Nito Alves was born on July 23, 1945, in the northern Angolan town of Piri. He began his education in a local evangelical mission and later moved to Luanda in 1960 to continue schooling. By 1965, in the midst of Angola’s struggle against Portuguese colonialism, Alves joined the growing anti-colonial movement. Following the arrest of fellow activists in 1966, he escaped Luanda and joined the guerrilla forces of the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) in the forested Dembos region.

He quickly rose through the ranks of the resistance, becoming a regional commander and eventually overseeing revolutionary instruction. As early as 1969, his forces suffered heavy losses, but Alves’s leadership was unwavering. By the early 1970s, his fierce Marxist-Leninist ideology gained him national recognition, and by 1975, with Angolan independence on the horizon, he had aligned himself closely with Agostinho Neto and was appointed Minister of the Interior in the newly formed government.

However, Alves was an ideological purist. He was heavily inspired by Mao Zedong and Enver Hoxha, promoting a hardline class-based revolution and denouncing the MPLA's policy of multiracial inclusion.

While serving as Angola’s first Interior Minister after independence in 1975, Nito Alves used his position to promote radical socialist restructuring. He appointed loyalists, known as “Nitistas”, to powerful government posts, military leadership, and regional command. His network began taking over food distribution, mass media, and political committees, often exacerbating Angola’s early economic struggles. Allegations of corruption, food hoarding, and sabotage quickly followed.

By late 1976, the MPLA central committee had had enough. Alves was accused of “fractionism”, political splintering within the ruling party, and dismissed from his post. But rather than accept his expulsion, Alves began organizing a coup. He published his manifesto Thirteen Theses in My Defence, denouncing the MPLA leadership as "petty bourgeois," accusing them of CIA influence, and vowing to reclaim the revolution in the name of the working class.

On May 27, 1977, Alves and the Nitistas launched their coup. They freed prisoners from São Paulo prison, seized Luanda’s radio station, and broadcast calls for an uprising. They arrested several government officials and detained them at Sambizanga. However, the coup lacked popular support, only about 500 people responded to the call for mass demonstration, and the Angolan military, along with Cuban forces in the country, quickly responded.

By 1:30 PM that same day, the rebellion was crushed. Most of the Nitista-controlled positions had fallen, and the army regained full control. In the aftermath, the MPLA initiated a widespread purge. Thousands of Nitistas were arrested, and mass executions were carried out to ensure the movement’s complete destruction.

Alves escaped for a time, fleeing north to his hometown of Piri. But after six weeks on the run, he was captured on July 7, 1977, and brought back to Luanda. A military tribunal was quickly convened. He was executed by firing squad on July 14, 1977.