Table Of ContentUNITY & STRUGGLE
Selected Speeches and Writings
Amílcar Cabral
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UNITY & STRUGGLE
Selected Speeches and Writings
Amílcar Cabral
Texts selected by the PAIGC
Translated by Michael Wolfers
SECOND EDITION
Compiled and edited by
Maurice Taonezvi Vambe and Abebe Zegeye
UNISA PRESS
PRETORIA
TSEHAI PUBLISHERS
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First edition © 1979 Amílcar Cabral Foundation, New York
Second edition © 2007 University of South Africa
Second edition, second impression 2012
Introduction to the second edition © 2007 Abebe Zegeye and Maurice Vambe
The texts reprinted in this volume were first published in 1979 by the Monthly Review Press (London and
New York), and amount to some two-thirds of the French edition published by François Maspero in 1975.
They are reprinted in this new edition witht he permission of the Amílcar Cabral Foundation.
Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data
Cabral, Amílcar
Unity and struggle
1. National liberation movements – Guinea Bissau – Collected works
2. Guinea-Bissau – Politics and government – Collected works
3. Cape Verde Islands – Politics and government – Collected works
4. National liberation movements – Cape Verde Islands – Collected works
5. Partido Africano da Independência da Guiné e Cabo Verde — Collected works
6. Return to the Source — Monthly Review Press: New York and London with African Information
Services
II. Title.
Publishers:
Unisa Press, University of South Africa, PO Box 392, Unisa 0003
ISBN: 978-1-86888-450-6
Tsehai Publishers, PO Box 1881, Hollywood, CA 90078
Print: ISBN: 978-1-59907-036-0 E-book: ISBN: 978-1-86888-8573
Cover illustration: Photo of Amílcar Cabral, 1971, PAIGC Archives, Bissau
Cover design: Elsabé Viljoen
Typesetting: Karen Graphics
Printed by Harry's Printers
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means –
mechanical or electronic, including recordings or tape recording and photocopying – without the
prior permission of the publisher, excluding fair quotations for purposes of research or review.
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Contents
Abbreviations vii
Foreword: Carlos Lopes ix
Introduction to the Second Edition: Maurice T. Vambe and Abebe Zegeye 1
Introduction to the First Edition: Basil Davidson 13
Biographical notes: Mário de Andrade 23
PARt 1 the WeAPon of theoRy 39
WRItInGs of yoUth
1 Two poems 41
MAn AnD LAnD
2 Agricultural Census of Guinea 43
PoRtUGUese CoLonIAL DoMInAtIon
3 The facts about Portugal’s African Colonies 55
PARty PRInCIPLes AnD PoLItICAL PRACtICe
4 Unity and struggle 66
5 To start out from the reality of our land – to be realists 81
6 Our Party and the struggle must be led by the best sons and daughters of our people 100
7 Struggle of the people, by the people, for the people 110
8 Independence of thought and action 114
9 Not everyone is of the Party 118
10 Revolutionary democracy 128
11 Fidelity to Party principles 132
12 For the improvement of our political work 133
on the AfRICAn ReVoLUtIon
13 Homage to Kwame Nkrumah 147
the WeAPon of theoRy
14 Presuppositions and objectives of national liberation in relation to social structure 151
nAtIonAL CULtURe
15 National liberation and culture 169
16 Return to the source 185
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vi
PARt 2 ReVoLUtIonARy PRACtICe 205
the stRAteGy foR PoLItICAL MoBILIsAtIon
17 Message to Guinean and Cape Verdean civil servants and employees in commerce 207
18 Message to the Portuguese settlers in Guinea and Cape Verde 210
19 Message to the soldiers, officers and NCOs of the Portuguese colonial army 213
20 Memorandum from the African Party for the Independence of Guinea
and Cape Verde (PAIGC) to the Portuguese Government 216
21 An open note to the Portuguese Government 222
ARMeD ACtIon AnD MILItARy MethoDs
22 Proclamation of direct action 225
23 The battle of Como and the Congress of Cassaca 227
24 The eighth year of armed struggle for national liberation 231
25 The situation of the PAIGC’s struggle in January 1973 260
GeneRAL WAtChWoRDs
26 Be aware at every moment of the situation of the struggle 273
27 Continually develop and strengthen political work and Party organisation 276
28 Constantly improve organisation of our armed forces 279
29 Know well our own strength and the enemy strength 283
30 Strengthen security and discipline in all sectors of the struggle 286
31 Destroy the economy of the enemy and build our own economy 289
32 Improve our knowledge and defend our health 292
33 Apply Party principles in practice 296
InteRnAtIonAL ReLAtIons
34 The options of the CONCP 301
35 The people of Guinea and Cape Verde before the UN 311
the stAte of GUIneA-BIssAU
36 Creation of the People’s National Assembly in Guinea 327
37 New Year’s message 339
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vii
ABBReVIAtIons
CLSTP (Comité de Libertação de São Tomé e Príncipe)
Committee (later Movement) for the Liberation of São Tomé and
Príncipe
CONCP ( Conferência das Organizações Nacionalistas das Colónias
Portuguesas)
Conference of the Nationalist Organisations of the Portuguese
Colonies
CUF (Companhia União Fabril)
FRELIMO ( Frente de Libertação de Moçambique) Mozambique Liberation
Front
MPLA ( Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola)
Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola
OAU Organisation of African Unity
PAIGC or PAI (Partido Africano da Independência da Guiné e Cabo Verde)
African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde
[Frequently referred to in the text as ‘the Party’]
PIDE (Polícia Internacional e de Defesa do Estado)
International Police for the Defence of the State (created for Portu-
gal by the Salazar regime, extended to Africa after 1954)
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ix
foReWoRD
Carlos Lopes*
For more than 20 years, any student or activist eager to know the works of Amílcar
Cabral has had to struggle hard to find them. Despite being considered a leading
political and historical figure of the African independence movement and an intel-
lectual giant respected by thinkers and militants alike, Cabral disappeared from the
bookshelves before the Internet age. This sad reality has now been repaired, at least
in part, with the publication of the present volume by Unisa Press.
Amílcar Cabral’s writings are essential for an understanding of the liberation
struggle of Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde. But his influence stretches beyond the
two tiny territories in West Africa he helped liberate. From an early age, Cabral was
the natural leader of a large movement fighting against Portuguese colonialism. His
participation in the foundation and consolidation of many political institutions within
the Portuguese colonies is well established. His participation in the southern move-
ments and the pan-African movement is also legendary. A shrewd guerrilla tactician,
Cabral was capable of a level of sophistication unmatched in contemporary African
movements.
Cabral’s contribution has been recognised in different ways. However, the most
important recognition is still missing: a study of his singular contribution to African
philosophy. This prospect is now taking root in a number of universities.
Amílcar Cabral was born in 1921 in Bafata, Guinea Bissau. His father Juvenal Cabral,
a teacher, and his mother Iva Pinhel Évora, an independent small businesswoman, were
Capeverdeans who migrated to Guinea Bissau in search of a better life. They left behind
drought and despair, but they eventually returned to the islands, giving Amílcar a chance to
begin his highly rewarding study. In 1944, at the time of the Second World War, Amílcar
completed his secondary studies at St Vicente and was looking for ways of expressing
love for his country, as manifested in various poems and cultural interventions.
In the autumn of 1945 he secured, with great difficulty, a fellowship to pursue his
university studies in Lisbon: Cabral wanted to be an agricultural engineer. Apart from
being a brilliant student, he was extremely active in the emerging nationalist movement
for the liberation of the Portuguese colonies. He quickly became a reference point
among the small group of African intellectuals residing in Lisbon, who established a
Centre for African Studies. When he returned to Guinea Bissau in 1952, his purpose
in life was clear and his focus known even by the feared Portuguese political intel-
ligence and repressive police force, the PIDE.
* Carlos Lopes is a Guinea Bissau scholar who has published numerous articles on Cabral. He acted
as liaison for the publication of this volume with the Amílcar Cabral Foundation in Praia, Cape
Verde.
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x LOPES
Cabral was appointed as a public servant engineer in Pessube. He used his profes-
sional position to engage in research that allowed him to deepen his knowledge of the
country. His participation in an agricultural census would have given him the chance
to get closer to the ground and establish an extensive network. However, based on
friendly advice, Cabral left Guinea, returned to Lisbon and travelled extensively to
Angola where he participated in the foundation of the MPLA.
In 1956 Cabral founded the PAIGC. This represented the consolidation of a clan-
destine battle and a landmark for the nationalist movement in the Portuguese colonies.
The generation that led the struggle would later be known as the ‘Cabral generation’
in recognition of his intellectual and strategic leadership and his personal investment
in the consolidation of unitary movements. In 1960, the year of African independence,
Cabral formally denounced Portuguese colonialism and made the nationalist move-
ment more visible to the world. What followed during the 1960s associated Cabral’s
name with the likes of Che Guevara, General Vo Nguyen Giap, not to mention Fanon,
Nasser, Lumumba and Nkrumah.
Cabral understood that the fundamentals of the national liberation struggle were
political and therefore victory would only be possible if the liberation movements
could articulate political positions first and only thereafter justify military action.
Cabral developed the concept that the liberation struggle was an act of culture. He
catapulted the PAIGC into a series of innovations that made its struggle for inde-
pendence renowned and credited for being a central element in the downfall of the
fascist regime in Portugal in April 1974. But Cabral was no longer alive when the
independence of Guinea-Bissau, in September 1973, followed by the Carnation
Revolution in Portugal one year later, created a space for the independence of all
remaining Portuguese colonies.
On the tragic night of 20 January 1973, a few months before his dream of indepen-
dence in Guinea Bissau was fulfilled, PIDE agents assassinated Cabral in Conakry.
However, as Mário de Andrade put it, Amílcar Cabral’s life story had already become
history.
This book, with contributions written during the height of the liberation struggle, is
full of lessons for today’s debates. It may be surprising for many readers to see how
many of Cabral’s formulations remain relevant and provocative. It will be important
to read them in context. But the reader will quickly realise how profound and unusual
this guerilla leader was. It is that uniqueness that is now in your hands.
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