Teacher Leontina. Photo by Chindondo.
N.B. The Rev. Adelaide Catanha, Dr Suzana Barbosa and Dr. Fonseca Chindondo collaborated to write this text, co-ordinated by Professor Emília Etaungo Sicato.
Translation from the Portuguese by Frank Collins.
Leontina Namuyeca, daughter of Adelino Cossengue and Silvina Naliva, was born on the 24th of May in 1938 in the village of Sassoma-Sahumba, Chiumbo, in the Municipality of Cachiungo, Huambo Province. Leontina began primary school at the Centre of Kawala and finished at Lutamo Mission. In 1953 she was sent to Means School in Dondi, completing her course of study after four years.
In 1968, having demonstrated exemplary conduct and great intelligence, Leontina was named by the Lutamo Church’s leaders to teach in the mission’s Domestic School (Escola Doméstica). In that school, Leontina, beyond teaching, was assigned to be Rev. Etta Snow’s Deputy Director. Teacher Idalina Chindondo was in charge of the girls’ dormitory. This team of three high calibre and administratively gifted women worked together from the initial establishment of the Escola Doméstica – whose purpose was to serve underprivileged girls – right up to the time of Angola’s independence.
These three highly intelligent women (Etta, Leontina and Idalina) guided, taught, formed and counselled the girls in their schooling, as well as in all aspects of life for a trained and educated person.
Dona Leontina fulfilled many responsibilities throughout her professional life. All the while teaching in the Escola Doméstica, she was its Deputy Director. She also co-ordinated the Escolas Domésticas of the Centres (Centros Evangélicos) of Kawala, Kasseteko and Ulondo. To help with the expense of feeding its students, the school began to grow its own food – especially vegetables, fruit, corn, beans and soya. Later the school bought its own semi-industrial mill so that they could produce their own cornmeal and flour, thus cutting down on expenses.
Leontina married Sr. Zacarias Ngimbi Sampaio in 1974. They had two children. Bernardo Chiliangombe Paciência Sampaio was born in 1975, and died in March of 2020. Silvina Naliva Sampaio was born in 1977.
An important note: When a women-workers organization called OTEMA (Organização do Trabalho da Mulher Angolana) was established in 1975, Leontina was named its Deputy Treasurer. In this position Leontina worked alongside Valentina Chilombo Capuca, the organization’s General Director, Celita Chinossanda Epalanga, Vice-Director, and Namutinha Catumbela and Ana Epalanga.
After many years working for the advancement of many communities, and following the destruction of Dondi Mission in the 70s, Leontina had to enter the Civil Service as a teacher in Escola #3, in the Bairro of Fatima, in the municipality of Cachiungo.
In the second half of the 70s, Teacher Leontina, who had contributed greatly to Angola’s struggle to reach independence, was taken prisoner and sent to Bentiaba (formerly the concentration camp called “Centro de Concentração de São Nicolau”), in the province of Namibe. At that time she was brought together with Dona María Limo, also a prisoner.
Years later, she was freed and took up residence in Namibe (formerly Moçamedes). In Namibe, Dona Leontina continued her work of evangelization and was one of the founders of the Congregational Church in Namibe, a church that is now part of what is known as IECA (Igreja Evangélica Congregacional em Angola). When the Provincial Synod of Namibe celebrated that church’s 25th anniversary, Dona Leontina was given an award in recognition of all of her work.
With the end of civil war in Angola, she devoted herself to the reconstruction of the Dondi-Lutamo Mission and thus of the original Escola Doméstica in Lutamo. The rebuilding of that school was made possible by the considerable financial contributions of Rev. Etta Snow, money earned in her retirement officiating at weddings, as well as money from her United Church of Canada pension.
Early in 2000, at the request of IECA, Leontina Namuyeca returned to Dondi and took up her work at the Escola Doméstica in Lutamo, as its Director. Determinedly and insistently, she travelled from pastorate to pastorate, speaking about how important it was that all the young learn to read and write if they were to improve their lot in life. The school thus received many students from Chinhama Cavango, Centro-Bambi, Cambia, Ulondo, Casseteco. Yet more came from the provinces of Cunene, Kwando Kubango, Benguela – specifically the municipalities of Balombo and Moxico. Given the scarcity of financial resources with which to sustain the school itself, they counted on growing cereals, and fruits and vegetables with which to feed the students. This was carried out by Teacher Leontina, with great success.
Sadly, and despite all the hopes and plans the church still had for her, God called her, following a time in the Hospital Geral do Huambo. On the 8th of March 2021, she left this world. The funeral took place in the sanctuary of the Igreja Sede de Jerusalém. The Rev. Gilberto Jamba Ndunduma preached and the liturgy was conducted by the Rev. Adelaide Catanha. The sermon was based on Chapter 9, verses 32-43 of the Acts of the Apostles. Burial was in the cemetery of Curry Institute (Instituto Currie do Dondi).
Teacher Leontina was a devout woman. She was an innovator, an organizer who brought people together. She was disciplined, and taught that virtue to others as she laboured in the social causes that she believed in. She sought to give women dignity as she worked to reduce illiteracy, a task that must be continued by her successors. The church and society as a whole give thanks for all she accomplished in the service of all Angolans, of IECA and of Angola itself.
Teacher Leontina is resting in the Eternal Glory of our Heavenly Father.