Amílcar Cabral
- Política
- político
Amílcar Lopes Cabral (Bafatá, Guinea-Bissau, September 12, 1924 - Conakry, January 20, 1973) was a Marxist politician, agronomist and theorist of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde.
Son of Juvenal Lopes Cabral (Cape Verdean) and Iva Pinhel Évora (Guinean), at the age of eight, his family moved to Cape Verde, settling in Santa Catarina (island of Santiago), which became the city of his childhood, where he completed primary education. He then moved with his mother and brothers to Mindelo, São Vicente, where he finished high school in 1943. As pointed out by Patrícia Villen, her adolescence goes back to a period of intense drought and hunger on the island. In the year 40, for example, this crisis caused the death of 50 thousand people, in addition to the mass immigration of Cape Verdeans. The following year, he moved to the city of Praia, on the island of Santiago, and began working for the National Press, but only for a year because, having obtained a scholarship, in 1945 he joined the Higher Institute of Agronomy in Lisbon. Only black student of his class, Cabral soon gets involved in meetings of anti-fascist groups and, next to other students coming from Africa, such as Mario de Andrade, Agostinho Neto and Marcelino dos Santos "knows cultural vectors of the reaffricanization of the spirits of the movement of negritude directed by Léopold Sédar Senghor". After graduating in 1950, worked for two years in the Agricultural Station of Santarém.
Hired by the Ministry of Overseas Territories as deputy to the Agricultural and Forestry Services of Guinea, he returned to Bissau in 1952. He began his work in the experimental farm in Pessube, traveling through much of the country, door to door, during the Agricultural Census of 1953, acquiring a profound knowledge of the current social reality. His political activities, such as the creation of the first Sports, Recreational and Cultural Association of Guinea, open to both the "assimilated" and the indigenous, reserved for him the antipathy of the Governor of the colony, Melo and Alvim, which forced him to emigrate to Angola. In that country, he joins the MPLA.
In 1955 Cabral participates in the Bandung Conference and takes knowledge of the Afro-Asian issue. In 1959, together with Aristides Pereira, his brother Luís Cabral, Fernando Fortes, Júlio de Almeida and Elisée Turpin, founded the clandestine African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC). On August 3, 1959, the party participated in the workers' strike in the port of Pidjiguiti, which was strongly repressed by the colonial government, resulting in the death of 50 demonstrators and the injury of hundreds more. Four years later, PAIGC came out of hiding by establishing a delegation in the city of Conakry, capital of the Republic of Guinea-Cronakry. On January 23, 1963, the armed struggle against the colonialist metropolis began with the attack on the Tite barracks in southern Guinea-Bissau from bases in Guinea-Conakry.
In 1970, Amílcar Cabral, accompanied by Agostinho Neto and Marcelino dos Santos, was received by Pope Paul VI in private audience. On November 21 of the same year, the Portuguese Governor of Guinea-Bissau determines the beginning of Operation Mar Verde, with the purpose of capturing or even eliminating the leaders of the PAIGC, then stationed in Conakry. The operation was unsuccessful.
On January 20, 1973, Amílcar Cabral was assassinated in Conakry by two members of his own party. Amílcar Cabral had prophesied his end when he said: "If anyone is going to harm me, it is he who is here among us. No one else can spoil the PAIGC, only ourselves." Aristides Pereira, replaced him in the leadership of the PAIGC. After the death of Cabral the armed struggle intensifies and the independence of Guinea-Bissau is proclaimed unilaterally on 24 September 1973. His half brother, Luís de Almeida Cabral, is appointed the first president of the country.
Amílcar Lopes Cabral (Bafatá, Guinea-Bissau, September 12, 1924 - Conakry, January 20, 1973) was a Marxist politician, agronomist and theorist of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde.
Son of Juvenal Lopes Cabral (Cape Verdean) and Iva Pinhel Évora (Guinean), at the age of eight, his family moved to Cape Verde, settling in Santa Catarina (island of Santiago), which became the city of his childhood, where he completed primary education. He then moved with his mother and brothers to Mindelo, São Vicente, where he finished high school in 1943. As pointed out by Patrícia Villen, her adolescence goes back to a period of intense drought and hunger on the island. In the year 40, for example, this crisis caused the death of 50 thousand people, in addition to the mass immigration of Cape Verdeans. The following year, he moved to the city of Praia, on the island of Santiago, and began working for the National Press, but only for a year because, having obtained a scholarship, in 1945 he joined the Higher Institute of Agronomy in Lisbon. Only black student of his class, Cabral soon gets involved in meetings of anti-fascist groups and, next to other students coming from Africa, such as Mario de Andrade, Agostinho Neto and Marcelino dos Santos "knows cultural vectors of the reaffricanization of the spirits of the movement of negritude directed by Léopold Sédar Senghor". After graduating in 1950, worked for two years in the Agricultural Station of Santarém.
Hired by the Ministry of Overseas Territories as deputy to the Agricultural and Forestry Services of Guinea, he returned to Bissau in 1952. He began his work in the experimental farm in Pessube, traveling through much of the country, door to door, during the Agricultural Census of 1953, acquiring a profound knowledge of the current social reality. His political activities, such as the creation of the first Sports, Recreational and Cultural Association of Guinea, open to both the "assimilated" and the indigenous, reserved for him the antipathy of the Governor of the colony, Melo and Alvim, which forced him to emigrate to Angola. In that country, he joins the MPLA.
In 1955 Cabral participates in the Bandung Conference and takes knowledge of the Afro-Asian issue. In 1959, together with Aristides Pereira, his brother Luís Cabral, Fernando Fortes, Júlio de Almeida and Elisée Turpin, founded the clandestine African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC). On August 3, 1959, the party participated in the workers' strike in the port of Pidjiguiti, which was strongly repressed by the colonial government, resulting in the death of 50 demonstrators and the injury of hundreds more. Four years later, PAIGC came out of hiding by establishing a delegation in the city of Conakry, capital of the Republic of Guinea-Cronakry. On January 23, 1963, the armed struggle against the colonialist metropolis began with the attack on the Tite barracks in southern Guinea-Bissau from bases in Guinea-Conakry.
In 1970, Amílcar Cabral, accompanied by Agostinho Neto and Marcelino dos Santos, was received by Pope Paul VI in private audience. On November 21 of the same year, the Portuguese Governor of Guinea-Bissau determines the beginning of Operation Mar Verde, with the purpose of capturing or even eliminating the leaders of the PAIGC, then stationed in Conakry. The operation was unsuccessful.
On January 20, 1973, Amílcar Cabral was assassinated in Conakry by two members of his own party. Amílcar Cabral had prophesied his end when he said: "If anyone is going to harm me, it is he who is here among us. No one else can spoil the PAIGC, only ourselves." Aristides Pereira, replaced him in the leadership of the PAIGC. After the death of Cabral the armed struggle intensifies and the independence of Guinea-Bissau is proclaimed unilaterally on 24 September 1973. His half brother, Luís de Almeida Cabral, is appointed the first president of the country.
