Amílcar Cabral
Amílcar Cabral
From agronomist to master theorist of African liberation
“Tell no lies. Claim no easy victories.” — party watchword, 1965
Anti-colonial revolutionary of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde and founder of the PAIGC. An agronomist who learned the colony by walking it village by village, he fused armed struggle with cultural liberation into an original strategy against Portuguese rule. Assassinated in 1973 on the eve of the independence he had made inevitable.
Career timeline
- 1945–1952Agronomy in Lisbon; organizes African nationalist student circles
- 1952–1954Agricultural census of Portuguese Guinea — learns the country village by village
- 1956Founds the PAIGC
- 1963–1973Leads the liberation war; schools and clinics in the freed zones
- 1966Presented The Weapon of Theory at the first Tricontinental Conference
- 1973.1Assassinated in Conakry, months before independence