Amílcar Cabral

The Guinean-born Amílcar 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.

A United Front

Cape Verdeans and Guineans were conceived in the context of Portuguese colonialism as the nemesis one of the other. Whereas Cape Verdeans were considered civilized, the overwhelmingly majority of Guineans fell under the category of indiginato. And yet, the party that Cabral created purported to congregate Cape Verdeans in Guineans. For this to happen, however, Cabral needed to navigate the tense and conspiratorial environment of incipient nationalist movements both in Guinea-Conacry and Senegal, vying for the support of their hosts. The beginning of the armed struggle against the Portuguese, in 1963, was instrumental for Cabral to silence every other nationalist force in the African diaspora as well as impose his movement as the sole representative of the aspirations of the people of Cape Verdeans and Guineans.

The Cape Verdean Question

With the attacks to the Portuguese barracks in 1963 that launched the PAIGC into the anticolonial war, the movement led by Cabral weighted the importance of extending the conflict to Cape Verde. A strategy was devised, and international supported from Cuba and Soviet Union was secured. The death of Che Guevara in the jungle of Bolivia, in 1967, the difficulty in recruiting the personnel for the operation, forced PAIGC into reconsidering the operation. In the end, Cabral’s movement settled to the notion that war did not have to be extended to Cape Verde, since a bullet shot in Guinea was a contribution to independence of Cape Verde. However, putting both Cape Verde and Guinea in the path of independence, but concentrating all the effort in one single territory, created resentment against the Cape Verdeans.

Winning in Politics Without Losing the War

The revolutionary war in Guinea took a dramatic turn with the appointment, in 1968, of the general Spínola as governor and military commandant. Spínola, who would later on became the first president of the Republic of Portugal post-Carnation revolution, was an attentive student of revolutionary theories. Believing that insurgent movement could not be beaten militarily, he implemented an ambitious social program called Por uma Guiné Melhor (For a better Guinea). Even though, Spínola did not spare the PAIGC on the military front (condoning a military operation in Guinea-Conacry whose goal was to cause damage to Cabral’s party), it was perhaps on stirring rivalries between Cape Verdeans and Guineans that Spínola achieved a higher degree of success. His campaign against Cape Verdeans, his willingness to negotiate with Guineans through the Congresso dos Povos da Guiné, certainly contributed to turning Guineans against Cape Verdeans in Cabral’s party.

I-DECIDE: A Social Prescribing and Digital Intervention Protocol to Promote Sexual and Reproductive Health and Quality of Life among Young Cape Verdeans

Cape Verdean governments have intensified the investment on the National Reproductive Health Program, aiming to provide universal and qualified services, especially to the youngest people. Nevertheless, data suggest that some health challenges remain in this group (e.g., high rates of early/unplanned pregnancies, illegal abortions, sexual risk behaviors). In this paper, we present a protocol of a community-based social prescribing and digital intervention to promote wellbeing and quality of life across the life course of young Cape Verdeans, with a specific focus on Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) related behaviors. The intervention program, to be developed in three years, will follow an Intervention Mapping approach, namely regarding needs assessment and study’s protocol. The program’s implementation and evaluation will occur simultaneously. The main expected result is the development of a sustainable training program implemented in coproduction with Cape Verdeans from Mindelo (in São Vicente island), with replicable potential in other Cape Verdean regions. The intervention will contribute to SRH-related literacy through the digital health literacy materials and to quality of life across the young’s life course.