Amilcar Cabral: Revolutionary Leadership and People's War [Paperback]

Patrick Chabal (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 2003

This book, first published in 1983 by Cambridge University Press and now issued for the first time in paperback with a new preface, tells the story of Amilcar Cabral who, as head of PAIGC, Guinea-Bissau’s nationalist movement, became one of Africa’s foremost revolutionary leaders.

In less than twenty years of active political life, Cabral led Guinea-Bissau’s nationalists to the most complete political and military success ever achieved by an African political movement against a colonial power. At the time of his death in 1973, months before Guinea-Bissau became independent, his influence extended well beyond the Lusophone world and Africa. Friends and foes alike admired his political acumen and skills and saw in him a potential leader of a non-aligned movement. His writings have shown him to be a sophisticated analyst of the social, economic, and political factors which have affected and continue to affect the developing world.

At a time when there is a general sense of despondency about the future of Africa, as well as cynicism about its political elites, it is instructive to be reminded that the continent has produced a political leader of Cabral’s caliber.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Patrick Chabal is professor of lusophone African studies at King’s College, London. Among his books are The Postcolonial Literature of Lusophone Africa (1996) and The History of Postcolonial Lusophone Africa (2002), both of which he was the editor.

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Africa World Press (March 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1592210821
• ISBN-13: 978-1592210824
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #546,673 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #2 in Books > History > Africa > Guinea Bissau
  • #7 in Books > History > Africa > Guinea

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A first rate political biography of Amilcar Cabral., May 15, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Amilcar Cabral: Revolutionary Leadership and People's War (African Studies) (Hardcover)

Patrick Chabal's Amilcar Cabral is a first-rate political biography of Amilcar Cabral. Indeed, this work is the most thorough, critical, and objective source of information and analysis of this important African democratic revolutionary that I have come across. Chabal tells a thorough and compelling story of Cabral and critically analyzes the development of his revolutionary philosophy and political skills within the context of colonial Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau. I highly recommend this work to anyone looking for a rigorous source on this important democratic philosopher and African revolutionary. Chabal also gives us a detailed contextual account of Cape Verde and "Portuguese Guinea," and the PAIGC (African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde) during Cabral's time.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Pan-African, June 1, 2006

By 

Elijah Chingosho "Dr Elijah Chingosho" (Nairobi, Kenya) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Amilcar Cabral: Revolutionary Leadership and People's War (Paperback)

The book does an excellent job of enlightening readers about the life and achievements of Amilcar Cabral, one of Africa's finest liberation war fighters and leader and thinker. Below are some of the highlights in the book.

Amilcar Lopes Cabral was born in 1924. He was born in the Portuguese colony of Guinea (now Guinea Bissau). He received his education in Lisbon, Portugal and was an agronomic engineer. While studying in Lisbon, he founded student movements dedicated to African nationalism.

He returned home in the 1950s, and began forming independence movements on the continent. He was instrumental in the formation of the PAIGC (Partido Africano da Independência da Guiné e Cabo Verde, (African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde). He also worked with Agostino Neto to form a liberation party in Angola, the Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA).

From 1962, Cabral led the PAIGC in a war of liberation against the Portuguese imperial forces for the independence of Portuguese Guinea and Cape Verde. Over the course of the conflict, the party won land gains, and Cabral was made the de facto leader of large tracks of land in Guinea-Bissau. In 1972, Cabral began to form a People's Assembly in preparation for the country's independent. However, he was assassinated in Conakry in January 1973 before he could see his country's independence. He was assassinated at the hands of Portuguese agents in Conakry, capital of the Republic of Guinea, whose president is Sekou Toure.

The assassination of Amilcar Cabral brought no joy for the Portuguese Army as the guerrilla fighters intensified their struggle. In March 1973, the guerrillas acquired a new weapon namely Stella, ground-to-air missile which effectively neutralized the air superiority of the Portuguese Army. In September 24, in the forests of Madina do Boe, the PAIGC unilaterally declared the independence of Guinea-Bissau.

Cabral's is one of the greatest pan-African fighters to emerge from the continent. His military successes in Guinea inspired other liberation movements on the continent. He remains one of the greatest Pan African that the African continent has witnessed.