Amilcar Cabral: Revolutions in Colonial Africa and abroad

Where was Amílcar Cabral from?

• Guinea-Bissau/

  Cape Verde Islands

• Ghana

• Nigeria

• Kenya

Answer explanation

•Amilcar Lopes Cabral- Born September 12, 1924, in Bafatá (Guinea-Bissau)

•Father: Juvenal Antonio Lopes de Costa Cabral- a Teacher from a well off family (wrote a memoir of himself about the conditions living in Cape Verde and the decay of his families estates. This impacted Cabral’s consciousness as a political agent for his people;

•Mother: Iva Pinhel Évora- was a shop owner (a Seamstress)

•Parents from Santiago, an island in the offshore Cape Verde archipelago.

•Siblings: Half-Brother Luis Cabral (Elected 1st President of Guinea-Bissau) his authoritarian single-party regime was repressive and the country was plagued with food shortages.

Where did Cabral attend College?

• United States

• Brazil

• Portugal

• Spain

• None of the Above

Answer explanation

•Secured a scholarship to study in Lisbon, Portugal at the Instituto Superior de Agronomia (1945-1952)

•Cabral chose Agronomy as his field of study. (Agricultural Engineering)

•Goal was to formulate an understanding of how he could help his people in Cape Verde through his education (at the expense of the Portuguese Colonials).

Amilcar Cabral worked for the Department of Agricultural and Forestry Services in Guinea-Bissau.

• TRUE

• FALSE

Answer explanation

•In 1952, Landed a contract from the Department of Agricultural and Forestry Services in Guinea-Bissau

•In 1953 and 1954, Cabral conducted an agricultural survey or census of the Guinea-Bissau

•Allow him to travel and network across the country.

•Allowed him to establish the vital contacts needed for a grassroots revolt against colonialism.

•He was able to navigate throughout the land freely and under the masquerading as a person who was simply conducting work for the Portuguese.

•Obtained a greater understanding of what colonial exploitation meant for the people collectively.

Was the goal of the PAIGC (African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde) to both liberate and unify the countries of Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau?

• TRUE

• FALSE

Answer explanation

•In 1956 while in Bissau: Cabral, Aristides Pereira, Julio de Almeida, Elisee Turpin, Fernando Fortes, and Luiz Cabral (Amilcar’s brother) founded the Partido Africano de Independencia de Guine e Cabo Verde (PAIGC).

•The Goal of the PAIGC was to both liberate and unify the countries of Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau.

•August 1959- a dock workers’ strike at Pidjiguiti resulted in the massacre of 50 protesters. Authorities blamed the PAIGC.

•In September 1959 it was decided that a non-violent resistance would not work.

•They were forced to leave the country but not before they mobilized the people.

•Séku Touré and the Republic of Guine (Conakry) (independent in 1958) aided Cabral and his armed forces by allowing them to use his country as a base for operation. (African Collectivism/Unionism- Nkrumah)

Cabral choose _______ as his field of study.

• Political Science

• Astrology

• Agronomy

• Astronomy

• None of the Above

Answer explanation

•Secured a scholarship to study in Lisbon, Portugal at the Instituto Superior de Agronomia (1945-1952)

•Cabral chose Agronomy as his field of study. (Agricultural Engineering)

•Goal was to formulate an understanding of how he could help his people in Cape Verde through his education (at the expense of the Portuguese Colonials).

•Notably, as an Agronomist, Cabral was equipped with the knowledge to reverse the famine, the barren vegetation and overall living conditions in Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau which occurred during the 1940s and beyond.

•This knowledge help Cabral lead his people to more sustainable and ecological ways of life. while at the same time he taught them to fight the Portuguese Colonialists on all fronts. 

According to Cabral, what are the two (2) ways that culture can be used as a tool?

• Compassion

• Liberation

• Submission

• Dominance

• None of the Above

Answer explanation

Culture as a tool for Dominance

•Psychological Violence

•Suppression of Traditional African customs

•Concessions for Petite Bourgeois African Class

•Growth in Neo-Colonial ideologies

•Demagogic Politics

Prevents the expansion of independent geopolitical thought

Culture as a tool for Liberation

•Awaken the African’s mind from Mental Slavery

•Free the African People from Social Death

•Form a new sense of life for newly liberated people

•Separate the African from any economic dependency of European Aid.

•Methods: Literature, Art, Music, Propaganda, Communal Collectivism

•Cabral wanted to establish a ________ ________ that would unify the oppressed under one front to overthrow Portuguese Colonialism.

• National Government

• National Education System

• National Language

• National Identity

Answer explanation

•“Doing” Culture as a Political Act

•Cabral wanted to establish a National Identity that would unify the oppressed under one front to overthrow Portuguese Colonialism.

•To do Culture in the name of Liberation requires one to acknowledge the reality of their oppressed condition living under Colonialism.

•(THINK AFRICA FROM AN AUTHENTIC AFRICAN REALITY)

•Revolutionary Democracy: Derived from a commitment of the collective to acted as a cohesive unionized whole to shift the pendulum of power in their favor.

•Diplomatic association with the African Union

•Cabral and the Dialectic of Materialism and Socio-economic conditions

•Cabral was a Revolutionary Pan-Africanist, Internationalist, and Socialist

•He believed in Self-determination and its role in overthrowing Colonialism in Africa and Abroad

• TRUE

• FALSE

Answer explanation

•Nation-building- transcending ethnicity identity and match it with a cohesive national identity.

The 1st Tri-continental Conference of the Peoples of _____, ______, _____ was held in Havana, 1966.

• North America, Asia, Latin America

• Asia, Africa, Europe

• Asia, Africa, Latin America

• Latin America, North America, Africa,

Answer explanation

The Tricontinental Conference brought together around 500 delegates from the various liberation movements of 82 different countries.

•Revolutionary Pan-Africanism- Developed a counter revolution to the already existing practices of decolonization.

•A visit with the Pope Paulo VI (1970)-:  Pope Paul VI granted an audience on July 1st to Amílcar Cabral, Agostinho Neto and Marcelino dos Santos (Attempt to spread their message of freedom and equality to a global audience).

•Trans-Continentalism- Castro, 1966 an attempt to bridge the Struggle for Freedom from Western control and those whose socio-economic and cultural identities were subverted by European Imperialism.

•Cabral’s main contributions were his study of decolonized people and their leadership in the context of Local Liberation, Racism, and Freudian theory.

• True

• False

Answer explanation

•Cabral’s main contributions were his study of colonized identity and leadership in the context of national liberation, class de-consciousness, and Marxian theory