Amilcar Cabral was born in Bafata, Portuguese Guinea (now Guinea-Bissau). He was an anticolonial theorist and revolutionary. Cabral founded the African Party for the Independence of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde in 1956 and led it through armed struggle to win their independence.
Often hailed as the African Lenin, Cabral successfully integrated Marxism with “an autonomous African theory and practice,” rooted in the struggle of the African masses. He challenged the Marxist Eurocentric view that denies historicity to precolonial, classless African societies, arguing that Imperialism was the end rather than the beginning of African history.
Cabral also parted from historical determinism. While viewing the intellectuals as crucial to the revolutionary process, he saw their role after independence as undecidable, oscillating between “class suicide” and accommodation to the neocolonial powers.
Against a universalistic model of revolution, he stressed that the new society must be “the outcome...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Works by Cabral
Cabral, Amilcar. 1969. Revolution in Guinea, selected texts. New York: Monthly Review Press.
———. 1972. Our people are our mountains. London: Committee for Freedom in Mozambique, Angola and Guinea-Bissau.
———. 1973. Return to the source: Selected speeches by Amilcar Cabral. Edited by Africa Information Service. New York: Monthly Review Press with Africa Information Service.
———. 1979. Unity and struggle: Speeches and writings. New York: Monthly Review Press.
Bibliography
Chilcote, Ronald H. 1991. Amilcar Cabral’s revolutionary theory and practice: A critical guide (with an extensive bibliography). Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers.
Coll. Pour Cabral, Symposium international Amilcar Cabral, Praia, Cap-Vert 17–20 janvier 1983, Paris, Présence africaine, 1987.
McCulloch, Jock. 1983. In the twilight of revolution: The political theory of Amilcar Cabral. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
O’Brien, Jay. 1993. Ethnicity, national identity and social conflict. Nordic Journal of African Studies 2 (2): 60–82.
Review of African Political Economy; no. 58. 1993. A Tribute to AmÃlcar Cabral. p. 61–85.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 Springer Nature B.V.
About this entry
Cite this entry
Federici, S. (2021). Cabral, Amílcar. In: Mudimbe, V.Y., Kavwahirehi, K. (eds) Encyclopedia of African Religions and Philosophy. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-2068-5_68
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-2068-5_68
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-024-2066-1
Online ISBN: 978-94-024-2068-5
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Humanities