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Books
by
Amílcar
Cabral
Return to the source; selected speeches 1974 /
Revolution in Guinea; selected texts,
1970 /
Unity and
struggle : speeches and writings, 1979
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Fobanjong, John, and Thomas K. Ranuga.
The Life, Thought, and Legacy of Cape Verde's Freedom Fighter
Amilcar Cabral (1924-1973): Essays on His Liberation Philosophy.
2006.
McCulloch, Jock.
In the Twilight of Revolution: The Political Theory of
Amilcar Cabral. 1983.
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A
Bio-Chronology
1924
(September
12):
Amílcar Cabral is born in Bafatá, Guinea. – His
father is Juvenal Cabral, a Cape Verdean elementary school
teacher. Juvenal is a crusader who works to improve the
conditions of farmers and civil servants.
"He was born with
politics in his head. He was the son of a politician. Juvenal
used to talk to him about averything." These words are
pronounced in 1976, a year before Amílcar’s death, by his
mother, Mrs. Iva Pinhel Évora, wife of Juvenal Lopes
Cabral.
Memórias e Reflexões
(Memories and Reflections), published in 1947 by Amílcar's
father, is a singular book in which the author recollects his
life, discusses the problems of his times and the environment in
which he lived, describes facts and events that clarify
historical developments and shed light on the social origins of
the future leader of the PAIGC.
Juvenal is born in Cape Verde
in 1889. One of his grandparents is an important landowner. But
his fortune doesn’t last long in view of the natural disasters
that afflict the islands. His paternal grandfather is a cultured
man, also of some means, who names the child Juvenal, after the
Latin poet of the same name. Juvenal doesn’t get to know his
father, who meets a tragic death when the boy is a mere two
months old.
At first, the child remains
under the care of his grandfather, but later goes to live with
his godmother, Simoa Borges, who will pay for his education.
First, he studies at the Viseu Seminary, in Portugal. Juvenal is
destined for the priesthood. But a prolonged drought at the turn
of the century makes it financially impossible to keep him
studying there. So, he returns to Cape Verde and, in 1906, we
find him studying at the St. Nicolau Seminary.
But at the age of 18 he
abandons his studies and leaves for Guinea in search of a job.
First, he manages to become a civil servant in Bolama and,
later, begins his activities as a teacher, even though he has no
diploma. The family is living in Bafatá when Amílcar Cabral is
born on September 12, 1924. The birth certificate, however,
states that the newborn’s name is Hamílcar, his father’s
way of paying homage to the famous Carthaginian Hamílcar Barca.
1932:
Moves to Cabo Verde. –
Simoa, the godmother, dies in
1932 and leaves Juvenal a few tracts of land in Cape Verde. He,
his wife Iva and Amílcar return to the islands, where they
remain throughout the difficult years of World War II. Under
Salazar’s regime, the cost of living soars and goods and
supplies become scarce.
In 1940, a particularly severe
drought causes widespread starvation, resulting in the death of
more than 20,000 Cape Verdeans. Then, between 1942 and 1948, a
new calamity ravages the islands, killing 30,000 more. (This
terrible period of successive calamities in Cape Verde is
masterly described by Manuel Ferreira in his novel Hora di
Bai).
This is the atmosphere in
which Amílcar Cabral spends his early childhood and adolescent
years. If, on one hand, his father gives the example of public
conscience and civic engagement, within the limits permitted by
Salazar’s fascism, his mother, Iva Évora, on the other, is
for young Amílcar an example of love and affection, of family
protection and of dedication to her work. Iva labors all day on
a sewing machine to help the family overcome, as well as
possible, the many crises they have to face. Later in addition
to her activities as a seamstress, she gets a job a in a
fish-packing factory. Amílcar’s mother and her capacity for
self-sacrifice will serve as an example which he will pass to
the young militants of the PAIGC.
Amilcar
in 1941 attended high school in Mendelo.
In high school, Amílcar is a brilliant student and graduates
with outstanding grades, 17 out of a possible 18 point
total.
1943:
Finishes secondary schooling in Mindelo, on the island of
São Vicente. – By now, Amílcar has an assumed name. He is
Larbac (Larbac is Cabral spelled backwards). That’s how he
signs his love poems: Quando Cupido acerta no alvo (When Cupid
Hits the Bull’s-eye), Devaneios (Daydreams), Arte de
Minerva (Minerva’s Art), among others. The themes indicate
classical influences. His inspiration comes from the poets he
studies in school: Gonçalves Crespo, Guerra Junqueiro, Casimiro
de Abreu.
Amílcar’s
lyricism reveals a romantic sensitivity which can be seen in his
prose writings, his short stories, annotations and commentaries.
In these writings we can already detect a strong awareness
of what is happening and a desire to participate in the life of
his island world. A while later, in Lisbon, these feelings will
become even stronger.
1944:
Obtains a job at the National Printing Office, in Praia, the
capital of Cape Verde, on São Tiago Island. –
1945:
Is awarded a scholarship and begins his studies at the
Agronomy Institute, in Lisbon. – Cabral’s first wife, Maria
Helena de Athayde Vilhena Rodrigues, was his classmate at the
Agronomy Institute. This is how she describes her first meeting
with her future husband, with whom she would have two children,
Iva Maria and Ana Luísa.
The
description was written by Mário de Andrade:
"I met Amílcar during our freshman year at the Agronomy
Institute, in 1945. School had begun in November and he arrived
in December. . . . I didn’t belong to his group but I remember
very well seeing him among the other students. He stood out,
since he was the only negro in the group. . . .
Amílcar
had not taken the college entrance examination. . . . Everybody
talked about him . . . they praised his intelligence and, on top
of that, he was very pleasant and easygoing. As far as his
political activities were concerned, I remember that my fellow
students were gathering signatures in support of democratic
movements. Amílcar was actively engaged in these antifascist
student organizations. Whenever there was a general meeting, he
acted as moderator because he expressed himself so well. . . .
In
the beginning of our third year, in October, 1948, we were in
the same group, which was composed of the last twenty-five
students who had passed the examinations."
Amílcar is remembered by his
classmates and friends as a person of contagious energy, a great
sense of humor, and an enormous capacity for making friends. He
is charming and women are easily attracted to him.
"He was the best dressed and groomed of all of us,"
recalls his friend, the journalist Carlos Veiga
Pereira.
"My brother could make
friends anywhere," says Luís Cabral, Guinea-Bissau’s
first president. In an interview to the newspaper Diário
Popular, he revealed that "...It was because of
Amílcar’s charm that the Soviets gave us the missiles to
control the Portuguese Air Force. The Italian tycoon Perelli was
his friend and gave us the officer uniforms we used. It was all
because of friendship and affection."
Even having to attend to his
studies, his political activities and his romantic affairs, he
still found time to practice his favorite sport:
soccer. And, according to the sports columnists, he
could have made a career of it, if he had wanted to. His
performance with the institute’s football team was so
impressive that he was invited to play for Benfica, one of the
top teams in Portugal. But Amílcar didn’t accept the offer
and preferred to stick with the informal games at
school.
He felt an irresistible
calling during his college years, a feeling that affected other
Negro students as well: it was necessary to return to Africa.
Not only because of his family, which he loved so deeply, but
because "millions of people need my contribution in the
hard struggle against nature and against man, himself. . . .
There, in Africa, in spite of the beautiful and modern cities on
the coast, there are still thousands of human beings who live in
the utmost darkness."
In 1949, he wrote: "I
live life intensely and from life I have extracted experiences
that have given me a direction, a road that I must follow,
whatever the personal losses that I might come to suffer. That
is my reason for living." He was in in Lisbon,
at the Agronomy Institute, in the Casa dos Estudantes do
Império and the books opened up horizons for the understanding
of the world of his times: Anthologie de la nouvelle poésie
négre et malgache (Anthology of the New Black and Malagasy
Poetry), edited by Léopold Sédar Senghor. This book convinced
him that "the Negro is awakening everywhere in the
world."
Cabral theorized on the
condition of the Cape Verdean man, the result of the
miscegenation of the archipelago’s first inhabitants, black
and white. He knows that the number of mestiços (people of
mixed races) was already six times that of the whites and three
times that of the Negroes. From a psychological point of view
there is a "Cape Verdean spirit," a cape-verdeanness.
This profession of faith must be brought into harmony with his
militancy.
During his fifth year at
school, Amílcar returns to the archipelago for a summer
vacation. He wanted to teach and pass along to his fellow Cape
Verdeans all the knowledge at his disposal, whether it be in his
special field of studies, soil erosion, or in general culture.
He delivered several lectures on the Radio Clube de Cabo Verde,
in the city of Praia, covering the soil characteristics of the
islands.
He recognized that, despite
the difficulties, the economy of Cape Verde was based on
agriculture. As such, it was essential that the man in the
street be elucidated, be well-informed, be made aware. Amílcar
discussed the problems of the elite in Cape Verdean society.
There was a need for the creation of an intellectual vanguard
that will give the anonymous Cape Verdean citizen all the
information about his traditional problems. As he said:
"The members of the organization must bring light to those
who live in ignorance."
Such information must travel
beyond the borders of Cape Verde and become global in nature so
as to be available anywhere in the world. This was Amílcar’s
task as a militant: to make Cape Verdeans aware. But
the Portuguese authorities were quick to forbid his access to
the radio waves. In the same fashion, they forbade him to give a
night course at the Central School, in Praia.
"Make Cape Verdeans aware
of Cape Verde," was a slogan that also reflected what was
happening in Angola, where a group of young intellectuals had
gathered around the poet Viriato da Cruz and has adopted the
motto: "Let’s discover Angola." Back in
Lisbon, Amílcar made connections that put him in close contact
with other students from the Portuguese colonies. This was a
group of young people, members of the urban African lower
middle-class, who were conscious of the rebellious feelings
against colonialism and who had the advantage of being
well-educated and cultured.
They were active in the
Portuguese democratic youth movement known as MUD Juvenil, the
Movement for Peace. As Amílcar Cabral put it, they have an
ideal that distinguishes them from the Europeans - it’s
the reafricanization of the spirits.
This search for an identity
brought about the creation of the Center for African Studies at
the home of the Espírito Santo family (whose most important
member was Alda Espírito Santo, a native of S. Tomé). In spite
of the frequent interference of the secret police (PIDE), some
of the most important questions affecting Africa were discussed
there. Amílcar’s participation in these debates had a
decisive influence.
1950:
Graduates from the institute and starts working at the
Agronomy Center, in Santarém. – After
graduating from the institute in 1950, Amílcar goes through a
period of apprenticeship at the Agronomy Center, in Santarém.
Shortly thereafter, Juvenal Cabral dies.
1952:
Returns to Bissau under contract with the Agricultural
and Forestry Services of Portuguese Guinea. – After
graduating from agronomy school he used his training to great
effect by getting to know every inch of his beloved
Guinea-Bissau, making intensive and detailed reconnaisances of
all of the places, peoples and customs of the nation.
A 28-year-old agricultural
engineer, Cabral's most important goal however was to raise the
awareness of the Guinean common masses. As he said is a
memorandum to the members of the organization, during the
struggle for liberation, in 1969:
"I didn’t come to
Guinea by mere chance. My return to my native land was not
occasioned by any material need. Everything was carefully
planned, step by step. I had great possibilities of working in
other Portuguese colonies and even in Portugal itself. I left a
good job as a researcher at the Agronomy Center to take a job as
a second class engineer in Guinea. . . .
This was done following a
plan, an objective, based on the idea of doing something, of
contributing to the betterment of the people, to fight against
the Portuguese. That’s what I have done since the day I
arrived in Guinea."
1955:
The Governor demands that he leave the colony;
Cabral goes to work in Angola;
he joins the Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA).
–
In the beginning, Amílcar
tried to act in strict observance of the law. He drafted the
by-laws of a club dedicated to sports and cultural activities
open to all Guineans. The Portuguese authorities do not permit
it to function because the signers of the document do not have a
government issued identity card.
In 1955, Governor Melo e Alvim
forces Cabral to leave Guinea, although he permits him to return
once a year for family reasons. That very same year,
a group of Asian and African countries hold a conference at
Bandung, Indonesia, the Bandung Conference, which gives birth to
the movement of nonaligned countries in world politics. That
year also marks the end of the first Vietnamese war of
independence and the beginning of open warfare by the National
Liberation Front (FLN) of Algeria.
Amílcar Cabral has been
transferred to Angola and is working in Cassequel, as an
engineer...and coming into direct contact with the founders of
the MPLA (Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola), of
which he becomes a member.
1956-1959:
The African Party for the Independence of Cape Verde and
Guinea (PAIGC) is founded in Bissau. –
In November, 1957, he attends
a meeting in Paris called to discuss and plan the struggle
against Portuguese colonialism; he makes contact with
anticolonialists in Lisbon; goes to Accra, capital of Ghana, for
a Pan-African meeting and then heads for Luanda when the
Pidjiguiti massacre occurs.
During one of his visits to
Bissau, on September 19, 1959, a new party comes into existence
founded by Amílcar Cabral, Aristides Pereira, Luís Cabral,
Júlio de Almeira, Fernando Fortes and Elisée Turpin. Its name:
African Party for the Independence and Union of Guinea and Cape
Verde (known by its Portuguese acronym PAIGC). It is, obviously,
an underground organization that will acquire legal status only
four years later when it establishes a foreign delegation in
Conakry.
1960:
The PAIGC establishes a delegation in Conakry, capital of
the Republic of Guinea; China gives support to the training of
members of the PAIGC. –
In January of 1960, he attends the
Second Conference of African Peoples, in Tunis, and goes to
Conakry in May. That same year, he goes to an international
conference in London where, for the first time, he denounces
Portuguese colonialism. But here he leaves it quite clear, as he
did throughout the years of struggle, that he is not against the
Portuguese people. His battle is exclusively against the
colonial system.
1961:
Morocco welcomes members of the PAIGC. –
Between
1960 and 1962, the PAIGC operates out of the Republic of Guinea.
Its activities are developed along three courses of action: to
prepare militants and party workers to spread the party line in
the interior of Guinea; to obtain the support of neighboring
countries (a very complicated affair because the Republic of
Guinea intended to use Amílcar Cabral’s Guinean supporters to
carry out its own political agenda and because Senegal showed
its hostility for six years) and, finally, to marshal
international support.
1963:
Open warfare breaks out on January
23, with an attack on the military installations at Tite, in
southern Guinea-Bissau; the PAIGC sets up a northern battlefront
in July. –
Seventeen years after Juvenal Cabral’s son
arrived in Lisbon to attend college war breaks out against the
Portuguese Establishment.
Cabral continued his botanical
and agricultural studies that force him to travel frequently
between Portugal, Angola and Guinea. The PAIGC’s leader always
made himself available for negotiations with the Portuguese
government, but such openness was never accepted by the
dictatorship regime.
1970:
Pope Paul VI grants an audience on July
1 to Amílcar Cabral, Agostinho Neto and Marcelino dos
Santos.
On November 22,
the Governor of Guinea-Bissau decides to establish a
“commando” operation to which he gives the name of
“Mar Verde” (Green Sea), whose goal is to capture or
eliminate the leaders of the PAIGC
located in Conakry:
It fails! –
1973:
Amílcar Cabral is assassinated in Conakry on January
20. He was assassinated at the hands of
Portuguese agents.
The setting was a one-story
house, painted white, standing alone at the center of a wide
courtyard; a huge mango tree grows in front of the house. There
is a shed used as a garage. The scene is in Conakry, capital of
the Republic of Guinea, whose president is Séku Turé. It was 3
o’clock in the morning, January 20, 1973.
A car, a VW, was parked under
the shed. Two spotlights focus on the car occupants – Amílcar
Cabral and his second wife, Ana Maria. Out of the darkness a
stern voice ordered Amílcar tied up. He struggled and refused
to be subdued. The leader of the raid pressed the trigger and
hit Amílcar in the region of the liver. Amílcar, crouching on
the ground, asked that they talk. The reply was a burst of
machine gun fire aimed at the head of the founder of the PAIGC.
Death was immediate.
The assassins were Inocêncio
Kani, the first to shoot, a guerrilla war veteran and former
PAIGC navy commander; the others were members of the party, all
Guineans.
In other points of the city
where the some 500 PAIGC militants were living, the remaining
leaders of the party stationed in Conakry were arrested by
groups who participated in the uprising. Among those arrested
were Aristides Pereira, Vasco Cabral, José Araújo.
They were all taken to a
scouting boat that headed for Bissau. On January 21, Séku Turé
received the leaders of the party uprising at the presidential
palace. Everything indicated that he supported Cabral’s
assassins. But, surprisingly, the President of Guinea-Conakry
gave them no protection.
He ordered that the
conspirators be arrested, instructed the Army to temporarily
hold all members of the PAIGC and intercepted the boat that was
taking the imprisoned leaders to Bissau. Séku Turé then set up
an international commission to investigate all of the events.
Gradually, the old leaders of the PAIGC weree granted their
freedom. The party’s Superior Council for Liberation decided
to go further in the investigation.
Cabral's assassination brought
about no benefits for the Portuguese Army; the guerrillas
intensified their activities. March 1973, the rebels had a new
weapon at their disposal – the ground-to-air missile Stella
– which effectively cancelled out the air supremacy of the
Portuguese armed forces. In May of that year, the Governor of
Guinea-Bissau, General António Spínola, advised Joaquim da
Silva Cunha, Minister of National Defense, that "we are
getting closer and closer to the possibility of a military
collapse." Then, on September 24, in the forests of Madina
do Boé, the PAIGC unilaterally declared the independence of
Guinea-Bissau.
In May, 1974, Leopold Senghor,
President of Senegal, did not hesitate in declaring to Colonel
Carlos Fabião and to Ambassador Nunes Barata that Séku Turé
had been the instigator of Amílcar Cabral’s murder.)
Reports at the time indicate
that Amílcar Cabral was conscious of the fact that he might be
betrayed by his comrades in the liberation effort. He had
commented several times before that: "...If anybody is
going to hurt me, it will be someone who is among us. Nobody
else can destroy the PAIGC, except ourselves."
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updated 2 October 2007 |
