Amilcar Cabral Quotes

Hide nothing from the masses of our people. Tell no lies. Expose lies whenever they are told. Mask no difficulties, mistakes, failures. Claim no easy victories...

Always bear in mind that the people are not fighting for ideas, for the things in anyone’s head. They are fighting to win material benefits, to live better and in peace, to see their lives go forward, to guarantee the future of their children. . .

The colonists usually say that it was they who brought us into history: today we show that this is not so. They made us leave history, our history, to follow them, right at the back, to follow the progress of their history.

Struggle is daily action against ourselves and against the enemy.

Do not confuse the reality you live in with the ideas you have in your head.

In combating racism we do not make progress if we combat the people themselves. We have to combat the causes of racism. If a bandit comes to my house and I have a gun, I cannot shoot the shadow of the bandit; I have to shoot the bandit. Many people lose energy and effort , and make sacrifices combating shadows. We have to combat the material reality that produces the shadow.

[La petite bourgeoisie des nations africaines] doit être capable de se suicider comme classe pour renaître comme travailleurs révolutionnaires, entièrement identifiée aux aspirations les plus profondes du peuple auquel elle appartient.

We base our struggle on the concrete realities of our country. We appreciate the experiences and achievements of other peoples and we study them. But revolution or national liberation is like a dress which must fit to each individual's body. Naturally , there are certain general or universal laws, even scientific laws, for any condition, but the liberation struggle has to be developed according to the specific conditions of each country. " Cabral

The problem of the nature of the state created after independence is perhaps the secret of the failure of African independence.

There is a preconception held by many people, even on the left, that imperialism made us enter history at the moment when it began its adventure in our countries

La lutte de libération nationale ne finit pas quand nous hissons les drapeaux ni quand nous chantons l'hymne national.

C'est seulement quand le nombre de cadavres de l'oppresseur est suffisamment grand qu'il commence à écouter.

Whatever may be the ideological or idealistic characteristics of cultural expression, culture is an essential element of the history of a people. Culture is, perhaps, the product of this history just as the flower is the product of a plant. Like history, or because it is history, culture has as its material base the level of the productive forces and the mode of production. Culture plunges its roots into the physical reality of the environmental humus in which it develops, and it reflects the organic nature of the society, which may be more or less influenced by external factors. History allows us to know the nature and extent of the imbalances and conflicts (economic, political, and social) which characterize the evolution of a society; culture allows us to know the dynamic synthesis which have been developed and established by social conscience to resolve these conflicts at each stage of its evolution, in the search for survival and progress.

Un peuple qui se libère de la domination étrangère ne sera libre culturellement que si, sans complexe et sans sous-estimer l'importance des aspects positifs des cultures de l'oppresseur et des autres cultures, retourne vers les chemins glorieux de sa propre culture, qui est nourrie par la réalité de son environnement et qui neutralise aussi bien les influences néfastes et tout assujettissement à la culture étrangère. Ainsi, il peut être dit que si la domination impérialiste a le besoin vital de pratiquer l'oppression culturelle, la libération nationale est nécessairement un acte culturel.

In Amilcar Cabral, Africa had a giant who bridged the gap between theory and practice, and hence represented the embodiment of revolutionary praxis.

We must practice revolutionary democracy in every aspect of our Party life. Every responsible member must have the courage of his responsibilities, exacting from others a proper respect for his work and properly respecting the work of others. Hide nothing from the masses of our people. Tell no lies. Expose lies whenever they are told. Mask no difficulties, mistakes, failures. Claim no easy victories...

O primeiro ato de cultura que devemos fazer na nossa terra é o seguinte: unidade do nosso povo, necessidade de lutar e desenvolver em cada um de nós uma ideia nova que é o patriotismo, o amor pela nossa terra, como uma coisa só.

A nossa luta armada é apenas um aspecto da luta geral dos povos oprimidos contra o imperialismo, da luta do homem pela sua dignidade, pela liberdade e pelo progresso. É neste âmbito que devemos ser capazes de integrar a nossa luta. Devemos considerar-nos como soldados, muitas vezes anônimos, mas soldados da humanidade nesta vasta frente de luta que é a África dos nossos dias.