Life and Ministry of Rev. André Conga da Costa, Former President of the Alliance Church of Angola

Rev. André Conga da Costa, one of the longest-serving Alliance leaders in Africa, passed away on October 4, 2022 at the General Hospital in Cabinda, Angola after a prolonged illness. Born on June 23, 1933 not far from the historic Mboca Mission founded in 1907 by C&MA missionary Elmer Crist, da Costa was the son of evangelist Joel João of the Mboca Mission.

Rev. André Conga da Costa received his primary education at the Mboca Mission from 1945 to 1948 and was baptized there in 1956. That same year, sensing a call to ministry, he enrolled in the course for evangelists at Mboca despite arriving after classes had begun. Missionary Joe Nicholson decided to give the young man a chance. Very bright and hardworking, da Costa soon caught up with the other students and became a “catequista,” at Mboca before moving on to another parish at Gamda-Cango.

In 1959 Rev. da Costa and his wife, Isabel Massiala, left Cabinda for further study at the Baptist Bible Institute of Calambata in Angola. With the start of the “War for Independence” against the Portuguese colonial regime in 1961, Rev. da Costa and his wife went to Kinkonzi Bible Institute, DRC, with further study at Kimpese, before entering the National University in Kinshasa, where he graduated in 1972.

Rev. da Costa then began teaching, first at the Theological Seminary of Bolenge (DRC) and then at the Protestant High School in Maduda in 1973 and 1974. It was there that he was consecrated to pastoral ministry. At that time, he returned to Cabinda and began serving with the Evangelical Church of Angola and was elected president in 1976. The following year, he reopened the Bible Institute in Ntendequele, Cabinda. He was elected president of the Angolan Council of Evangelical Churches in 1980, general secretary of the Christian Alliance Church of Angola (ICAA) in 1982, and president of the ICAA in 1991.

During his years of ministry, Rev. da Costa led the construction of five churches, raised up a generation of pastors and church workers, wrote several books, and was an important figure in the public life and culture of Cabinda. He traveled widely, participated in the growth of AWF in Africa and traveled to Brazil requesting assistance in theological education for a new generation of workers. Throughout the long years of civil war and political strife in Angola, Rev. da Costa, while small in stature, played a large role in keeping ICAA united and strong in the face of contrary forces.

He was buried at Mboca on October 9, 2022. In the words of his grandson, “Everything began at Mboca and everything ends at Mboca.”