THIS DAY IN HISTORY: 20th January 1973 (by Amma Fosuah Poku) Amílcar Cabral, leader of the Guinea Bissau movement for independence from Portuguese colonialism, was assassinated in Guinea Conakry. A trained agricultural engineer, Cabral founded the Partido Africano da Independência da Guiné e Cabo Verde (PAIGC) in 1956. Following the Pijiguiti Massacre in August 1959, when Portuguese forces violently suppressed a PAIGC organised strike, the PAIGC decided to suspend peaceful appeals to the Portuguese colonialists and prepare for the armed struggle. It moved its headquarters to Guinea Conakry in 1960, at the invitation of Ahmed Sekou Toure, and in preparation for a war of liberation set up training camps in Ghana, with the aid of Kwame Nkrumah. In 1963 the PAIGC commenced the armed struggle for independence, attacking a Portuguese fort in Guinea Bissau on 23rd January. By 1964 the PAIGC had liberated a region, and the first Party Congress, which restructured the PAIGC political and military forces, took place. Within 10 years almost three quarters of the country had been liberated. Whilst engaged in the armed struggle the PAIGC had began to create all the aspects of a new life - political, administrative, economic, social and cultural - in the liberated areas. Cabral was shot outside the PAIGC office in Conakry, in front of his wife, Ana Maria Cabral, when he resisted being “arrested and taken to a Portuguese naval vessel by a PAIGC naval commander, Inocencio Kani. Cabral was a great political thinker whose philosophy was rooted in achieving tangible improvements for the people. One of his best known quotes illustrates this: Always bear in mind that people are not fighting for ideas, for the things in anyones head. They are fighting to win material benefits to live better and in peace, to see their lives go forward, to guarantee the future of their children. The following clip features Cabral talking about the cancer of betrayal at the funeral of Kwame Nkrumah in Guinea: https://youtube/watch?v=rLo3Y2IG-iY
Posted on: Mon, 19 Jan 2015 23:22:47 +0000
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