Amílcar Cabral: The Life of a Reluctant Nationalist

"The Guinean-born Amâilcar Cabral has been hailed as one of the most original voices in revolutionary processes on the African continent. He was not only behind one of the most resourceful independence movement in Africa, the PAIGC (African Party for the Liberation of Guinea and Cape Verde). But the challenge he posed against the colonial military might was also instrumental to end of Portuguese colonialism altogether. For reaction against Estado Novo brewed mostly in Bissau, on the account of a war the Portuguese was waging against the guerrilla and could not win. This biography describes Cabral's upbringing in Cape Verde, his political coming of age in Lisbon, as a student in agronomy and anticolonial activist, as well as his transformation into one of the most revered revolutionaries in the world. However, contrary to most studies on Cabral, which tend to rely on the materials produced during the liberation war, this book approaches the life of Cabral from a slightly different perspective. It explores a trove of Lusophone sources, particularly those ones that use contemporary issues to illuminate historical conundrums. The political trajectory Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau have followed sheds light not only on Cabral's quest for identity - being born in Guinea-Bissau from Cape Verdeans parents - but also on the day-to-day conduction of the anti-colonial war itself."--taken from publisher web site.