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Amílcar Cabral: A Political Life in Motion
Amílcar Cabral: an agronomist, a poet, a politician, a leader of his party, a life that led a revolution to victory against colonialism.
Known to many as “The Engineer,” Amílcar Cabral was dedicated to putting study to action, demonstrating a lifelong commitment to being with and learning from the people. From organizing in his youth, to examining the struggles in Vietnam and writing on culture, these experiences armed Cabral with the skills and vision necessary to build up the revolutionary party that would free Guinea and Cabo Verde. Standing at the helm of African resistance to Portuguese colonialism, his life sadly cut short by colonial forces, Cabral leaves behind a legacy of political clarity and determination, offering us all a trove of experiences and a model of commitment to the liberation of working people.
Mário de Andrade—a founding member of the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola, as well as Cabral’s long-time friend and comrade—follows the arc of Cabral's political thought as it transforms over the course of his life. Presented in its first ever English translation, Amílcar Cabral: A Political Life in Motion is a portrait of a keen and agile leader who knew that to lead the people was to know them.
Known to many as “The Engineer,” Amílcar Cabral was dedicated to putting study to action, demonstrating a lifelong commitment to being with and learning from the people. From organizing in his youth, to examining the struggles in Vietnam and writing on culture, these experiences armed Cabral with the skills and vision necessary to build up the revolutionary party that would free Guinea and Cabo Verde. Standing at the helm of African resistance to Portuguese colonialism, his life sadly cut short by colonial forces, Cabral leaves behind a legacy of political clarity and determination, offering us all a trove of experiences and a model of commitment to the liberation of working people.
Mário de Andrade—a founding member of the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola, as well as Cabral’s long-time friend and comrade—follows the arc of Cabral's political thought as it transforms over the course of his life. Presented in its first ever English translation, Amílcar Cabral: A Political Life in Motion is a portrait of a keen and agile leader who knew that to lead the people was to know them.
164 pages, Paperback
Published April 1, 2024
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About the author
Mário de Andrade
208 books139 followersMário Raul de Morais Andrade was a Brazilian poet, novelist, musicologist, art historian and critic, and photographer. One of the founders of Brazilian modernism, he virtually created modern Brazilian poetry with the publication of his Paulicéia Desvairada (Hallucinated City) in 1922. He has had an enormous influence on Brazilian literature in the 20th and 21st centuries, and as a scholar and essayist—he was a pioneer of the field of ethnomusicology—his influence has reached far beyond Brazil.
Andrade was the central figure in the avant-garde movement of São Paulo for twenty years. Trained as a musician and best known as a poet and novelist, Andrade was personally involved in virtually every discipline that was connected with São Paulo modernism, and became Brazil's national polymath. He was the driving force behind the Week of Modern Art, the 1922 event that reshaped both literature and the visual arts in Brazil. After working as a music professor and newspaper columnist he published his great novel, Macunaíma, in 1928. At the end of his life, he became the founding director of São Paulo's Department of Culture, formalizing a role he had long held as the catalyst of the city's—and the nation's—entry into artistic modernity.
From Wikipedia
Andrade was the central figure in the avant-garde movement of São Paulo for twenty years. Trained as a musician and best known as a poet and novelist, Andrade was personally involved in virtually every discipline that was connected with São Paulo modernism, and became Brazil's national polymath. He was the driving force behind the Week of Modern Art, the 1922 event that reshaped both literature and the visual arts in Brazil. After working as a music professor and newspaper columnist he published his great novel, Macunaíma, in 1928. At the end of his life, he became the founding director of São Paulo's Department of Culture, formalizing a role he had long held as the catalyst of the city's—and the nation's—entry into artistic modernity.
From Wikipedia
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 9, 2025
An excellent short history of Amilcar Cabral's development as a revolutionary and his political thought. Definitely not an exhaustive study of the revolution in Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde, but still an excellent summary of Cabral's political struggle. A lot of solid lessons that are still generally applicable for organizers today.
Also on a personal note, I'd love to read more materialist studies of the history of the former Portuguese colonies following their liberation, to analyze their different paths of development and struggles with world imperialism over the last fifty years. The death grip of neocolonialism in Africa since the fall of the USSR has been nearly total, and an analysis of how that's all played out these last few decades is definitely an area I need to learn more about.
Also on a personal note, I'd love to read more materialist studies of the history of the former Portuguese colonies following their liberation, to analyze their different paths of development and struggles with world imperialism over the last fifty years. The death grip of neocolonialism in Africa since the fall of the USSR has been nearly total, and an analysis of how that's all played out these last few decades is definitely an area I need to learn more about.
November 6, 2019
Siempre es importante aprender más sobre los movimientos de liberación de otros pueblos. En este caso se trata sobre Guinea-Bisáu 🇬🇼 y la lucha de Amílcar Cabral contra el colonialismo portugués.
July 6, 2025
a good book but it really should be longer and providing more context. That being said i did enjoy learning about anti-colonial resistance to portugal and how portugal was not wealthy enough to create neo-colonies like France or Britain did.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews