Amilcar Cabral
Amilcar Cabral was one of the greatest intellectual, revolutionary theoretician and political leaders Africa produced in the 20th century. He was the principal architect of the struggle to liberate Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde from the yoke of Portuguese colonialism. From virtually nothing, he built the most vibrant guerrilla movement in Africa and fought the colonialists to a standstill. His close relations with the Soviet Union and China and his ideological beliefs in the doctrines of Marx and Lenin made him, perhaps, the most brilliant political demagogue of that era. At the University of Lisbon where he met people like Agostinho Neto and Eduardo Mondlane, his extraordinary academic ability shone brilliantly. He worked for some years as an agronomist and later became a founding member of Angola’s Movimento Popular Libertacao de Angola (MPLA) and later the African Party of Independence of Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde Islands (PAIGC). He advocated for the freedom of his people and fought tenaciously to deliver them from the yoke of colonial vestiges. But he didn’t live long enough to see the independent Guinea he fought so hard for. In 1973, he was assassinated allegedly by Portuguese secret police working in conjunction with disgruntled members of PAIGC outside his home in Conakry, where his party had its headquarters.
