A Complete Revolutionary

This week’s AIAC Talk is devoted to the life, thought and legacy of Amílcar Cabral. Cabral was the complete revolutionary: an astute theoretician, fierce fighter and gracious politician (with a professional background as an agronomist to boot). Part of a generation of anti-colonial leaders who were “gone too soon”—which include the likes of Patrice Lumumba, Thomas Sankara, and Samora Machel—Cabral succumbed to a similar fate, and was assassinated by collaborationists on January 20, 1973 at the young age of 48.Joining us to discuss Cabral’s legacy are António Tomás and Ricci Shryock. António is an anthropologist, trained at Columbia University and currently teaching in the Graduate School of Architecture at the University of Johannesburg. Using newly available archival resources, António has just written a new biographical study of the life and thought of Cabral, called Amílcar Cabral, the Life of a Reluctant Nationalist (forthcoming, 2021). Ricci is a journalist and photographer living in Dakar, Senegal, covering West and Central Africa. She is also part of Africa Is A Country’s inaugural class of fellows, working on a project about the role of women in Guinea-Bissau’s liberation war.