since most people are not scholars, the findings of scholarship have remained confined to a small group of specialists and general readers. One of Africa’s most original thinkers and politically influential figures, Cabral is little known in the Anglophone world. The notable contributions of this creatively pensive and charismatic African leader have yet to be found in high school or college textbooks. In the context of a rapidly globalizing and increasingly unequal world, his insistence that national liberation should not end with “flag independence” but should also empower people to consistently improve their material wellbeing has significance far beyond Africa. The enormous challenges he faced, and the successful approaches and strategies he deployed to find solutions, provide great opportunities to learn important lessons pertinent to the daily struggles of millions of people in the world toiling under the heavy weight of poverty, exploitation, and oppression. A visionary and inspirational leader, his ideas still resonate today. Yet, his life, charismatic leadership qualities, and accomplishments are largely unknown outside the Lusophone world. This short biography is an attempt to address this deficit.
It is singularly appropriate that a book on the life of Amílcar Cabral narrated against the background of his times should be included in the Ohio Short Histories of Africa series. The biographical profile sketched out in the pages that follow will provide some insight into the intensively lived life of a remarkable self-styled “simple African” who became a leading founding father of two independent African nations.
I remain enormously grateful to the Ohio University Press series editor Gillian Berchowitz for providing me the great opportunity to write this book as a contribution. I am also greatly thankful to Gillian for her infinite patience and professional guidance and to Nancy Basmajian, managing editor, for supervising the skillful editing of the manuscript. Further thanks are due to the two anonymous reviewers of the manuscript for their insightful critical comments. This book is based on my own studies on Amílcar Cabral and the colonial and postcolonial periods in Guinea-Bissau, but I am very much indebted to the corpus of research and publications on this important historical figure. I owe a special debt of gratitude to the veterans of the armed liberation struggle in Guinea-Bissau who generously granted me interviews to share their valuable intimate knowledge and memories of Cabral; in particular, I am very grateful to Manuel “Manecas” dos Santos, Lúcio Soares, Samba Lamine Mané, Carmen Pereira (who died on June 4, 2016, six months after granting me an interview), Teodora Inácia Gomes, Douda Bangura, and Florentino “Flora” Gomes. I am also particularly grateful to Iva Cabral for her prompt response to my request for images of her father, which she generously provided, with kind identification of the photographers and the copyright holders. I remain beholden to my family, including my extended kindred in Guinea-Bissau, for their unfailing support. Ultimately, I take full responsibility for errors of fact and interpretation as well as translation of quoted Portuguese texts.
This book is dedicated to the young generation of committed nationalist and Pan-Africanist Cabralistas engaged in life-threatening struggles for social and economic justice, peace, prosperity, and the rights-based unification of the diverse peoples of Africa.
Abbreviations and Acronyms
| ANP | Assembleia Nacional Popular (People’s National Assembly) |
| CEA | Centro de Estudos Africanos (Center for African Studies) |
| CEI | Casa dos Estudantes do Império (House of Students of the Empire) |
| CEL | Conselho Executívo da Luta (Executive Council of the Struggle) |
| CFAO | Compagnie Française de l’Afrique Occidentale (French West Africa Company) |
| CLSTP | Comité de Libertação de São Tomé e Príncipe (Committee for the Liberation of São Tomé and Príncipe) |
| CONCP | Conferência das Organizações Nacionalistas das Colónias Portuguesas (Conference of the Nationalist Organizations of the Portuguese Colonies) |
| CSL | Conselho Superior da Luta (Higher Council of the Struggle) |
| CUF | Companhia União Fabril (Union Manufacturing Company) |
| DGS | Direção-Geral de Segurança (Directorate-General of Security) |
| FAP | Força Aérea Portuguesa (Portuguese Air Force) |
| FARP | Forças Armadas Revolucionárias do Povo (People’s Revolutionary Armed Forces) |
| FLING | Frente de Luta pela Independência Nacional da Guiné (Front for Struggle for the National Independence of Guinea) |
| FLN | Front de Libération Nationale (National Liberation Front) |
| FLNG | Front de Libération Nationale de la Guinée (Guinean National Liberation Front) |
| FNLA | Frente Nacional de Libertação de Angola (National Front for the Liberation of Angola) |
| FRAIN | Frente Revolucionária Africana para a Independência Nacional das Colónias Portuguesas (African Revolutionary Front for the National Independence of the Portuguese Colonies) |
| FRELIMO | Frente de Libertação de Moçambique (Liberation Front of Mozambique) |
| FUL | Front Uni de Libération [de la Guinée et du Cap Vert] (United Liberation Front [of Guinea and Cabo Verde]) |
| ISA | Instituto Superior de Agronomia (Higher Institute of Agronomy) |
| MAC | Movimento Anti-Colonialista (Anticolonialist Movement) |
| MDCP | Movimento Democrático das Colónias Portuguesas (Democratic Movement of the Portuguese Colonies) |
| MFA | Movimento das Forças Armadas (Armed Forces Movement) |
| MING | Movimento para Independência Nacional da Guiné Portuguesa (Movement for the National Independence of Portuguese Guinea) |
| MLG | Movimento de Libertação da Guiné (Liberation Movement of Guinea) |
| MLNCP | Movimento de Libertação Nacional das Colónias Portuguesas (National Liberation Movement of the Portuguese Colonies) |
| MMCG | Misión Militar Cubana en Guinea y Guinea-Bissau (Cuban Military Mission in Guinea and Guinea-Bissau) |
| MPLA | Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola (Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola) |
| MUD | Movimento de Unidade Democrática (Movement of Democratic Unity) |
| MUDJ | Movimento de Unidade Democrática Juvenil (Youth Movement of Democratic Unity) |
| NATO | North Atlantic Treaty Organization |
| OAU | Organization of African Unity |
| PAI |
Partido Africano da Independência (African Independence
|
