Return to the Source. Africa Information Service Staff

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СКАЧАТЬ from other Portuguese colonies. This was a restive period in the development of African nationalist movements. The colonial powers had been weakened by the Second World War. And Africans had heard these powers speak of democracy, liberty and human dignity—all of which were denied to the colonial subjects. Many Africans had even fought and died for the “liberty” of their colonial masters. However, in the process those who survived learned much about the world and themselves.

Cabral’s contemporaries as a student included Agostinho Neto and Mario de Andrade (founding members of the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola-MPLA), and Eduardo Mondlane* and Marcelino dos Santos (founding members of the Mozambique Liberation Front-FRELIMO). These men all rejected Portugal’s right to define the lives of African people and committed themselves to struggle for change. As students they strived to assert their national identities and subsequently they returned to their respective countries to participate in the process of national liberation.

      All of them saw that their peoples’ enemy was not simply poverty, disease, or lack of education; nor was it the Portuguese people or simply whites; rather, it was colonialism and its parent imperialism. Cabral articulated this view in stating:

      “We are not fighting against the Portuguese people, against individual Portuguese or Portuguese families. Without ever confusing the people of Portugal and Portuguese colonialism, we have been forced to take up arms in order to extirpate from the soil of our African fatherland, the shameful Portuguese colonial domination.” Declaration made on the release of three Portuguese soldiers taken prisoner by the PAIGC, March, 1968.

      This definition of the enemy proved an important ideological starting point. From here revolutionary theories were formulated and put into practice which resulted in the liberation of almost 75 percent of the countryside of Guinea (Bissau) in less than ten years of revolutionary armed struggle.

      At the time of Cabral’s murder, Guinea (Bissau) had virtually become an independent state with most of its principal towns occupied by a foreign army. In his Second Address At the United Nations, Cabral presented an overview of the struggle from its earliest days and he described life in the liberated areas of his country. He described the process of national reconstruction in the face of continuous bombardments and attacks by Portuguese soldiers. And, he announced the successful completion of freely held elections for a new National Assembly.

      With each passing day Portugal finds itself more and more isolated from the international community. Not even the death of Cabral can reverse the tide which is running against one of the world’s last remaining colonial rulers. In his New Year’s Message, Cabral called on the PAIGC to press foward and continue the work necessary to issue a formal declaration of the new and independent state—Guinea (Bissau). This declaration will be issued during 1973 and will raise the struggle against Portuguese colonialism to another level.

      The selections contained in this work illustrate a vital part of the study, analysis and application which made it possible for the people of Guinea (Bissau), and their comrades in Mozambique and Angola, to achieve what they have achieved in the face of numerous difficulties. For example, in Identity and Dignity in the Context of the National Liberation Struggle, Cabral discusses the “return to the source” as a political process rather than a cultural event.

      He saw the process of returning to the source as being more difficult for those “native elites” who had lived in isolation from the “native masses” and developed feelings of frustration as a result of their ambiguous roles. Thus, he viewed movements which propounded strictly cultural or traditional views to be manifestations of the frustrations resulting from being isolated from the African reality.

      Among the many truths left by Cabral, is the fact that the process of returning to the source is of no historical importance (and would in fact be political opportunism) unless it involves not only a contest against the foreign culture but also complete participation in the mass struggle against foreign political and economic domination.

      Africa Information Service

      July, 1973

* Mondlane was himself the victim of an assassination carried out by Portuguese agents on February 3, 1969.

      Guinea (Bissau)—(Courtesy of the United Nations)

      Cape Verde Islands—(Courtesy of the United Nations)

       Second Address Before The United Nations

       This speech was given during Amilcar Cabral’s last visit to the United States. Presented before the Twenty-Seventh Session of the Fourth Committee of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, October 16, 1972, its contents were identified: “Questions of Territories under Portuguese Administration.”

      For the second time, I have the honor to address the Fourth Committee on behalf of the African people of Guine and the Cape Verde Islands, whose sole, legitimate, and true representative is the PAIGC. I do so with gratification, being fully aware that the members of the Committee are our comrades in the difficult but inspiring struggle for the liberation of peoples and mankind and against oppression of all kinds in the interest of a better life in a world of peace, security and progress.

      While not forgetting the often remarkable role that Utopia could play in furthering human progress, the PAIGC is very realistic. We know that among members of the Fourth Committee, there are some who, perhaps in spite of themselves, are duty bound to adopt an obstructionist, if not negative attitude when dealing with problems relating to the struggle for national liberation in Guine and Cape Verde. I venture to say “in spite of themselves” because, leaving aside compelling reasons of State policy, it is difficult to believe that responsible men exist who fundamentally oppose the legitimate aspirations of the African people to live in dignity, freedom, national independence and progress, because in the modern world, to support those who are suffering and fighting for their liberation, it is not necessary to be courageous; it is enough to be honest.

      I addressed the Fourth Committee for the first time on 12 December 1962. Ten years is a long and even decisive period in the life of a human being, but a short interval in the history of a people. During that decade sweeping, radical and irreversible changes have occurred in the life of the people of Guine and Cape Verde. Unfortunately, it is impossible for me to refresh the memory of the members of the Committee in order to compare the situation of those days with the present, because most, if not all, of the representatives in the Committee are not the same. I will therefore briefly recapitulate the events up to the present.

      On 3 August 1959, at a crucial juncture in the history of the struggle, the Portuguese colonialists committed the massacre of Pidgiguiti, in which the dock workers of Bissau and the river transport strikers were the victims and which, at a cost of 50 killed and over 100 strikers wounded, was a painful lesson for our people, who learned that there was no question of choosing between a peaceful struggle and armed combat; the Portuguese had weapons and were prepared to kill. At a secret meeting of the PAIGC leaders, held at Bissau on 19 September 1959, the decision was taken to suspend all peaceful representations to the authorities in the villages and to prepare for the armed struggle. For that purpose it was necessary to have a solid political base in the countryside. After three years of active and intensive mobilization and organization of the rural populations, PAIGC СКАЧАТЬ