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AMÍLCAR LOPES
CABRAL (1924-1973)
AUGUST 10, 20 0 9 / CON T R IB UT E D BY: LUCY
B UR N E T T

Amilcar Cabral, Guinea-Bissau, February 1964

Public Domain Image, Courtesy Casa Comum (05221.000.030)

Amílcar Cabral, also known as Abel Djassi, was

a leader in the struggle for independence in
Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde. Cabral was a
writer, agronomic engineer, and Marxist
nationalist. He was born on September 12,
1924, in Bafata, Portuguese Guinea. His father,
Juvenal Cabral was Cape Verdean and his
mother Iva Pinhel Évora was Guinean. In 1932,
his family moved to Cape Verde, and Cabral
began working at the National Printing Office
in 1944. In 1945, at the age of 21, he received a
scholarship to study at the Agronomic Institute
in Lisbon, Portugal, graduating in 1950.
During his time in Lisbon, he founded student
organizations centered on African nationalism,
including a Center for African Studies and
married a Portuguese woman named Marie
Helena Rodrigues.

In 1952, Cabral returned to Bissau to work for

the Agricultural and Forestry Services of
Portuguese Guinea. The next year he was
commissioned to conduct a government-
sanctioned agricultural survey of the colony.
After a year of traveling throughout rural
Guinea, Amílcar Cabral became convinced that
independence would be possible only through
military engagement. Due to Cabral’s anti-
colonialist activities, the governor of Guinea-
Bissau insisted he leave the colony in 1955.
Cabral moved to Angola to join the Movement
for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA). On
September 19, 1956 during a clandestine visit
to Ghana, Amílcar Cabral, along with his half-
brother Luís Cabral, Júlio de Almeira,
Fernando Fortes, and Elisée Turpin, founded
the African Party for the Independence of Cape
Verde and Guinea (PAIGC).

In 1960, with permission from Ghanaian

President Kwame Nkrumah, Cabral established
military training camps in Ghana for PAIGC
guerilla forces. Cabral and PAIGC members
emphasized pan-Africanism and the
importance of building a rural nationalist
movement that could give rise to a stable,
independent state. By 1962, PAIGC was
involved in guerilla attacks on the Portuguese
government. Open war was declared on
January 23, 1963. By 1966, the PAIGC claimed
control of over 60 percent of Guinea-Bissau.

Cabral was an outspoken advocate for Guinean

independence in the international arena. His
speeches and writings were widely published,
with printings in England and the Soviet
Union, among other countries. In 1970, Cabral
and a PAIGC delegation were granted an
audience with Pope Paul VI to garner support
for the revolution. In 1972, Cabral spoke at the
163rd session of the Security Council of the
United Nations, asking for an observation
delegation to assess the conflict between
Portugal and PAIGC forces.

After significant military victories in 1972,

Cabral began formal preparations for an
independent Guinea. On January 20, 1973,
however, he was assassinated by PAIGC
veteran Inocêncio Kani and Portuguese agents
at the PAIGC headquarters in Conakry.
Cabral’s assassination was part of a broader
attempt to establish a PAIGC leadership that
was more conciliatory towards the Portuguese.
The liberation movement continued, with
PAIGC leadership taking office in October 1974
after democratic elections delivered PAIGC 90
percent of the popular vote. Amílcar’s half-
brother Luís Cabral became the first president
of Guinea-Bissau.

Subjects:

Global African History, People

Terms:

Africa - Guinea-Bissau

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COPY

CITE THIS ENTRY IN APA FORMAT:

Burnett, L. (2009, August 10). Amílcar

Lopes Cabral (1924-1973).
BlackPast.org.
https://www.blackpast.org/global-
african-history/cabral-amilcar-lopes-
1924-1973/

SOURCE OF THE AUTHOR'S

INFORMATION:

Patrick Chabal, Amilcar Cabral

(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1983); Strike Mikandia, The Thought of
Amilcar Lopes Cabral of
Guinea-Bissau: Revolution in an
Underdeveloped Country (Canterbury:
University of Kent Press, 1983); Hakim Adi
and Marika Sherwood,
Pan-African History: Political Figures
from Africa and the Diaspora
Since 1787 (London: Routledge, 2003);
http://kriolu.org/history.

PREVIO US N EXT

(1971) Sese Seko (1966) Amilcar

Mobutu, Cabral, “The
“Address to the Weapon of
Conseil Theory”
Nationale
Extraordinaire,
Dakar, 14
February 1971”

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