AMÍLCAR CABRAL: COLONIAL PORTUGAL’S NIGHTMARE

Fifty-two years ago today, on 20 January 1973, Amílcar Cabral was shot dead, about eight months before Guinea-Bissau's unilateral declaration of independence. The great revolutionary pan-Africanist Cabral became an icon and a hero of the liberation struggle as leader of the African Party for the Independence of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde. The PAIGC (for short) fought an armed struggle against Portuguese colonialism, organising rural farmers in Guinea-Bissau and training them both ideologically and militarily for the fight.

In addition to this, Cabral was also a founding member of The People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), having met Angolan militants such as Agostinho Neto while studying in Portugal. Cabral was educated as an agricultural engineer in Lisbon, but he decided to give up a comfortable career in order to dedicate his life to liberating his people. This perhaps inspired his theory of 'class suicide,' referring to the act of sacrificing one's higher-class status to struggle alongside the most oppressed sectors of society.

Cabral was not just a strategic warrior; he was also a brilliant theorist who developed a framework to understand the importance of culture in the struggle for national liberation. Today, oppressed and colonised people worldwide study Cabral's speeches to learn from his wisdom.

If you've read him, let us know in the comments what inspired you most.

Sources:

https://www.blackpast.org/global-african-history/cabral-amilcar-lopes-1924-1973/

https://www.buala.org/en/to-read/amilcar-cabral-and-decolonization-today