that she was brutally murdered. Those who ordered it and those who carried it out certainly did so in anger and hatred. Sita's shooting must have provided catharsis among certain leaders of the MPLA. It was not a normal shooting; it was a ritual execution. >From her way of doing things, for being intellectually brilliant and sectarian as well, it isn't hard to imagine that Sita might have been the target of countless attacks in the world of Angolan politics, which was predominantly male, dominated by those with guerrilla backgrounds who had been in the bush during the colonial war, and by militants who had been exiled overseas for years. It is said that Jose Van-Dunem, the son of an old and prestigious Angolan family stamped from the nationalist mold, died at her side. He was Sita's final partner and the father of Che, the son she gave birth to six months before she died. One doubt persists: was Sita pregnant again when she died? Sita was tall compared to most Portuguese women at the time, standing 1.69 meters. She had the build of someone who'd been a swimmer. She didn't drink coffee, nor did she regularly smoke; only rarely did she light up a cigarette. She stood out. Many who knew her use the word "seductive." Set in a dusky face framed by black hair, her big, dark eyes, with their long lashes, attracted attention. It is not known for certain where her mortal remains are. Indications as to where the execution took place vary: some talk about a cemetery near the Cuca brewery in Luanda, others say she was shot on the road leading to the Barra do Cuanza. Luanda saw the savage aftermath of 27 May 1977, a date in the history of Angola linked to a chapter of Portugal's history. What happened that day led to the imprisonment, shooting, and disappearance of a still unknown number of Portuguese, but above all, Angolans. The number of victims varies depending on the source, but many thousands were killed. The narrative of that episode, however, is a complex one. The events of 27 May 1977 (of which those in power in Luanda accused Sita of having been one of the masterminds) put an end to the tale of the beast that took care of men, and made blood flow like petrodollars do today in Angola. So many lives were cut down that some witnesses remain mute to this day, when we wish to know more about the Sita Valles of that era. The fear that still persists, decades later, gives one a sense of the shadowy density of those episodes. Sita Maria Dias Valles, who obtained her last Portuguese identity card (#83306) from the Luanda registry in 1971, remains, for all intents and purposes, missing. Her body was never returned to her family. She was about to turn 26 when she was executed. GOAN ROOTS Sita Valles died in Angola, where she was born, but Angola was not her parents' native land. They came from Goa, India, migrants from another piece of the Portuguese colonial empire. They were one of the few Goan families who settled in Angola. Their lives blended with those of thousands of Portuguese who, after the end of the Second World War, tried to make new lives for themselves in the African colony, and who benefited from the '30 golden years' of unmatched economic growth provided by a series of favorable circumstances. The family tree branched off from Goa when Sita's parents, Maria Lucia Aida Florinda Dias and Edgar Francisco da Purificacao Valles, married and immediately headed for Angola. There were hurdles to overcome beforehand, however, namely the haughtiness of Lucia's father, a very wealthy businessman whom Oliveira Salazar's government had made the honorary Portuguese consul in Mombasa, Kenya, a strategic port on the east coast of Africa that had been part of the Portuguese commercial route to India centuries earlier. On the occasion of his absent children's birthdays, Lucia's father organized huge parties with hundreds of guests, which he described in letters to his respective offspring in an everyday tone: "On your birthday, we held a party in your honor. I hope you enjoyed it..." Whenever a Portuguese ship docked in Mombasa, Lucia's father was informed in advance of its passengers' importance, which might earn them an invitation to the consular residence. On one of these occasions, someone confided to the businessman that aboard a ship bound for India there was an engineer who might be a "catch" for his daughter Lucia. The consul then invited over two gentlemen, including the promising young man, and Lucia was told that she could get to know her future husband, a very interesting person, that very day. But the honorary consul's daughter was misinformed about her possible suitor, and thinking he was someone else, Lucia declined the proposal. Time passed. Lucia returned to Goa and joined the rest of her family, who moved among high society. The engineer, who was working in Goa, was approached again. They insisted to the consul that Valles really was an eligible bachelor, and had the advantage of being Goan. Another lunch was organized, and Lucia saw that her suitor wasn't who she had judged him to be in Mombasa. They fell in love and started to date, with Lucia's sister always in the role of chaperone. But at 27 years old, Lucia, like many girls of marriageable age at the time, was naïve, completely deprived of sexual education to the point that, during a conversation about the courtship of a single woman who had given birth, Lucia asked loudly: "How is that possible, since the woman in question isn't married?" The man who would become her husband turned to her, winked, and went too far by saying, "I've got two children in Angola as well!" Such things weren't said, and word got back to the consul that the suitor, as the father of two children, wouldn't do for Lucia, leading the respectable paterfamilias to declare: "Then there will be no marriage!" Lúcia wept, and explained that the engineer had only been joking. In order to convince his future father-in-law of the truth of his claims, Edgar Francisco Valles, then 37, had to arrange for three Goans residing on Angolan soil to write letters guaranteeing that he was single and had no children. One of those who attested to his integrity, assuring that there was nothing against him given that the existence of offspring was false, was a doctor well known in Angola, Dr. Prazeres, who treated the Goan community in Luanda in his office near the famous Cervejaria Biker in the lower part of the city. *** Copies of the book can be ordered by mail-order, globally, from goa1...@gmail.com https://www.flickr.com/photos/fn-goa/45308409465/in/dateposted/