Return to the Source: Selected Speeches of Amilcar Cabral

by Amílcar Cabral

Amilcar Cabral, who was the Secretary-General of the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and the Cape Verde Islands (PAIGC), was assassinated by Portuguese agents on January 20, 1973. Under his leadership, the PAIGC liberated three-quarters of the countryside of Guinea in less than ten years of revolutionary struggle. Cabral distinguished himself among modern revolutionaries by the long and careful preparation, both theoretical and practical, which he undertook before launching the revolutionary struggle, and, in the course of the preparation, became one of the world's outstanding theoreticians of anti-imperialist struggle. This volume contains some of the principal speeches Cabral delivered in his last years during visits to the United States. The first is his speech to the fourth Commission of the United Nations General Assembly on October 16, 1972, on "Questions of Territories Under Portuguese Administration." His brilliant speeches on "National Liberation and Culture" (1970) and "Identity and Dignity in the Context of the National Liberation Struggle" (1972) follow.

Genres: Africa, Politics, History, Nonfiction, Race, Philosophy, Theory

112 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1973

Reviews

[Zach Carter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cabral was really a giant in the theory of decolonization, and this collection of speeches brings out the best of it. It helped a lot to hear him talk about the work the PAIGC was doing, because it was truly the ideal synthesis of theory and praxis. The middle section on national liberation & culture and identity & dignity was soooo good and really helped me parse out liberation movements as political and cultural forces and how they relate to the "return to the source." I also really enjoyed the Q&A he does with Black Americans where they discuss Pan-Africanism, internationalism, and connecting the struggles on the two continents. He was a true revolutionary that we lost too soon.

[Julio Pino · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The first duty of the revolutionary upon coming to power is to commit suicide".---Amilcar Cabral
Amilcar Cabral did not face this problem, since his own comrades in the PARTY FOR THE LIBERATION OF GUINEA-BISSAU AND CAPE VERDE, which he founded, murdered him in 1973. (Yes, the official story that he was assassinated by the Portuguese secret police, the PIDE, has been debunked, by members of his own family). Cabral could have guessed this outcome. The colonialists in Africa posed the immediate danger to the workers and peasants but the anti-colonial insurgents, drawn from the European-educated and assimilated class were often just as hungry for power. How to overcome this deadly dilemma? RETURN TO THE SOURCE urges a cultural revolution DURING the independence struggle, a literacy campaign of reading, writing and political consciousness. Unique for his time, Cabral calls for the total education and liberation of women, including arming them. Books are just as important as guns, and after independence more so. Cabral is a voice crying in the wilderness. Who will play Jesus to his St. John the Baptist?

[M. Ainomugisha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Return to the Source was part of the pioneering political theory materials during the African independence struggles.

Cabral excoriates the fascist Portuguese colonial government and calls for cultural dimensions to be taken more intentionally in any liberation struggle. This gap is yet to be filled in the current waves of abolitionist, BLM and decolonization movements.

Despite the fact that Return to the Source yokes itself on archaic ideals of Pan-Africanist identity, it still manages to delineate domination in varying degrees including the specific ways in which such movements curb women’s rights in addition to other class, gender issues.

Cabral had the vision!

[Heshima · Rating 5 out of 5]

The First book of Cabral's writings that I read in my senior year of High School! It changed my life, and I know that it would change yours. Just read it! The information is still relevant to this day!

[Salifu · Rating 5 out of 5]

These speeches are brilliant works of propaganda coming from a leader who has endured battle alongside the masses of his country, and has a masterful understanding of dialects. It’s also very cool to read an African leader roast the United Nations the way he does in front of them! His analysis on culture and identity should be applied more in our current era of representational politics. The best parts of the book are where talks about the accomplishments of the PAIGC in the face of 10 years of consistent NATO bombing. It really gives you the feeling that we can win if we study hard and apply what we learn.

[Owen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perhaps the richest and most concise exposition of what "anti-colonial Marxism" looked like in the late twentieth century: i.e. an internationalist anti-colonial nationalism that appropriated and adopted Marxist concepts to unique contexts, with the by-product that the whole Marxist tradition was enriched. Cabral's sociological and cultural analyses are excellent, and his reflections on revolutionary strategy are compelling. I'm not always so sold on his political vision (the adoption of bourgeois political forms and occasional diminution of neocolonialism as an urgent threat). Even so, this is one of the great classics of anti-colonial thought.

[Val · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amilcar Cabral was a significant, respected political thinker on colonial issues from Guinea-Bissau. This is a small selection from his speeches. They made me ask questions.
Portugal was the last European power to give up its African colonies and they took some persuading (cf armed struggle). Are Cabral's words still relevant now that the oppression of small nations is economic, not colonial? The WTO does not conform to international political protocols, it is not a nation and not subject to UN resolutions, it imposes sanctions not suffers them.
Cabral was assassinated in 1973. What would he be writing now, if he had survived? I think he would be a supporter of fair trade, not free trade.

[Brad]

"History is a very strong chain. We have to accept the limits of history, but not the limits imposed by the societies where we are living." <3

Resounding insights into the role of indigenous and situated culture in decolonial struggles, as well as the paradoxically predominating role of the indigenous petty bourgeoisie and diaspora in "returning to the source" of identity as not in itself revolutionary but the first nationally-liberating act of a potential revolutionary process.

[§ · Rating 4 out of 5]

An ok compilation by MR/Africa Information Service of an absolutely brilliant thinker. There are a number of typographical/printing and spelling errors also, which is very unhelpful in reading somewhat dense theoretical texts.

[Sylvia · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

Recommended reading mainly for helping understand not only Amílcar Cabral and the work of PAIGC, but to also look at the social and especially cultural conditions that made up the national liberation struggle in Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde.

I think the strongest and most important speeches here are 'National Liberation and Culture,' which is especially recommended, but also the piece on the social conditions in Guinea-Bissau and the Q&A in the USA in 1972 with numerous Black and Pan-African organisations. Those and the other texts come together to really elaborate the cultural considerations that were vital to PAIGC.

What surprised me a little in reading this is how much Cabral emphasises that PAIGC and himself are not necessarily Marxist (despite thanking socialist countries for their support) and what he wants is to be free from exploitation and (colonial) domination above all else. I definitely see how this kind of stuff influenced Freire and critical pedagogy. The discussions on culture and national liberation felt so fresh and well worth reading if you're ever interesting in cultural studies, Cabral's approach is definitely under-appreciated. His discussions on the potentials of a certain kind of 'déclassés' stand out, except some of the almost immediate dismissal of 'lumpenproletariats.'

The main strengths are these theoretical discussions for sure, other texts are more like speeches and reports which show the progress PAIGC is making, but can feel very much in that place and in that time.

Cabral is definitely worth reading, especially National Liberation and Culture, that and other works around that would be what I suggest checking out.

[ernst · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stark. Cabral beschreibt unter anderem die Entstehung der Befreiungsbewegung in Guinea, was schon sehr gut ist. Angefangen beim der Einsicht in die Notwendigkeit der konkreten Analyse für jede ernsthafte Bewegung haben sie systematisch die Zwischenglieder bis zum Erfolg gefunden und ergriffen.

Cabral gibt nicht bur Einblicke in diese konkrete revolutionäre Analyse und Praxis, sondern auch tiefe Einsichten in die Bedeutung der Kultur für die Befreiung vom Kolonialismus, die Bedeutung der Geschichte und wie sie den Kolonisierten genommen wird, den Weg zu einer wirklichen panafrikanischen Perspektive und mehr.

Ähnlich wie Mao hat Cabral einen instrumentellen, praktischen Zugang zum Marxismus. Er ist wichtig, weil er in der Befreiung hilft, nicht, wie das bei dogmatischen Begriffen der Fall ist, weil er an sich unbedingt zu verehren ist. Aber ungleich Mao ist Cabral durchaus aus eklektisch, was sich zeigt, wenn er beispielsweise die skandinavischen Länder als sozialistisch versteht.

Cabral kommt auch immer wieder auf das Problem des Neokolonialismus zu sprechen. Gerade hier wird aber die Notwendigkeit eines klaren Begriffs des Sozialismus deutlich. Ohne den, ohne dass den Massen klar wird, was hier auf dem Spiel steht, schwächt man die Abwehrkräfte gegen den Neokolonialismus. So ist trotz aller Bemühungen Guinea-Bissau heute ebenso neokolonial wie der Rest Afrikas. Die Frage, wie der Neokolonialismus zu überwinden ist, die Fanon schon vor Cabral zu schaffen gemacht hat, bleibt akut.

So kurz das Buch ist, so unbedingt lesenswert ist es.

[Justin Goodman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I defer to Marie's review on the contextual power of Cabral's theory.

The most I can say is that this would not be a recommended first read for anyone who wants to know more about Cabral. They're perfectly adequate speeches with military diction and practical clarity, but without knowing the historical or theoretical context they're just that. Maybe try Amilcar Cabral: Revolutionary Leadership and People's War? That's what I can find, anyway.

The titular concept of the return to the source is probably the most important take away. Functionally the return to the source is a "frustration complex" experienced by that class Fanon called the "native intellectual" (the social elite of the colonized empowered by the colonizer). "Not and cannot in itself be an act of struggle," this return to the source is the moment the contradiction between being elite and being colonized reveals itself and which, "when expressed through groups and movements...is a prelude to the pre-independence movement or of the struggle for liberation from the foreign yoke."

[Evania Baginski · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three stars for density and drawn-out theoretical musings. Five stars for the content and the editor for tying together a series of speeches that show the evolution of the independence movements of Guinea and Cape Verde. The changing attitudes of the party leadership towards the UN and towards the use of force, as well as to the Pan-Africa movement and the universality of the pursuit is particularly well conveyed. A reminder that so much emphasis and definition of identity comes from the external valuation of a situation - whether the Portuguese colonisers, the OAU or the UN, or the individuals aligned with revolutionary pursuits the world across.

[Nipun · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book is a simple collection of eight speeches Amilcar Cabral delivered to various local and international audiences over the 10+ year of armed struggle. The speeches were tools to share updates on the evolution of their struggles, clinical analysis of strategies used as well as arguments to convince audiences of the validity of their case.
They from an instructive, if limited, guide to the history of Guinea Bissau, and into the mind of a fascinating individual who was much more that a guerilla leader.
Read the full review: https://theworldincultures.com/367-re...

[Mark Surya]

Particularly essential for “National Liberation and Culture” & “Identity and Dignity in the Context of the National Liberation Struggle.” Note particularly his analysis of the relation between native petit-bourgeois, the diaspora (almost synonymous here) and the culture of the peasant masses, the least compromised—-specifically that the culture that is being created/preserved *selectively* chooses values while skutting others.

[Tanroop · Rating 4 out of 5]

“If a bandit comes in my house and I have a gun I can not shoot the shadow of this bandit. I have to shoot the bandit. Many people lose energy and effort, and make sacrifices combatting shadows. We have to combat the material reality that produces the shadow.”

[Amal Omer · Rating 3 out of 5]

a little hard to follow at times…. recommended by every revolutionary so had to give it a go. learned a lot about Guinea and Cape Verde, about armed struggle, and about the destruction of culture as a tool of the oppressor

[Radia]

“Pan-Africanism is a means to return to the source.”

[vv ♡]

en tant que capverdienne je DOIS lire ce livre.

[blank · Rating 4 out of 5]

"National Liberation and Culture" was a stand-out and comes highly recommended.

[Danny · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cabral was an African giant

[Kelsey C]

I've read this before, but felt like it was time to return to the source.

[Rubli Carran · Rating 3 out of 5]

Inspirational

[The Blaxpat · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite political thinker...