Ruth Lara

Ruth Manuela Pflüger Rosenberg Lara (17 September 1936 – 25 October 2000) was a Portuguese Angolan educator, mathematician, translator, and activist. She was the First Lady of Angola briefly, after her husband, the physicist-mathematician, anti-colonial revolutionary, and politician, Lúcio Lara, took office for 9 days on an interim basis after the death of Agostinho Neto.

She developed one of the first literacy manuals made by Angolans, along with having been responsible, alongside her husband, for their historic documents on the process of Angolan decolonization during the Angolan War of Independence.

Biography Lara was born to German parents Lotte and Hermann Pflüger in Lisbon on 17 September 1936. Her parents were persecuted by Nazi Germany and had taken refuge in Lisbon, due to Lotte being Jewish and Hermann being a Communist militant. Her parents continued to be active in leftist activism while in Portugal, which influenced their children's political beliefs.

Beginning in 1953, Ruth began dating Lúcio, marrying him in July 1955. Their first child, Paulo, was born in Lisbon in 1956. During this period, she began her studies in Mathematics. The couple became godparents during the marriage of Agostinho Neto and Maria Eugénia Neto when they married in 1958.

The Laras later discovered that they were being monitored by the Estado Novo regime's secret police, the Polícia Internacional e de Defesa do Estado (PIDE). They then decided to leave Lisbon in March 1959 to West Germany. The couple proceeded to move afterwards to East Germany, receiving asylum and support from Ruth's family, the Pflügers and the Rosenbergs. At this point, Lúcio was able throw off the secret police, going to, among other places such as Rome, Tunis, Rabat, and Casablanca, while Ruth stayed in East Germany.

After independence, Agostinho Neto assigned her to various activities linked to political education linked to the Angolan state, later designating her, in 1979, the chief of the Staff Training Department of the MPLA. She also played a role in the program to send Angolan students overseas. after Agostinho Neto's death.

As head of the Staff Training department, she started to come into conflict with the new president of Angola, José Eduardo dos Santos, in 1982 for authorizing the preparation and presentation of a mandatory satirical piece she directed at Santos, dubbed the "caso da Peça e do Quadro". She was later stripped of her party duties, but would later reenter the MPLA afterwards.

Death Lara died of cancer on 25 October 2000 in Luanda.