Africa Is a Country

Viva Amilcar Cabral

Africa Is a Country Podcast
African Five-a-Side Podcast

Viva Amilcar Cabral

By
Sean Jacobs

Paris-based rap group MC Malcriado--captures Cabral's appeal to the new generation.

Amilcar Cabral

Amilcar Cabral, the key figure in Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde’s independence was born in September 1924 and was assassinated in October 1973. He also had a impact far beyond his own country’s borders; see Chris Marker’s ‘San Soliel,’ historian Basil Davidson’s work and a lecture he gave in Syracuse in February 1970, for example). Like Lumumba before him and Sankara after him, Cabral was murdered in the prime of his life.  Cabral was assassinated by Portuguese agents months before Guinea-Bissau declared independence from Portuguese colonial rule.

Cabral, like Fanon before him had an incredible grasp of political struggle, social movements and political outcomes. For example, he once said: “Always remember that the people are not fighting for ideas, nor for what is in men’s minds. The people fight and accept the sacrifices demanded by the struggle in order to gain material advantages, to live better and in peace, to benefit from progress, and for the better future of their children. National liberation, the struggle against colonialism, the construction of peace, progress and independence are hollow words devoid of any significance unless they can be translated into a real improvement of living conditions.”

This song and music video–“Viva Amilcar Cabral” by Paris-based rap group MC Malcriado–captures his appeal to the new generation. They’re a group of MC’s with Cape Verdean roots.) Read the subtitles. It’s good history lesson for the youngsters. They also drop some zouk at the end. Watch it here.

Further Reading

After Paul Biya

Cameroon’s president has ruled for over four decades by silence and survival. Now, with dynastic succession looming and no clear exit strategy, the country teeters between inertia and implosion.

Leapfrogging literacy?

In outsourcing the act of writing to machines trained on Western language and thought, we risk reinforcing the very hierarchies that decolonization sought to undo.

Repoliticizing a generation

Thirty-eight years after Thomas Sankara’s assassination, the struggle for justice and self-determination endures—from stalled archives and unfulfilled verdicts to new calls for pan-African renewal and a 21st-century anti-imperialist front.

Drip is temporary

The apparel brand Drip was meant to prove that South Africa’s townships could inspire global style. Instead, it revealed how easily black success stories are consumed and undone by the contradictions of neoliberal aspiration.

Energy for whom?

Behind the fanfare of the Africa Climate Summit, the East African Crude Oil Pipeline shows how neocolonial extraction still drives Africa’s energy future.