Amílcar Cabral

Amílcar Lopes da Costa Cabral (Portuguese: [ɐˈmilkaɾ ˈlɔpi̵ʃ

kɐˈbɾal]; 12 September 1924 – 20 January 1973) was a Bissau- Amílcar Cabral
Guinean and Cape Verdean agricultural engineer, intellectual, poet,
theoretician, revolutionary, political organizer, nationalist and
diplomat.[1] He was one of Africa's foremost anti-colonial
leaders.[2][3]

Also known by the nom de guerre Abel Djassi, Cabral led the
nationalist movement of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde Islands and
the ensuing war of independence in Guinea-Bissau. He was
assassinated on 20 January 1973, about eight months before Guinea-
Amílcar Cabral wearing a traditional
Bissau's unilateral declaration of independence. He was deeply skullcap known as a sumbia during
influenced by Marxism, and became an inspiration to revolutionary the 1964 Cassacá Congress, a
socialists and national independence movements worldwide. gathering of PAIGC cadres.
Personal details
Born Amílcar Lopes da
Contents Costa Cabral
12 September
Early years
1924
War for independence Bafatá,
Death Portuguese
Tributes Guinea

In popular culture Died 20 January 1973

Films (aged 48)
Music Conakry, Guinea

Writings Cause of death Assassination

References Political party African Party for

the Independence
Further reading
of Guinea and
External links Cape Verde
People's
Movement for the
Early years Liberation of
Angola
Cabral was born on 12 September 1924 in Bafatá, Guinea-Bissau, to
Cape Verdean mother and father, Juvenal Antònio Lopes da Costa
Cabral and Iva Pinhel Évora, both from Santiago, Cape Verde. His father came from a wealthy land-owning
family. His mother was a shop owner and hotel worker in order to support her family, especially after she
separated from Amílcar's father by 1929. Her family was not well off, so she was unable to pursue higher
education.

Amílcar Cabral was educated at Liceu (Secondary School) Gil Eanes in the town of Mindelo, Cape Verde,
and later at the Instituto Superior de Agronomia, in Lisbon (the capital of Portugal, which was then the
colonial power ruling over Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde). While an agronomy student in Lisbon, he
 founded student movements dedicated to opposing the ruling dictatorship of
Portugal and promoting the cause of independence for the Portuguese colonies in
Africa.

He returned to Africa in the 1950s, and was instrumental in promoting the

independence causes of the then Portuguese colonies. He was the founder (in
1956) of the PAIGC or Partido Africano da Independência da Guiné e Cabo
Verde (Portuguese for African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape
Verde) and one of the founders of Movimento Popular Libertação de Angola
(MPLA) (later in the same year), together with Agostinho Neto, whom he met in
Portugal, and other Angolan nationalists. Cabral was an asset of the
Portrait of Amilcar Czechoslovak State Security (StB), and under the codename "Secretary"
Cabral in 1948, aged provided intelligence information to the StB.[4]
23.

War for independence

From 1963 to his assassination in 1973, Cabral led the PAIGC's
guerrilla movement (in Portuguese Guinea) against the Portuguese
government, which evolved into one of the most successful wars of
independence in modern African history. The goal of the conflict
was to attain independence for both Portuguese Guinea and Cape
Verde. Over the course of the conflict, as the movement captured
territory from the Portuguese, Cabral became the de facto leader of a
large portion of what became Guinea-Bissau.

In preparation for the independence war, Cabral set up training Amílcar Cabral with Nicolae
camps in Ghana with the permission of Kwame Nkrumah[5]. Cabral Ceaușescu.
trained his lieutenants through various techniques, including mock
conversations to provide them with effective communication skills
to aid their efforts to mobilize Guinean tribal chiefs to support the PAIGC. Cabral realized the war effort
could be sustained only if his troops could be fed and taught to live off the land alongside the larger
populace. Being an agronomist, he taught his troops to teach local crop growers better farming techniques,
so that they could increase productivity and be able to feed their own family and tribe, as well as the soldiers
enlisted in the PAIGC's military wing. When not fighting, PAIGC soldiers tilled and plowed the fields
alongside the local population.

Cabral and the PAIGC also set up a trade-and-barter bazaar system that moved around the country and made
staple goods available to the countryside at prices lower than that of colonial store owners. During the war,
Cabral also set up a roving hospital and triage station to give medical care to wounded PAIGC soldiers and
quality-of-life care to the larger populace, relying on medical supplies garnered from the USSR and Sweden.
The bazaars and triage stations were at first stationary, until they came under frequent attack from
Portuguese regime forces.

Death
In 1972, Cabral began to form a People's Assembly in preparation for the independence of Guinea-Bissau,
but disgruntled former PAIGC rival Inocêncio Kani, together with another member of PAIGC, shot and
killed him on 20 January 1973 in Conakry.[6] The possible plan was to arrest Cabral (possibly to judge him
summarily, later), but facing the peaceful resistance of Cabral, they immediately killed him.
According to some theories, Portuguese PIDE agents, whose alleged plan eventually went awry, wanted to
influence Cabral's rivals through agents operating within the PAIGC, in hope of arresting Cabral and placing
him under the custody of Portuguese authorities. Another theory claims that Ahmed Sékou Touré, jealous of
Cabral's greater international prestige, among other motives, orchestrated the conspiracy; both theories
remain unproven and controversial.

After the assassination, about one hundred officers and guerrilla soldiers of the PAIGC, accused of
involvement in the conspiracy that resulted in the murder of Amílcar Cabral and the attempt to seize power
in the movement, were summarily executed. His half-brother, Luís Cabral, became the leader of the Guinea-
Bissau branch of the party and eventually became President of Guinea-Bissau.

Less than a month after the assassination, the United States concluded that then-colonial power Portugal was
not directly involved in his death, according to official documents made public in 2006. Even so, the US
State Department's Information and Investigation Services also concluded that "Lisbon's complicity" in the
assassination of the leader of the struggle for Cape Verde's and Guinea-Bissau's independence "cannot be
ruled out."[7][8]

Later on 25 April 1974, the Carnation Revolution coup was carried out in Portugal, which was followed by a
cease-fire in the various battle fronts and eventually by the independence of all of Portugal's former colonies
in Africa.[8] Cabral was assassinated prior to the independence of the Portuguese colonies in Africa, and
therefore died before he could see his homelands of Cabo Verde and Guinea Bissau gain independence from
Portugal.

Tributes

...one of the most lucid and brilliant leaders in Africa,

Comrade Amílcar Cabral, who instilled in us
tremendous confidence in the future and the success of
his struggle for liberation.

— Fidel Castro, 1966 Tricontinental Conference in

Havana, Cuba[9]
Mural on the wall of the Amílcar
Cabral is considered a "revolutionary theoretician as significant as Cabral Foundation offices in Praia,
Cape Verde.
Frantz Fanon and Che Guevara",[9] one "whose influence
reverberated far beyond the African continent."[10] Amílcar Cabral
International Airport, Cape Verde's principal international airport at
Sal, is named in his honor. There is also a football competition, the Amílcar Cabral Cup, in zone 2, named as
a tribute to him. In addition, the only privately owned university in Guinea-Bissau — Amílcar Cabral
University, in Bissau - is named after him. Jorge Peixinho composed an elegy to Cabral in 1973.

Author António Tomás wrote a biography of Amílcar Cabral, entitled O Fazedor de Utopias: Uma
Biografia de Amílcar Cabral, which offers an extensive overview of Amílcar’s life in narrative form and
features a detailed account of Amílcar’s family history in Portuguese.

Patrick Chabal professor of Lusophone African studies at King's College, London, also wrote a book about
the life and biography of Amílcar Cabral, entitled "Amílcar Cabral: Revolutionary Leadership And People's
War" 1983 and 2003, which tells the story of Amílcar Cabral who, as head of PAIGC, Guinea-Bissau's
nationalist movement, became one of Africa's foremost revolutionary leaders.
President William R. Tolbert (Republic of Liberia) commissioned and built a housing estate on the Old
Road, Sinkor, Monrovia, Liberia, named in honor of Cabral.

There is a block of flats named Amilcar Cabral Court on Porteus Road in west London, situated in the
Paddington Green area.

East Germany issued a postage stamp in his honor in 1978.

He was voted the second greatest leader in the world by a poll conducted by BBC World History Magazine
in March 2020.[11][12]

In popular culture

Films
Cabral's political thought and role in the liberation of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde is
discussed at some length in Chris Marker's film, Sans Soleil (1983). He is also the subject of
the Portuguese documentary Amílcar Cabral, released in 2000.
The documentary film Cabralista,[13] winner of the CVIFF (Cape Verde International Film
Festival) prize for best documentary in 2011, puts Amilcar Cabral's political views and
ideologies in the spotlight.[14]

Music
The Senegalese band Orchestra Baobab included the song Cabral, sung in Cape Verdean
Creole in their 2007 album Made in Dakar.[15]

Writings
Cabral, Amilcar. Resistance and Decolonization. Translated by Dan Wood. Rowman &
Littlefield International, 2016.
Cabral, Amilcar. Return to the Source: Selected Speeches of Amilcar Cabral. Monthly Review
Press, 1973.
Cabral, Amilcar. Unity and Struggle: Speeches and Writings of Amilcar Cabral. Monthly Review
Press, 1979.

References
1. Martin, G. (23 December 2012). African Political Thought (https://books.google.com/books/abo
ut/African_Political_Thought.html?id=rqYEhtONIBgC). Springer. ISBN 9781137062055.
2. Ronald H. Chilcote, Am´lcar Cabral's Revolutionary Theory and Practica: A critical guide,
Boulder & London, Lynne Rienner, 1991
3. Lopes, Rui; Barros, Víctor (19 December 2019). "Amílcar Cabral and the Liberation of Guinea-
Bissau and Cape Verde: International, Transnational, and Global Dimensions". The
International History Review. 0: 1–8. doi:10.1080/07075332.2019.1703118 (https://doi.org/10.1
080%2F07075332.2019.1703118). ISSN 0707-5332 (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/0707-533
2).
4. Philip Muehlenbeck, Czechoslovakia in Africa, 1945-1968 (New York: Palgrave-Macmillan,
2016), 106.
 5. Halter, Marilyn; Johnson, Violet Showers (29 August 2014). African & American: West Africans
in Post-Civil Rights America (https://books.google.co.ke/books?id=WdQVCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA1
81&lpg=PA181&dq=Cabral+set+up+training+camps+in+Ghana+with+the+permission+of+Kwa
me+Nkrumah&source=bl&ots=yoolPiiRuL&sig=ACfU3U03ayle1REKoA_Be8HnYinW0GX3wQ
&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiDlLjVqtnpAhWqzIUKHaakAe4Q6AEwA3oECAkQAQ#v=onepag
e&q=Cabral%20set%20up%20training%20camps%20in%20Ghana%20with%20the%20permis
sion%20of%20Kwame%20Nkrumah&f=false). NYU Press. ISBN 978-0-8147-6058-1.
6. A “NIGHT OF LONG KNIVES” IN CONAKRY (http://www.codesria.org/spip.php?article576)
7. https://2001-2009.state.gov/documents/organization/67534.pdf
8. "US declassifies documents on freedom fighter Amílcar Cabral" (http://www.afrol.com/articles/1
9767). Afrol News / A Semana. 7 June 2006. Retrieved 29 December 2019.
9. "Africa: A Continent Drenched in the Blood of Revolutionary Heroes" (https://www.theguardian.
com/global-development/poverty-matters/2011/jan/17/lumumba-50th-anniversary-african-leade
rs-assassinations) Victoria Brittain, The Guardian, January 17, 2011.
10. Opening text of Cabralista, 2011 documentary film by Valerio Lopes
11. DelhiMarch 5, India Today Web Desk New; March 5, 2020UPDATED:; Ist, 2020 18:50.
"Maharaja Ranjit Singh voted greatest leader of all times" (https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/
maharaja-ranjit-singh-voted-greatest-leader-of-all-times-1652824-2020-03-05). India Today.
Retrieved 5 March 2020.
12. "Who is the greatest leader in world history?" (https://www.historyextra.com/magazine/who-gre
atest-leader-world-history/). HistoryExtra. Retrieved 5 March 2020.
13. "Cabralista – Just another Afryk site" (https://cabralista.com/). cabralista.com. Retrieved
11 July 2020.
14. "CVIFF 2018" (http://www.cviff.org/). www.cviff.org. Retrieved 11 July 2020.
15. Mitter, Siddhartha. "Orchestra Baobab: Made in Dakar" (https://www.pastemagazine.com/articl
es/2008/08/orchestra-baobab-made-in-dakar.html). www.pastemagazine.com. Retrieved
29 March 2019. "... the lyrics of Made in Dakar are sung in Wolof, French and Portuguese
Creole, and the themes include an homage to Amilcar Cabral, a fondly remembered Pan-
African revolutionary"

Further reading
Abdel Malek, Karine, "Le processus d'accès à l'indépendance de la Guinée-Bissau.", In :
Bulletin de l'Association des Anciens Elèves de l'Institut National de Langues et de Cultures
Orientales, N°1, Avril 1998. - pp. 53–60
Bienen, Henry (1977). "State and Revolution: The Work of Amilcar Cabral". Journal of Modern
African Studies. 15 (4): 555–568. doi:10.1017/S0022278X00002226 (https://doi.org/10.1017%
2FS0022278X00002226).
Chabal, Patrick. Amilcar Cabral: Revolutionary Leadership and People's War. New York and
Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1983. ISBN 0-521-24944-9.
Chailand, Gérard. Armed Struggle in Africa: With the Guerrillas in "Portuguese" Guinea. New
York: Monthly Review Press, 1969. ISBN 0-85345-106-0.
Chilcote, Ronald H. (1968). "The Political Thought of Amílcar Cabral". Journal of Modern
African Studies. 6 (3): 373–388. doi:10.1017/S0022278X0001747X (https://doi.org/10.1017%2
FS0022278X0001747X). JSTOR 159305 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/159305).
Dhada, Mustafah. Warriors at Work. Niwot, Colorado, USA: Colorado University Press, 1993.
Gleijeses, Piero (1997). "The First Ambassadors: Cuba's Contribution to Guinea-Bissau's War
of Independence". Journal of Latin American Studies. 29 (1): 45–88.
doi:10.1017/s0022216x96004646 (https://doi.org/10.1017%2Fs0022216x96004646).
JSTOR 158071 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/158071).
 McCollester, Charles. "The Political Thought of Amilcar Cabral." Monthly Review, 24: 10–21
(March 1973).
Mendy, Peter Karibe. Amílcar Cabral: A Nationalist and Pan-Africanist Revolutionary. Athens,
OH: Ohio University Press, 2019. ISBN 978-0821423721
Sigal, Brad. Amilcar Cabral and the Revolution in Guinea-Bissau (https://web.archive.org/web/
20031007231007/http://www.ccny.cuny.edu/humanities/jaffee/historian/1729/sigal/index.html)
City College of New York
Tomás, António. O Fazedor De Utopias: Uma Biografia De Amílcar Cabral. Lisboa: Tinta-da-
china, 2008. Print.

External links
"The Weapon of Theory", a speech at the Tricontinental Conference in Havana, 1966 (http://w
ww.africanholocaust.net/news_ah/weaponoftheory.html)
Encyclopædia Britannica Amilcar Cabral (http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9018461/Amilca
r-Cabral)
"National Liberation and Culture", a speech at Syracuse University in 1970 (http://historyisawe
apon.com/defcon1/cabralnlac.html)
The African Activist Archive Project (http://africanactivist.msu.edu/) website has documents,
posters, buttons, and photographs related to the struggle for independence in Guinea-Bissau
and support for that struggle by U.S. organizations. The website includes photographs of
Cabral.
Works at Marxists.org (https://www.marxists.org/subject/africa/cabral/)
"The Revolution in Guinea-Bissau and the Heritage of Amilcar Cabral" (http://ismpressbooks.c
om/africa-in-struggle/guinea-bissau.pdf) from Africa in Struggle (http://ismpressbooks.com/afric
a-in-struggle/), by Daniel Fogel
Review of Amilcar Cabral's Unity & Struggle (https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/writers/news
inger/1981/xx/africa.html) by John Newsinger in International Socialism, 12 (1981).

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