The path to liberation for African countries after the attainment of independence has become a remote possibility; a universal dream dreadfully fizzling out, and often patched up weakly by a vacuous rhetoric of popular African nationalism. It is not a far-fetched assertion—rather, it is the concrete material reality—to say that in Africa we do not have post-colonial nation states but neo-colonial ones.

This is the sobering reality: In most instances, African political parties, whether ruling or opposition, have incredibly failed the masses and are relentlessly plunging their countries and the continent at large into the dark, horrendous abyss of perennial poverty and regression.

What is disconcerting to note about African countries in the contemporary context of globalized capitalism and its hegemonic dominance is that there is scant regard among the political, economic, and religious elites about the welfare of the immense majority of poor Africans.

Many of the political parties that led their countries towards the attainment of political independence have greatly betrayed the people-centred ideals and principles that guided them accordingly in fighting against the brutally dehumanizing rule of colonial dominance.

Perhaps the nationalist parties and the nationalist leaders—who have uncannily, but expectedly, metamorphosed into a parasitic looting class of the indigenous petty bureaucratic bourgeoisie, in their iterations—were never revolutionary at all. They never cared about the people.

They only prioritized their self-serving interests. And exacerbating this are the numerous opposition parties who do not offer any meaningful counter-narratives to the ruinous policies wrought on Africa by a political culture of “strongman politics”.

But, this is not to say all hope is lost. An iota of optimism lingers on—and we can draw such inspiration for a better future for Africa and Africans from the immortal revolutionary Amilcar Cabral.

His radical approach towards holistic African liberation will continue to live for ages. One may immediately point to this famous quote: “Hide nothing from the masses … tell no lies … claim no easy victories”, and that “people are not fighting for ideas, for things in anyone’s head … they are fighting to win material benefits…”

It is thus imperative to briefly look at who Amilcar Cabral was, and what he stood for.

Cabral—The Revolutionary Intellectual Par Excellence

Amilcar Cabral, considered an immortal and iconoclastic revolutionary intellectual and military strategist, was born on 12 September 1924 and was assassinated on 20 January 1973. The entirety of his life – predicated on “class suicide” – was dedicated to fighting for the freedom of Africans in Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde.

A military strategist par excellence, he led the most successful liberation war movements in Africa which ultimately resulted in the crumbling of Portugal’s colonial empire in Africa.

He was immersed in Marxist theories (but in his revolutionary theory and praxis he never identified as Marxist/Communist; neither the PAIGC) – and this had a massive influence in compelling him to take up arms against the colonialists.

But, Really, Who Was Amilcar Cabral? What is the PAIGC?

He was among the founding members of the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (Partido Africano da Independência da Guiné e Cabo Verde; PAIGC).

The towering revolutionary leader, Amilcar Cabral, was the popular and practically effectual leader of the PAIGC which fought valiantly for the independence of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde. Cabral, who enjoyed popular support with the peasant masses because of his “irrefutable arguments”, organized led one of the most successful and effective anti-colonial struggles in history.

Cabral started his early education in Cape Verde but later on pursued university studies in Lisbon, Portugal’s capital.

While in Lisbon, he helped create the Centro de Estudos Africanos, an association of Lusophone African students that included future revolutionary Angolan president Agostinho Neto.

They developed their revolutionary ideas rooted in Marxist theories, tackling colonialism. He was then employed by the Portuguese authorities as an agronomist where he traveled extensively in Portuguese Guinea in carrying out his duties. This allowed him to interact with people of various cultures in the colony.

In 1956, the PAIGC was created with Amilcar Cabral at the forefront and they were determined to take up arms in fighting Portugal’s impervious colonial oppression.

Revolutionary Praxis – The PAIGC Take Arms of Struggle, and Cabral’s Assassination

The group’s initial focus at its inception was confined to organizing workers’ strikes.

But when the Portuguese colonial authorities brutally massacred a determined group of striking workers in 1959, they realized they had to adopt a completely different and radical approach – one that entailed a revolutionary fight-back culture: It was time to pick up arms, and fight imperial domination with guerrilla warfare.

1972, he formed the People’s Assembly in preparation for the independence of Guinea Bissau. A disgruntled former PAIGC rival Inocêncio Kani, together with another member of PAIGC, shot and killed Amilcar Cabral on 20 January 1973. They were believed to be working with Portuguese agents.

So, Why Does Amilcar Cabral Matter For Post-Colonial Africa? The 1965 Address: “Tell No Lies … Claim No Easy Victories”

In 1965, at the height of the armed liberation struggle waged by the PAIGC, Amilcar Cabral delivered a Party Directive that noted PAIGC’s weaknesses; identifying areas needing improvement, and providing a concise revolutionary guide (in theory and praxis) for the Party’s determined efforts to defeat the intransigent Portuguese colonial empire.

It opens with the iconoclastic words:

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 .

We should recognise as a matter of conscience that there have been many faults and errors in our action whether political or military: an important number of things we should have done we have not done at the right times, or not done at all.

Looking at the prevailing conditions in African political economies, one can easily note, with crushing discomfort, how African leaders—regardless of their political shades—have been gripped by vast historical amnesia. They have forgotten that people need a decent existence: education, health, land and housing, food, water, and equitable opportunities.

Instead, African elites vaingloriously believe Western ideas parroted by the IMF and World Bank—as well as lop-sided developmental agreements with Russia and China—will solve Africa’s grave material conditions where poverty, conflict, uncertainty, and diseases are the order of the day. All of them contest for these empty ideas, oblivious to the truism that these capitalist myths have tremendously failed, trapping Africa in the debilitating vortex of neocolonial trappings.

Amilcar Cabral goes on:

Create schools and spread education in all liberated areas. Select young people between 14 and 20, those who have at least completed their fourth year, for further training. Oppose without violence all prejudicial customs, the negative aspects of the beliefs and traditions of our people. Oblige every responsible and educated member of our Party to work daily for the improvement of their cultural formation.

Oppose among the young, especially those over 20, the mania for leaving the country so as to study elsewhere, the blind ambition to acquire a degree, the complex of inferiority and the mistaken idea which leads to the belief that those who study or take courses will thereby become privileged in our country tomorrow . . . . But also oppose any ill will towards those who study or wish to study-the complex that students will be parasites or future saboteurs of the Party.

Faced with the myths of global superpowers, Africa grapples with the reality of remaining grounded to organically progressive and contextual solutions for local solutions. This immediately elicits a radical overhaul of our education systems—as well as spreading universal, affordable, and counter-hegemonic education access to all peoples—so as to fight against the ubiquitous dominance of the “departure culture”. By departure culture is meant the phenomenon of naively thinking that leaving Africa for foreign lands, where anti-Black sentiments cruelly reign supreme, will solve all their material concerns.

Conclusion: Africa Should Practise Revolutionary Democracy and Truth

Cabral thus concludes with the oft-quoted part:

Demand from responsible Party members that they dedicate themselves seriously to study, that they interest themselves in the things and problems of our daily life and struggle in their fundamental and essential aspect, and not simply in their appearance Learn from life, learn from our people, learn from books, learn from the experience of others. Never stop learning.

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.

Definitely, if African political parties practice the undying tenets of revolutionary praxis laid out by Cabral in this address, genuine and emancipatory liberation will come to fruition. It is a painstaking process but one that Africa’s political discourse must heavily incline towards.

The elites and their intellectuals must totally eschew dangerous prevarications—they should hide nothing from the masses; they should tell no lies. Lies should be exposed. Difficulties should not be veiled—the truth must prevail. It is the only way Africa will transition from being a neo-colonial continent into a self-sufficient and genuinely independent post-colonial state.

(Courtesy: Internationalist 360°.)