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Amilcar Cabral: Revolutionary Leadership and People's War

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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.

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.