Return to the Source. Africa Information Service Staff

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СКАЧАТЬ aid which the African people need is likewise different.

      During almost 10 years of armed struggle and of enormous efforts and sacrifices, almost three quarters of the national territory has been freed from Portuguese colonial domination and two thirds brought under effective control, which means in concrete terms that in most of the country the people have a solid political organization—that of PAIGC—a developing administrative structure, a judicial structure, a new economy free from all exploitation of the people’s labour, a variety of social and cultural services (health, hygiene, education) and other means of affirming their personality and their ability to shape their destiny and direct their own lives. They also have a military organization entirely composed of and led by sons of the people. The national forces, whose task is to attack the colonialist troops systematically wherever they might be, in order to complete the liberation of the country, like the local armed forces, which are responsible for the defence and security of the liberated areas, are now stronger than ever, tempered by almost 10 years of struggle. That is proved by the colonialists’ inability to recover even the smallest part of the liberated areas by their increasingly heavy losses, and by the people’s ability to deal them increasingly heavy blows, even in the main urban centres such as Bissau, the capital and Bafata, the country’s second largest town.

      For the people of Guine and Cape Verde and our national party, however, the greatest success of our struggle does not lie in the fact that we have fought victoriously against the Portuguese colonialist troops under extremely difficult conditions but rather in the fact that, while we were fighting, we began to create all the aspects of a new life—political, administrative, economic, social and cultural—in the liberated areas. It is, to be sure, still a very hard life, since it calls for great effort and sacifice in the face of a genocidal colonial war, but it is a life full of beauty, for it is one of productive, efficient work, freedom and democracy in which the people have regained their dignity. The nearly 10 years of struggle have not only forged a new, strong African nation but also created a new man and a new woman, people possessing an awareness of their rights and duties, on the soil of the African fatherland. Indeed, the most important result of the struggle, which is at the same time its greatest strength, is the new awareness of the country’s men, women and children.

      The people of Guine and Cape Verde do not take any great pride in the fact that every day, because of circumstances created and imposed by the Government of Portugal, an increasing number of young Portuguese are dying ingloriously before the Withering fire of the freedom-fighters. What fills us with pride is our ever-increasing national consciousness, our unity—now indestructible—which has been forged in war, the harmonious development and coexistence of the various cultures and ethnic groups, the schools, hospitals and health centres which are operating openly in spite of the bombs and the terrorist attacks of the Portuguese colonialists, the people’s stores which are increasingly able to supply the needs of the population, the increase and qualitative improvement in agricultural production, and the beauty, pride and dignity of our children and our women, who were the most exploited human beings in the country. We take pride in the fact that thousands of adults have been taught to read and write, that the rural inhabitants are receiving medicines that were never available to them before, that no fewer than 497 high- and middle-level civil servants and professional people have been trained, and that 495 young people are studying at higher, secondary and vocational educational establishments in friendly European countries while 15,000 children are attending 156 primary schools and five secondary boarding schools and semi-boarding schools with a staff of 251 teachers. This is the greatest victory of the people of Guine and Cape Verde over the Portuguese colonialists, for it is a victory over ignorance, fear and disease—evils imposed on the African inhabitants for more than a century by Portuguese colonialism.

      It is also the clearest proof of the sovereignty enjoyed by the people of Guine and Cape Verde, who are free and sovereign in the greatest part of our national territory. To defend and preserve that sovereignty and expand it throughout the entire national territory, both on the continent and on the islands, the people have not only their armed forces but all the machinery of a State which, under the leadership of the party, is growing stronger and consolidating itself day by day. Indeed, the position of the people of Guine and Cape Verde has for some time been comparable to that of an independent State part of whose national territory—namely, the urban centres—is occupied by foreign military forces. Proof of that is the fact that for some years the people have no longer been subject to economic exploitation by the Portuguese colonialists, since the latter are no longer able to exploit them. The people of Guine and Cape Verde are all the more certain of gaining their freedom because of the fact that, both in the urban centres and in the occupied areas, the clandestine organization and political activities of the freedom-fighters are more vigorous than ever.

      There is no force capable of preventing the complete liberation of my people and the attainment of national independence by my country. Nothing can destroy the unity of the African people of Guine and Cape Verde and our unshakable determination to free the entire national territory from the Portuguese colonial yoke and military occupation.

      Confronted with that situation and that determination, what is the attitude of the Portuguese Government? Up until the death of Salazar, whose outmoded ways of thinking made it impossible for him to conceive of granting even fictitious concessions to the Africans there was talk only of radicalizing the colonial war. Salazar, who would repeat over and over to anyone willing to listen that “Africa does not exist” (an assertion which clearly reflected an insane racism but which also perfectly summed up the principles and practices which have always characterized Portuguese colonial policy), was at his advanced age unable to survive the affirmation of Africa’s existence: the victorious armed resistance of the African peoples to the Portuguese colonial war. Salazar was nothing more than a fanatical believer in the doctrine of European superiority and African inferiority. As everyone knew, Africa was the sickness that killed Salazar.

      Marcelo Caetano, his successor, is also a theoretician (professor of colonial law at the Lisbon School of Law) and a practical politician (Minister of Colonies for many years). Caetano, who claims that he “knows the blacks,” has decided on a new policy which, in the sphere of social relationships, is to be that of a kind of master who holds out the hand of friendship to his boy”; politically speaking the new policy is in its essence nothing more than the old tactic of force and deceit while outwardly it makes use of the arguments and even the actual words of the adversary in order to confuse him while actually maintaining the same position. That is the difference between the Salazarism of Salazar and the neo-Salazarism of Caetano. The objective remains the same: to perpetuate white domination of the black masses of Guine and Cape Verde.

      Caetano’s new tactic, which the people refer to as “the policy of smiling and bloodshed,” is merely one more result and success of the struggle being waged by the Africans. That fact has been noted by many who have visited the remaining occupied areas of Guine and in Cape Verde, including the American Congressman, Charles Diggs, and it is also understood by the people of the occcupied areas who replied to the colonialists’ demagogic concessions with the words “Djarama, PAIGC,” i.e. “Thank you, PAIGC.” In spite of those concessions and the launching of a vast propaganda campaign both in Africa and internationally, the new policy has failed. The people of the liberated areas are more united than ever around the national party, while those of the urban centres and the remaining occupied areas are supporting the party’s struggle more strongly every day both in Guine and Cape Verde. Hundreds of young people are leaving the urban centres, especially Bissau, to join the fight. There are increasing desertions from the so-called unidades africanas*, many of whose members are being held prisoner by the colonial authorities.

      Confronted with that situation, the colonialists are resorting to increased repression in the occupied areas, particularly the cities, and stepping up the bombings and terrorist attacks against the liberated areas. Having been forced to recognize that they cannot win the war, they now know that no stratagem can demoralize the people of those areas and that nothing can halt our advance towards complete liberation and independence. They are therefore making extensive use of the means available to СКАЧАТЬ