(September 12, 1924 - January 20, 1973). Cabral was born in Bafata in Guiné Bissau of Caboverdian father, Juvenal Cabral, and Guinian mother. Since his father was educated, Amilcar was sent to the Liceu Gil Eanes (College) in São Vicente for his secondary education. At the age of twenty-one he entered the University of Lisbon Institute of Agronomy from which he graguated with honors in 1950. In the early 1950's he was associated with the Lisbon Casa dos Estudantes do Império where he met and discussed with revolutionary intellectuals. While in Lisbon he met and married his portuguese wife, Ana Maria who was herself a dedicated revolutionary.
Cabral's first effort in forming a nationalist movement in Guiné was in 1954 with the "Recreation Association" which was parallel to the movement MING also founded by Cabral in the same year. In the mid 1950's Cabral met his revolutionary friends from the CEI and they formed the Movimento Anti-Colonialista (MAC). Finally, on September Cabral, his brother Luís, Aristides Pereira, Rafael Barbosa and two others met secretly in Bissau to form the PAIGC. Cabral could not remain in Bissau at the time as he had to return to Angola where he was at work with a private sugar company. In December 1956 Cabral, Agostinho Neto and other Angolians met secretly to form the Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola (MPLA). The clandestine organizing continued and sought to mobilize the workers of Bissau. On August 3, 1959, a nationalist oriented dockworkers' strike was met with savage colonial repression while Cabral was at work in Angola.
Cabral earned many international distinctions including the Nasser Award, the Joliot-Curie Medal, and the honorary doctorates at Lincoln University (U.S.A) and form the Soviet Academy of Science. On January 20, 1973, Cabral was assassinated in Conakry in a portuguese-backed conspiracy to overthrow the PAIGC. Cabral is today considered a major African revolutionary theoretician. He is survived by his brother Luís, his three children (oldest born in 1958) and his wife Ana Maria who now works in the Ministry of the Health and Social Welfare. The 12th of September, Cabral's birthday, is now celebrated as national holiday.
With his training complete, Cabral entered the colonial agricultural service in 1950 where he applied soil science, demography and hydraulics engineering. During the period 1952-4 Cabral traveled very extensively in Guiné, conducting Guiné's first agricultural census and gaining an intimate knowledge of the land and people that was to be of great importance is organizing the PAIGC.
Following this event Cabral returned to Bissau to discuss a change of tactics and the preparation for a protracted guerilla war to achieve the independence of Guiné and the Cabo Verde Islands. In 1960 Cabral secretly left Bissau to continue building and to form the FRAIN in Tunis, which was soon to be replaced by the CONCP in April, 1961.
Ater 1963 the PAIGC launched its war which had control of two thirds of the countryside by the end of the decade and in 1973 was able to declare itself and independent republic.
