Carolina Cerqueira is the Current Speaker of the National Assembly of Angola since 2022 and the first Women to hold the position. She is a seasoned lawyer, journalist, politician, activist and staunch Advocate for gender and social equality. She has devoted much of her professional and political career in the fields of Education, Culture, Journalism and mediation. She holds a Degree in Law from Agostinho Neto University where she is currently pursuing a Master’s Degree in Political and Legal Sciences.
Carolina Cerqueira was Born in October 20, 1956, in Caculo Cabaça, Kwanza-Norte province. She is the fourth of nine children from Maria João Pedro, a woman from Maxinde commune, Malanje province, and Clementino Cerqueira, a Portuguese citizen who chose Angola as his second homeland, at an early age of 34 until his death in Luanda in 1991.
She is an experienced politician having previously served as Minister for Social Communication, Minister of Culture, State Minister for Social Affairs and MP. She considers dialogue, listening and maintaining permanent interaction with civil society, religious entities, youth, traditional communities and women as the most important elements.
Driven by the spirit of independence, in 1976, Carolina Cerqueira shifted to Luanda, where she enrolled at Faculty of Medicine, joined the MPLA and began her professional career as a journalist and Portuguese language teacher at Rádio Escola and National Radio of Angola. In 1982, as journalist, she conducted interviews with eminent personalities such as Yasser Arafat, in the occupied territories in the midst of an open bombardment in southern Lebanon and Syria as part of the delegation of then Minister of Home Affairs André Pitra Petroff and the late Osvaldo Serra Van-Dúnem.
She covered the World Conference on Women in Nairobi (Kenya) and Beijing (China) and reports on the proclamation of the Pérestroïka in the then Soviet Union.
She attended courses on Electoral Observation in Brussels (Belgium) and Accra (Ghana), and attended Conflict Resolution training course in Mombasa (Kenya). She switched from journalism to diplomacy, as a specialist in mediation and peaceful conflict resolution at the Pan African Women's Organization (OPM), where She has been appointed as Vice-President between 2008 and 2020.
Participated as a mediator in a Group of Angolan Women, which in 1991, with her sisters from the Unita party, including MP Miraldina Jaka Jamba, Mrs. Gina Sapalalo, Dr. Fátima Roque, among others, sought solutions for Peace in Angola, an initiative taken by the then First Lady of South Africa, Madame Mbeki.
Former Director of the Office of Citizenship and Civil Society of the Ruling MPLA and Civil Society Office of the same Party and Secretary for Legal Affairs and Solidarity of OMA , from 2002 to 2008, having attended different specialties in journalism, diplomacy, conflict resolution, human rights gender equality, culture of peace, leadership, among others.
Carolina Cerqueira graduated in Law from Agostinho Neto University, in 2005, where she is currently studying for a Master's degree in Political and Legal Sciences.
In addition to her work as a Member of Parliament elected in 2008, 2012, 2017 and 2022, she was the Chairperson of the Commission for Human Rights, Suggestions and Complaints. Member of the Drafting Commission of the First Constitution of the Republic of Angola, Member of the Legal and Constitutional Affairs, Deputy-Chairperson of the MPLA Parliamentary Caucus at the Interparliamentary Union and member of the Executive Committee and the Committee on Sustainable Development, Finance and Trade of the Interparliamentary Union.
From 2010 to 2012 she served as Minister for Social Communication and Minister of Culture, from 2016 to 2019.
She was appointed State Minister for the Social Affairs from 2019 to 2022. During her term of office in the Ministry she pioneered several initiatives, such as: training of staff in Social Communication, licensing of new operators and the creation of Community Radios; promoting the city Mbanza Congo to a World Heritage Site; implementation of Kwenda Program; mapping of social programs; preventing and combating drought in southern of Angola; Pan-African Forum for the Culture of Peace in Africa (Luanda Biennial); 2 National Commission for Climate Change and Biodiversity; Working Group for the Updating and Correction of School Textbooks Manuals; Multisectoral Commission for the Prevention and Combating Covid-19; and Programs for Local Development and Combating Poverty, Girls´ empowerment, distribution of school meals and implementation of schools of high reference.
In 2017, obtained a certificate in Leadership in Public Service from the Kennedy School for Executive Education at Harvard University, United States of America, and in 2021 she concluded a specialization course in Human Rights at the Catholic University of Angola.
On September 17, 2022, she was elected Speaker of the National Assembly, the first woman to hold the position.
She has more than 30 years of experience nationally and internationally in the promotion of democracy, human rights, women's rights, education and peace. She also served as an Election Observer during the first multi-party elections in South Africa and Namibia.
She was appointed Special Envoy to the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Kenya, and other countries where she represented the Republic of Angola at the highest level in several meetings, conferences and international activities.
In 2021, she represented the Government of Angola as one of the signatories to the Coalition of Member States of the United Nations, on the guarantee of school Snacks for children in schools.
She is also passionate about projects on themes such as Peace, Climate Change, Environment and protection of the Oceans, social development, education and gender equality.
She is a Member of several professional bodies such as the Association of Women in Legal Careers, the International Federation of Women in Legal Careers, the Committee of Eminent African Women, UNESCO's Ássisses d'Afrique and Wise Afrique Femme, of the African Union.
Carolina Cerqueira is a Woman of conviction and consensus known for her outstanding leadership and pragmatism. In 1991 she became a member of the MPLA's Central Committee of the MPLA and in 2009 was elected as a member of the Political Bureau.
She was appointed as Deputy-Coordinator of the MPLA's Discipline and Audit Committee, and represented the Party at international meetings and congresses notably the Democratic Party in the United States of America, the ANC in South Africa, and the Socialist Party in France.
Carolina Cerqueira, widow of Doctor and former MP José Eduardo Nelumba since 2010, mother of José Pedro Nelumba and grandmother to three grandchildren, is known for being a born communicator, that enables her to build bridges and consensus.
She is a woman of noble causes in the service of the nation, to the social welfare and to the participatory and inclusive development, of all and for all, of our homeland Angola.
Luanda, January 2023.