Amílcar Cabral | |
|---|---|
 Cabral wearing a traditional skullcap known as a sumbia during the 1964 Cassacá Congress, a gathering ofPAIGC cadres. | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Amílcar Lopes Cabral (1924-09-12)12 September 1924 |
| Died | 20 January 1973(1973-01-20) (aged 48) |
| Manner of death | Assassination by gunshot |
| Resting place | Amílcar Cabral's Mausoleum |
| Party | African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde; People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola; All-African People's Revolutionary Party |
Amílcar Lopes Cabral (Portuguese:[ɐˈmilkaɾˈlɔpɨʃkɐˈbɾal];(1924-09-12)12 September 1924 –(1973-01-20)20 January 1973) was aBissau-Guinean andCape Verdeanagricultural engineer, political organizer, diplomat, and half-brother ofLuís Cabral who was the 1st President of Guinea-Bissau. He was widely remembered as one of Africa's foremostanti-colonial leaders.[1][2] He was also apan-Africanist and intellectual nationalist revolutionary poet.[3]
Also known by thenom de guerreAbel Djassi, he led the nationalist movement ofGuinea-Bissau and theCape Verde Islands and the ensuing war of independence in Guinea-Bissau.
Cabral was shot dead on 20 January 1973, about eight months before Guinea-Bissau's unilateral declaration of independence. He was deeply influenced byMarxism, becoming an inspiration to revolutionary socialists and national independence movements worldwide.
Amílcar Lopes Cabral was born on 12 September 1924. He was born in the town ofBafatá,Portuguese Guinea (located in modern-day Guinea-Bissau) to Cape Verdean parents, Juvenal António Lopes da Costa Cabral and Iva Pinhel Évora, both hailing fromSantiago. His father came from a wealthy land-owning family.[4] His mother was a shop owner and hotel worker who worked hard to support her family, especially after she separated from Amílcar's father by 1929. Her family was not well off, and sources conflict as to wherever she only completed primary education, or no education at all.[5]
Amílcar Cabral was educated atLiceu Secondary School Gil Eanes in the town of Mindelo, Cape Verde. He was later educated at theInstituto Superior de Agronomia inLisbon, Portugal. While anagronomy student in Lisbon, he founded theCentro do Estudos Africanos(Centre for African Studies). Under theEstado Novo labour unions and associations were banned but sports or cultural organizations were permitted. The Centre used cultural activities, and the presence of non-political members, as cover for dissident political activity.[6] He also took part in student movements dedicated to opposing the rulingdictatorship of Portugal and promoting the cause of independence for the Portuguese colonies in Africa.[citation needed]
While back in Africa, starting in 1953, he conducted an agricultural census in Portuguese Guinea during which he traveled more than 60,000 kilometers. This allowed him to “become intimately familiar with the people and land” of Portuguese Guinea, understanding that undoubtedly was helpful in the guerrilla war he went on to fight.[7] He returned to Africa in the 1950s from Portugal and was instrumental in promoting the independence causes of the then Portuguese colonies. In 1956, he was the founder of thePAIGC orPartido Africano da Independência da Guiné e Cabo Verde (African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde). He was also one of the founding members ofMovimento Popular Libertação de Angola (MPLA) later in the same year, together withAgostinho Neto, whom he met in Portugal, and other Angolan nationalists. Cabral was an asset of theCzechoslovak State Security (StB), and under the codename "Secretary" provided intelligence information to the StB.[8]
From 1963 to his assassination in 1973, Cabral led the PAIGC'sguerrilla movement inPortuguese Guinea against the Portuguese government,[9] 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 andCape Verde. Over the course of the conflict, as the movement captured territory from the Portuguese, Cabral became thede facto leader of a large portion of what becameGuinea-Bissau.[10][citation needed]
In preparation for the independence war, Cabral set up training camps inGhana with the permission ofKwame Nkrumah.[11] Cabral trained his lieutenants through various techniques, including mock conversations to provide them with effective communication skills to aid their efforts in mobilizing Guinean traditional leaders to support the PAIGC. Cabral realized that the war effort could only be sustained if his troops could be fed and taught to live off the land, alongside the larger populace. Being an agronomist, he trained his troops to teach local farmers better farming techniques. This was to ensure that they could increase productivity and be able to feed their own family and community, as well as the soldiers enlisted in the PAIGC's military wing. When not fighting, PAIGC soldiers tilled and ploughed the fields alongside the local population.[citation needed]
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 theUSSR andSweden. The bazaars and triage stations were at first stationary, until they came under frequent attack from Portuguese regime forces.[citation needed]
In 1972, Cabral began to form a People's Assembly in preparation for the independence of Guinea-Bissau. On January 20, 1973 after leaving the reception at thePolish embassy inConakry he was going to his home with his wife, Maria Helena Rodriguez.[12] On anroadblock en route to his house Cabral got out of his car and appeared to recognize the individuals at the roadblock.[12] Disgruntled former PAIGC rival Inocêncio Kani, together with another member of PAIGC, shot Cabral with amachine-gun sounded in the night and tore a hole in his gut.[12]
According to some theories, PortuguesePIDE agents,[10] 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 thatAhmed Sékou Touré, jealous of Cabral's greater international prestige, among other motives, orchestrated the conspiracy;[13][14] 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, theUnited States concluded that then-colonial powerPortugal was not directly involved in his death, according to official documents made public in 2006. Even so, theUS State Department's Information and Investigation Services also concluded that "Lisbon's complicity" in the assassination of the leader of the struggle forCape Verde's and Guinea-Bissau's independence "cannot be ruled out."[15][16]
Later on 25 April 1974, theCarnation 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.[16] Cabral was assassinated prior to the independence of the Portuguese colonies in Africa and therefore died before he could see his homelands of Cape Verde and Guinea Bissau gain independence from Portugal.
...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.
Cabral is considered a "revolutionary theoretician as significant asFrantz Fanon andChe Guevara",[17] one "whose influence reverberated far beyond the African continent."[18]Amílcar Cabral International Airport, Cape Verde's principal international airport atSal, is named in his honor. There is also a football competition, theAmílcar 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 anelegy to Cabral in 1973.
Author António Tomás wrote a biography of Amílcar Cabral, entitledO Fazedor de Utopias: Uma Biografia de Amílcar Cabral, which offers an extensive overview of Amílcar's life in narrative form. It features a detailed account of Amílcar's family history in Portuguese. A large number of photographs were taken of him, and the work of the independence movement in Guinea-Bissau, by the Italian photographerBruna Polimeni. These have been exhibited in Cape Verde, Portugal and Italy.[19]
Patrick Chabal, professor of Lusophone African studies atKing's College, London, also wrote a book about the life and biography of Amílcar Cabral, entitledAmílcar Cabral: Revolutionary Leadership And People's War (1983 and 2003). The book tells the story of Cabral who, as head of PAIGC, Guinea-Bissau's nationalist movement, became one of Africa's foremost revolutionary leaders.
PresidentWilliam 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 Amílcar Cabral Court on Porteus Road in westLondon, situated in thePaddington Green area.
Angolan singer and activistDavid Zé composed 'Quem Matou Cabral' in honor of Amílcar Cabral and performed it during the independence celebrations ofMozambique,São Tomé and Príncipe, andGuinea-Bissau.
East Germany issued a postage stamp in his honor in 1978.
A square inVeshnyaki District ofMoscow was named "Amílcar Cabral Square" (Russian: «Площадь Амилкара Кабрала» "Ploschad Amilcara Cabrala") since 16 January 1974.
He was voted the second greatest leader in the world in a poll conducted by BBC World History Magazine in March 2020.[20][21]
A public library inBologna was named "Amílcar Cabral Library" since 1974.[22]
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link){{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)... 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
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